Knicks lose game to L.A. Clippers and Cam Payne to injury

Tom Thibodeau never likes to look beyond the task at hand, to consider what lies ahead, whether it is a road trip approaching or a playoff berth, so it’s hard for him to find the big picture in the Knicks season.

And maybe this is why: anything can happen, or more to the point, go wrong, if you are a coach who says he’s never happy and concerned about everything.

With the Knicks on the verge of clinching a playoff spot for the third straight season, they saw not only the game get away from them but another costly injury which provided even more uncertainty as they try to ready for the larger goal of the postseason.

Cam Payne was the latest Knicks point guard to go down. Payne suffered a sprained right ankle as the Knicks saw an early 14-point lead disappear as they lost, 126-113, to the Los Angeles Clippers at Madison Square Garden.

Jalen Brunson was on the bench in a sweatshirt and wool hat nursing his sprained right ankle for the 10th straight game. Deuce McBride was there, too, with a Rangers jersey on, nursing a groin strain for a third straight game. Payne came down awkwardly as he dropped in a floater in the lane and was ruled out for the second half after scoring 15 first-half points.

That left the Knicks with one healthy point guard, Tyler Kolek. Kolek’s only impact before the last few games was in the social media accounts of fans begging to see him.

Kolek has proved even as a little-used rookie to be an adept floor general — entering the night with 17 assists and no turnovers in the last two games and added five more assists before finally committing a turnover in the third quarter Wednesday. He was scoreless in 18 minutes, handing out seven assists. But he also was hard to hide defensively against the versatile and dangerous Clippers offense. Kolek found himself trying to defend the likes of James Harden and Kawhi Leonard at times.

The Knicks tried to get by with Delon Wright taking minutes at the point and Josh Hart taking on much of the ballhandling duties, but the offense that ran smoothly at the beginning of the night seemed to fall apart and the Knicks were left playing one-on-one to try to create something. Karl-Anthony Towns had 34 points and 13 rebounds while OG Anunoby added 28 points. But everything seemed a struggle.

The Knicks started the game with a fire like it was a postseason game, building a quick 18-5 lead and holding a 33-20 edge after one quarter with 12 assists on 14 field goals. In the wake of the 40-assist performance Tuesday the Knicks seemed finally to have found their footing without Brunson. Hart found cutters repeatedly for four first-quarter assists while Mikal Bridges had five in the quarter. But by halftime the lead was cut to 55-54 with Hart sitting much of the second quarter with three fouls.

The clinching was put off for at least a night, even if the playoff berth has not been in doubt with the Knicks tucked securely in the third spot in the Eastern Conference for nearly the entire season. Still,  the magic number was one to secure the playoff spot, joining Cleveland and Boston in clinching in the East.

“I think what you look to do is you take it game by game and you want to check boxes,” Thibodeau said before the game. “The first thing you’re doing is you have to qualify first. So get that done and you go on to the next thing, whatever’s in front of you. So stay locked in, don’t get distracted, understand what goes into winning that game that night.”

The Knicks have reached the Eastern Conference Semifinals in each of the last two season and rebuilt the roster in the offseason, adding Towns and Bridges to try to construct a starting lineup up to challenging the likes of the Celtics.

It’s been more than a decade since the Knicks reached the postseason three years in a row and it was another decade before that that they accomplished the feat.

When the Knicks did it in from 2010-11 to 2012-13 they didn’t come close to 45 wins the Knicks have posted in three straight seasons and exited in the first round the first two seasons. And even that team from a decade ago was running on fumes by the end and the roster was stocked with aging players.

What the Knicks have built here, whether they get to the eventual goal or not, is something that they can picture being in place for years to come.

“That’s part of the goal, obviously to get to the playoffs,” Hart said. “That’d be a check. Check that box. I think it shows the stability that we’re building, the foundation that we’re building. Now it’s time to build off of that. Clinching would be nice. It shows the good stability and foundation that we’re building.”