Utah killer Austin Rivers was unstoppable in the first half of Tuesday. The previously slumped Knicks guard dropped a career-high 25 points in 12 minutes of the opening half and made his first 10 shots – five of them 3-pointers.
And the Knicks thundered the Jazz like they did earlier this month when Rivers scored the last 14 points of the game.
But the magic stopped for Doc Rivers’s son. Rivers pushed off on one stage and got his third error with 4:30 left in the first half. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau decided to draw Rivers and it destroyed his perfect game.
The night was never the same. Rivers didn’t come back until 4:11 left in the third quarter and he’d lost his hottest hands.
The Jazz rallied 15 points behind with rough defense and Rudy Gobert’s dominance to take revenge on the Knicks, 108-94, at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.
Rivers finished in 25 when the Knicks (8-11) ended the four-game western trip at 1-3. Rivers missed all four of his shots in the second half when the Jazz warmed up from 3 and the Knicks dropped the last three games of the trip after winning the opener against Golden State.
“They did well in the second half [on Rivers], which we knew they would do by trapping him and getting the ball out of his hands, ” said Thibodeau. ‘And then it becomes important that we tackle the blitz in the right way. We are usually quite good at that. ”
When asked if he thought of keeping Rivers in with three faults as he was on his way to history, Thibodeau said, “I just felt on that piece, the way it went offensively for us, I thought we would do whatever we did. But it occurred to me to leave him out of there. ”
Rivers said it was ‘understandable’, ” Thibodeau tugged at him.
“It was certainly not the coach,” he said.
Instead, it may have been team fatigue that Rivers brought up before the game. Utah started the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run to end it.
“Maybe boys are dead,” Rivers said afterwards. “When I looked across the floor with five minutes left, it didn’t seem like we were ourselves as a unit.”
The Knicks were still leading by 13 until the second half collapsed. The Jazz was fueled by Mike Conley in the third quarter – he scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half – and Gobert was super with 19 points and 18 rebounds.
The Jazz battered the Knicks for 17 offensive rebounds with Knicks center Mitchell Robinson nowhere near the strength he needed to be against one of the NBA’s elite centers.
Robinson played for 31 minutes, but after the game tweeted and then deleted, “One day they’ll let me play.”
The Knicks center could have been referring to his minutes, the lack of offensive chances he’s getting other than alley-oops or the umpires. Robinson had only seven points on four shot attempts and committed only two errors.
Meanwhile, Rivers was chased when he returned late in the third.
“The second half was different – every pick and roll was blitzed,” Rivers said. “They’re loaded. I’m not going to force shots to get my grades up. Maybe I should have looked back on it.”
Rivers said the young Knicks were unprepared for Utah’s attack in the second half.
“I knew how they would get out,” Rivers said.
“The first part of [our] defense was pretty good, ” said Thibodeau. “But when we gave them a second, third crack, it’s hard to beat such a team on the road. That was probably the biggest disappointment. ”
It was a strange day for Rivers, who spoke to the media after the morning shootaround and covered two topics: Kobe Bryant’s mentorship on the anniversary of his death and the club’s “ fatigue ” condition.
The Knicks have played 13 of their first 19 on the road.
“Oh, we’re definitely tired,” Rivers said Tuesday morning. “Our schedule, I would challenge anyone to set their schedule against ours. I don’t know how a schedule can be more difficult than what we played. ”
Rivers had a difficult start to the game, having scored only seven runs in the previous four games.
As the game progressed, Rivers looked like Bryant for the first half. Then the whole team looked in the last two quarters when the Jazz won their ninth game in a row, moving to 13-4.
“He has helped me in times of doubt and failure,” Rivers said of Bryant. “He always came up to me and talked to me about all my games, especially at the beginning [in New Orleans] when I was young and struggled. “
In 1993, Rivers’ performance of 25 points surpassed his father’s Knicks high by 24 points in 1993. Rivers just missed a Knicks record of 11 out of 11 shootings to start a game.
In the third quarter, Rivers’ disputed pull-up bounced off the rim on his eleventh attempt and failed to match the team record shared by Johnny Newman, Bernard King and Robinson.
Rivers had no help. Rookie point guard Immanuel Quickley, the star in Sunday’s Portland defeat, finished 1 of 11 from the field. Alec Burks, facing his old team, was worse, going 3rd out of 14.
“We are learning from this,” said Rivers. “How many times have we risen by half 13 times? Not too much.”