Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
The Knicks are guaranteed to arrive at the All-Star break later this week with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference, a good sign for a team that began the season searching for chemistry with two new starters.<\/p>\n
They also own the fifth-best record in the NBA, so clearly, the sky is not entirely falling.<\/p>\n
Of the four teams above them in the league-wide standings, however, the Knicks only have defeated the Grizzlies last month and are winless in five head-to-head meetings with the Thunder (0-2), Cavaliers (0-1) and Celtics (0-2) after Boston completely outclassed them for a second time this season Saturday night at the Garden.<\/p>\n
Tom Thibodeau\u2019s team (34-18) has five regular-season games with the two teams it likely would have to get past to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals and\/or the NBA championship round, with stops in both cities Feb. 21-23 in the second and third games after the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
Granted, the Knicks were playing again Saturday without two-way forward OG Anunoby, who missed his third straight game with a sprained right foot after initially being listed on the injury report as doubtful. <\/p>\n
Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart also endured rocky performances after showing up on that list with respective recurring knee issues.<\/p>\n
Still, the Celtics also were without two starters in former All-Stars Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. That didn\u2019t stop Jayson Tatum from dismantling the Knicks with a 40-point performance, nor did it prevent him and his teammates from shooting 19-for-39 (.487) from beyond the arc to give them an astonishing 48 makes from deep in two blowout victories over the Knicks.<\/p>\n
With back-to-back games beginning Tuesday in Indiana and at home Wednesday against the Hawks, there doesn\u2019t seem to be any good reason to have Anunoby play before the break when he could get an additional 12 days of rest if he waits until the Feb. 20 home game against the Bulls. <\/p>\n
Mitchell Robinson conceivably also could make his anticipated season debut in those games, assuming he is cleared to resume 5-on-5 scrimmaging in the interim.<\/p>\n
Either way, the Knicks were visibly disappointed in their latest subpar performance against the teams they are chasing, with a dejected Jalen Brunson (36 points) saying the measuring stick failing \u201cas a whole was just unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust not playing our style of basketball,\u201d Brunson lamented.<\/p>\n
Hart, Brunson\u2019s usually opinionated and talkative teammate, also was mostly at a loss for words, pausing and responding \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d multiple times when asked why the Knicks were unable to stop the Celtics\u2019 outside shooting \u2014 saying Tatum \u201cis an All-Star for a reason\u201d \u2014 or to keep them off the boards with a 48-30 rebounding edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know, I think we didn\u2019t come out great. We were stagnant,\u201d Hart said. \u201c[Big men Luke] Kornet and [Al] Horford out there were kind of bogging up the paint. So we just didn\u2019t execute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Celtics mostly took Towns out of the game, and he finished with a season-low nine points on just eight shot attempts in 28 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we\u2019ve got a lot of work to do. Simple as that,\u201d Towns said afterward. \u201cThere\u2019s no sugarcoating. There\u2019s no moral wins, nothing like that. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to work on if we expect to beat a team that y\u2019all have expectations of us to compete [with] and be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we also have those same aspirations in this locker room, which I know we do, we\u2019ve got to find a way to beat teams like tonight. That\u2019s a team that is in the race. They want to be in the race as much as we do to win a championship. And for them, it\u2019s another one, a back-to-back. Championship teams, great teams, in my experience, they test your discipline. Something that we\u2019ve got to work on, our discipline for 48 [minutes].\u201d<\/p>\n
With no practice Super Bowl Sunday, the Knicks will get back to work Monday before heading to Indiana for the first of their final 30 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou learn from every game \u2026 the disappointment of a loss,\u201d Thibodeau said. \u201cBut make sure that we learn from it, and then obviously we have to take a hard look and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic The Knicks are guaranteed to arrive at the All-Star break later this week with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference, a good sign for a team that began the season searching for chemistry with two new starters. They also own the fifth-best record<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-200154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200156,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200154\/revisions\/200156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}