The Knicks won five straight games and went 14-2 after acquiring OG Anunoby in a trade from the Raptors in January, and also won their first nine straight games after acquiring Josh Hart from the Trail Blazers last season.
While much of their recent slump has to do with their current injury situation, the Knicks are currently 2-7 since acquiring veterans Bojan Bodganovic and Alec Burks from the Pistons at the Feb. 8 trade deadline. It has become.
Both players were ineffective in Thursday’s game against the Warriors at the Garden, a 110-99 loss.
They totaled nine points off the bench on 2-of-13 field goals (including missed 6-of-7 3-pointers).
“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career with other teams, but this team needs me more,” Bogdanovic, who missed all seven field goal attempts in 18 minutes, told the Post after the game. Ta. “We’ve got to be better and more aggressive, especially when we’re missing a lot of wide-open shots. We’ve got to come together and try to get the next one. [Sunday in Cleveland]”
The 10-year NBA veteran is averaging 13.3 points and 23.9 minutes in seven games with the Knicks, all playing with the second unit.
Before coming to the Knicks, he had started 451 of the previous 452 games since the start of the 2017-18 season.
“I mean, it’s different because I’ve been a starter my whole career,” Bogdanovic said. “But it’s nothing new, the game is the same coming off the bench or starting. You have to adjust. I have a lot of experience. I’m playing better than I’ve ever played. It has to be.”
He’s at least better than Burks, who is shooting 31.6 percent overall and 32.4 percent (12-of-37) from 3-point range in the eight games since the trade.
Tom Thibodeau said the 32-year-old guard improved his two-way playnet rating compared to the “last three games.”
“Maybe we should have played him more tonight,” Thibodeau said of Burks, who scored five points in 11 minutes. “Again, it’s a positive when he’s on the floor, because good things are happening. “One thing is, he gives space because people know he can make shots. And that’s really good in the pick-and-roll game. So it adds a second pick-and-roll player to the floor. Sometimes we all wonder what that person takes. I tend to evaluate what he does, but there are things that he brings and things that he just sits on the floor to create space. Sometimes you need space.”
