Following the New York Knicks heartbreaking 129-122 loss to the Houston Rockets during New Year's Eve, head coach Jeff Hornacek remained hopeful it bodes well for the team's effort going forward.
“We got to have an effort like we did, all-out 48 minutes of playing hard,” he told Newsday's Al Iannazzone. “You should come in this locker room after the game and be dead tired. That’s the way it should be. If you come in the locker room and you’re not huffing and puffing and tired, then you didn’t play hard enough.”
The Knicks played without Kristaps Porzingis (who is averaging 20.1 points per game) and Courtney Lee, and had a battered Carmelo Anthony who was dealing with knee soreness and only played 19 minutes.
The likes of Brandon Jennings, Derrick Rose and Justin Holiday stepped up in the scoring department, but ultimately fell short thanks to a historic night by ‘point guard' James Harden who finished with an unreal 53-point, 17-assist, 16-rebound triple-double.
The rookie trio of Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Willy Hernangomez, and Maurice Ndour sparked momentum when the Knicks trailed by 19, and Hornacek anticipates he'll need them to step up in the weeks to come.
“Some of the young guys can put that effort in there,” Hornacek said. “We have to take a look at maybe getting them in the games more, maybe giving our older guys a little bit more rest so maybe when they’re on shorter minutes, they can put the full effort out there. We’ll take a look at everything.
“We have 17 games in January. The bench is going to have to come up big for us.”
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