Rambis says flailing Knicks 'can't accept losing'
GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Carmelo Anthony isn’t the only member of the New York Knicks who is frustrated with the team’s recent struggles.
“We’re all frustrated,” interim coach Kurt Rambis said Tuesday. “We can’t accept this. For the organization, for our team, ourselves as individuals, the coaching staff. We can’t accept losing. I want players to be angry. I want players to be frustrated. That’s the right attitude to have.”
Anthony expressed his frustration following the Knicks’ 27-point loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday. He said after the game that he hoped teammates hadn’t started to accept losing.
“You don’t want to get used to losing,” he said.
New York has lost 12 of 14 and is 1-3 since Rambis took over for the fired Derek Fisher. Rambis on Tuesday said he might consider tweaking the starting lineup.
“We’re considering a lot of things; we’ll see,” Rambis said. “We’ll have some conversations with the coaching staff, management and players. We’ve got to find a way to play at a much higher level, and more intense level and for longer periods of time.”
Rambis has said several times that his “No. 1” goal with the club is to qualify for the postseason. He and the Knicks face long odds to reach that goal.
New York will enter Wednesday’s game against the Indiana Pacers 6½ games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 24 games remaining. According to ESPN’s playoff odds tracker, the Knicks have a 0.1 percent chance of making the playoffs.
Despite their recent struggles, rookie Kristaps Porzingis said he believes the Knicks are still committed to turning things around.
“We were obviously frustrated after games like yesterday. But I wouldn’t say we’re not talking to each other. We are communicating,” Porzingis said. “We’re trying to find a solution for this. I think we have the right mindset. We’ve just got to put everything together and play the way we need to play and the way the coaches are asking us to.”
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
