ATLANTA — Tom Thibodeau said with a straight face 90 minutes before tip-off of the Knicks’ game Saturday night against the Hawks, that with point guards Kemba Walker and Derrick Rose out, he didn’t know who would start at the position.
“I’m still not sure,’’ Thibodeau said.
It was a bit of gamesmanship by Thibodeau as he faced the mighty Hawks, who had romped over the Knicks in a 4-1 first-round series last spring and boast the Eastern Conference’s elite point guard, Trae Young.
Thibodeau wound up tapping Alec Burks for his season’s first start and it worked splendidly in a 99-90 upset win over the red-hot Hawks. Burks, who scored 23 points, revealed that he found out he would start at the morning walk-through.
The Knicks played so well with Burks starting and Immanuel Quickley backing him up at point guard that rookie Miles McBride, who was drafted 36th, did not see any time. There was already talk about the West Virginia point guard being a pesky matchup for Young, who torched the Knicks in the playoffs last spring. But as Burks said, the Knicks showed Young “a lot of different looks like you have to do against a great player.
“Yeah, everything is on the table,’’ Thibodeau said before the game about McBride. “He’s part of the team. So we’ll see how it goes. He’s young, he’s learning and he’s very competitive, great worker who is getting better and better.’’
That Walker elected to sit out Saturday for what the team called “rest’’ couldn’t have sat well with Thibodeau, who is against load management. But Walker is a special case, who sat out all back-to-backs last season upon the Celtics’ order. This season, he has sat out half of a back-to-back twice in three sets.
Considering Rose has a sprained ankle, it was quite a surprising decision by Walker, but an indication he’s in this for the long haul and not taking any chances.
Thibodeau has to live with it.
“You’ve got to trust the medical people and Kemba,’’ Thibodeau said. “When they say that he can’t go he can’t go. That’s it. … That’s medical and Kemba. You talk to them and if they feel he can go he goes. If they feel he can’t he doesn’t.’’
The Knicks were also without center Nerlens Noel, who missed his 12th game of the season with a sore knee. Taj Gibson (groin) also was out for a fourth straight contest, leaving rookie Jericho Sims in the rotation. Sims had six points and six rebounds in 21 minutes.
The Knicks made their offseason moves in adding Walker and Evan Fournier mostly because of how their offense disintegrated in the playoffs versus the Hawks.
Atlanta coach Nate McMillan noted how the Knicks now have more “isolation’’ players.
“Yeah, with Fournier and Walker, adding guys like that to the roster, they’re ability score and put the ball in the basket,’’ McMillan said. “We did a good job on [Julius] Randle, but it was the other guys we had to contain and make sure they didn’t get off as well. They have more firepower this year with the addition of Walker.’’
The Knicks next face the Nets on Tuesday.