Tom Thibodeau has not been shy about riding a hot hand from his second unit down the stretch of games.
In Thursday’s late-developing win over the Pistons, it was Donte DiVincenzo’s turn to stay on the court for all the fourth quarter.
The offseason free-agent signing drained three fourth-quarter 3-pointers and 4 in all to assist the Knicks to a 118-112 win.
“If you’re playing the way in which that we were playing, you’re searching, after which that group got going slightly bit, in order that’s how we finished,” Thibodeau said. “Those were big shots, and I assumed that they got here from throughout the context of men moving the ball and creating benefits after which finding the open man.
“He happened to be the guy and he was open and he didn’t hesitate to shoot. So I believe that that’s essential.”
DiVincenzo is averaging 8.3 points per game and shooting 39.8 percent from 3-point land.
Monty Williams joked before the sport that Thibodeau was an assistant coach with the Knicks “back within the ’40s,” although their tenures with the franchise didn’t align within the Nineties.
The present Pistons head coach was a first-round pick by the Knicks in 1994, but he was traded during his second NBA season, and Thibodeau joined Jeff Van Gundy’s coaching staff the next 12 months.
Still, the duo have worked together in recent times with Team USA, and Williams said Thursday night that Thibodeau was considered one of the people he leaned on after his wife, Ingrid, was killed in an auto accident in 2016.
“He’s considered one of the sort, more intentional people I’ve [known] since he’s been within the NBA. I enjoyed competing against him but I also enjoyed learning from him,” Williams said. “It’s real personal. I went through a very tough time with the lack of my family and he did something for me that had a huge effect on the healing process and getting through.
“He gave me something I had no idea he would give to me and I never forgot it. I still have it. You never know this brotherhood we have now. I even have a brotherhood of players, but I even have a brotherhood of coaching and Thibs is a giant a part of it.”
Pistons wing Bojan Bogdanovic (calf) had been listed as questionable to make his season debut, but he missed his nineteenth straight game.
