When the Madison Square Garden crowd is chanting “MVP” for an opposing player, it’s easy to see why the Knicks don’t have much confidence.
But that’s what’s happened – a total reversal. Last year, it was Julius Randle getting those chants from his home crowd. On Sunday, it was Joel Embiid as a visiting player.
The MVP favorite went off for 37 points – 23 of them coming from the line. So that’s a lot of opportunities for that chant.
Even newest 76er James Harden said he felt like he was playing in Philly.
And when the Sixers ended the game on a 19-4 run, it told everyone what we already knew – the Knicks are bad down the stretch with no one to turn to.
“Down the stretch, we have no confidence, so we are second guessing at times,” Evan Fournier told reporters after Sunday’s 125-109 loss. “It should be second nature, ‘Boom, boom, boom, this is what we’re doing.’ As long as we are not going like that it’s going to be hard to close out games against teams that are good.”
The Knicks are without veteran guard and former MVP Derrick Rose (and for a little while longer). But Tom Thibodeau won the Coach of the Year less than a year ago, so it’s pretty surprising to see a team falter late so often.
But those rough second halves and fourth quarters have clearly had a snowball effect.
“I feel like sometimes we’re looking at each other, second-guessing what play we’re going to run, who we’re going to go to,” Fournier added. “What is he going to do? We have no expectations right now from each other because we have no rhythm and no confidence in the fourth quarter. So again, as long as we don’t fix that as players, things are not going to change.”
So, how do they get their confidence back?
“Maybe win one or two games where we do execute and win and we get like ‘okay, this is how it’s supposed to happen.'”
Clearly, that’s easier said than done.
In their last eight games, the Knicks are being outscored 252-161 in the fourth quarter and overtime, and have not won back-to-back games in over a month. It’s not hard to see why confidence is lacking.
They’re back in action in Philly on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.
