The Knicks' season didn't end in early February when star Kristaps Porzingis suffered a season-ending ACL injury, but the team has struggled mightily in his absence, winning only one game in the past month.
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Losers of the last 10 of 11, the Knicks begin a tough four-game road swing Saturday (AEDT) against the Clippers.
On Friday, coach Jeff Hornacek decided to take a different approach as the team practiced at UCLA — he let the players hold a playground-style practice. The players essentially ran their own pick-up game, with no coaching interruptions.
“They get coaching every day and all kinds of drills,’’ Hornacek said (via the New York Post) .
“This scrimmage we had old playground rules. Whoever makes a shot, they’re on. Once they play, winner stays on. They got to pick their own guy to fill in.
“We had a good hard practice [Wednesday]. This is one of those times you have three days off and still want to play and get up and down. They got competitive. When you just scrimmage, it’s playing out the practice. Here they wanted to beat each other.”
Center Kyle O’Quinn appreciated the break from a normal routine.
“Coaches made it playground style, pickup and was fun," he said.
"Coaches need to develop, players need to develop but keep it at ease.’’