MILWAUKEE (AP) -Practice?
Knicks coach Isiah Thomas contended Tuesday his team keeps practicing, even if the workouts aren’t publicly known.
“I think we’re practicing just as much as any other team right now in the NBA is practicing,” Thomas said before New York’s shootaround.
The Knicks, in town to play the Bucks on Tuesday night, have lost 14 of their last 16 games and have the fourth-worst record in the NBA at 20-53.
New York didn’t practice on Monday in Milwaukee after getting in early that afternoon from Atlanta.
“We don’t have healthy bodies and if you look at our schedule and our travel, we’re getting in at 3 in the morning and we’ve got guys playing a lot of minutes,” Thomas said. “You definitely need energy for the game, but sometimes you just didn’t have enough bodies to practice with. So guys come over and they get their work in.”
One thing Thomas declined to discuss is any conversations he’s had with Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan. When asked if he was keeping Dolan in the loop about the minutes he’s giving his younger Knicks, Thomas quickly brushed it aside.
“Our conversations are and will always remain private,” Thomas said.
Thomas said players have been in the gym every day and no one has taken days off, despite the lack of a formal practice. About half the Knicks worked out in Atlanta during an off day Saturday.
Thomas also said that just because the media wasn’t invited didn’t mean the players weren’t still working on individual improvement in the final weeks of the season.
“You can’t have a ‘practice’ practice if you don’t have enough bodies,” Thomas said. “So what we’ll do is we’ll bring three or four guys over to get individual work and work on their individual games because there’s not too much you’re going to add to or learn from the system in the next nine games.”
If New York doesn’t win a third of its remaining games, it would be the worst season since 1964, when the Knicks won 22 times. The year before that, New York won 21 games.
The Knicks have ample opportunities on this road trip to pick up a win or two with the return of Zach Randolph, who missed the last two games with the flu.
First, they’ll play Milwaukee (24-48) and Memphis (19-55) before heading to New Orleans to play the Western Conference-leading Hornets. New York rounds out its schedule with Orlando, at Detroit, Charlotte, Atlanta, Boston and at Indiana.
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