Knicks a 'step behind' defensively against Spurs, Sandro Mamukelashvili: 'We just weren't there, physically or mentally'

Looking at the schedule, anyone can see how brutal the Knicks’ recent stretch of games has been.

After a five-game West Coast road trip, New York came back home for one game before heading back out west to play the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. A lot of traveling for a team that is trying to stay afloat without Jalen Brunson, who sprained his ankle early during the road trip.

But no one saw Wednesday’s loss to the Spurs playing out the way it did.

San Antonio, playing without Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox -- their two best players who are missing the remainder of the season due to injuries -- got out to a 28 first-half lead that seemingly rattled the Knicks' defense.

The Spurs scored on their first five possessions, en route to shooting 51 percent from the field in the first half.

“Defensively, we were a step behind,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “We got in a big hole. Tough to get out of.”

The Knicks’ schedule has been a topic of discussion for why the team has gotten off to slow starts recently, especially in their last two contests.

In Monday’s game against the Heat at home -- the first coming off their road trip -- the Knicks were down as many as 13 points but fought back to win. Wednesday’s 28-point deficit turned out to be too large, but the team isn’t going to make their schedule the culprit for their slow starts.

“Not gonna say that [is the reason] because we got it to eight and then we just had some bad possessions and let them build a lead up,” Josh Hart said. “But we knew this one was going to be tough. Young hungry team. Plays fast, obviously. We've had a tough schedule…we knew it was going to be tough. We just weren't there, physically or mentally. We were just fatigued.”

As Hart alluded to, New York did cut the Spurs’ deficit to eight points twice. It was their third-quarter performance, outscoring the Spurs 29-16 powered by their defense, that gave them a shot to steal this win. But when they made a run in the fourth quarter, San Antonio was lifted by an unlikely name: Sandro Mamukelashvili.

The Seton Hall product scored 21 of his career-high 34 points in the final frame, which included back-breaking threes, in which he made four in the fourth.

“Sometimes a guy can get hot. We got to make sure that he puts it down,” Thibodeau said. “Sandro had a great game, but we really didn’t take anything away. When our ball pressure got better in the third quarter, then our defense picked up. That's how we have to play. As I said, we were a step behind all night.”

“He’s in the NBA for a reason,” Hart said of Mamukelashvili. “He's a good player and we weren’t focused enough or locked in enough to realize what was going on. The IQ wasn't there.”

Along with his 34 points, Mamukelashvili came down with nine rebounds, dished three assists and came up with a steal all while shooting 13-of-14 from the field, including 7-for-7 from deep.

Hart added: “A guy has their game going like that, we have to find him and get to his body and be physical and kind of get him out of rhythm. We didn't do that. He had a career night, he's a good player. But we gotta know what guys do well, their tendencies and take that away and we didn't take anything away from him.”

Aside from the sluggish defense, the Knicks were outrebounded, 54-42. Thibodeau called those two aspects the biggest reasons for their loss, but the offense was just as sluggish as the defense.

Karl-Anthony Towns led the team with 32 points, including scoring the team’s first nine points of the game. The rest of the starters scored a combined 41 points.

Hart, who scored just two points on 1-of-4 shooting, said the offensive struggles were a combination of shots not going down and the team not making enough plays.

“You have to make it easier for each other. You have to play-make for each other and put each other in good situations to be successful,” Hart explained. “That was going to be the struggle without [Brunson] but we gotta make the game easier for each other. We didn't do that today.”

With Brunson unlikely to rejoin the team until April, the Knicks have to wake up both sides of the ball on a consistent basis, and they’ll have to do it quickly. The team now has to travel to Charlotte to take on the Hornets on Thursday night.