The Knicks have spent the entire season as one of the top three teams in the East, yet no one seems to take them seriously as true title contenders. Why? Well, their brutal 0-7 record against the league’s top-seeded teams—Celtics, Cavs, and Thunder—might have something to do with it.

And now, frustration is clearly starting to boil over. Case in point? Tom Thibodeau’s fiery reaction to Stephen Curry’s dominance during tonight’s showdown against the Warriors. Safe to say, the pressure is mounting in New York.

It happened midway through the third quarter. With the ball in Steph’s hands, Draymond set a screen for the Baby-Faced Assassin, getting him an easy three-pointer over Karl-Anthony Towns. Despite knowing how lethal Curry is from deep range, KAT did not close in on him to make the shot difficult. So, announcer Richard Jefferson called him out live on air, “What is Karl-Anthony Towns doing? If there is a screen, you gotta get up to the level. That is the one thing that Karl-Anthony Towns has struggled with in those pick and rolls.” However, Towns failed to learn his lesson.

Seconds later, the Warriors ran the same play again and Steph got another easy triple over KAT. This time, Coach Thibs was the one pissed at the Center’s lackadaisical defense. Doris Burke detailed his reaction on air, “The absolute disgust on Tom Thibodeau’s face as he looks at Karl-Anthony Towns saying exactly the same thing you said prior possession Richard.” The reaction was justified as leaving the player with over 4,000 career threes open is never a good idea.

Unfortunately for the Knicks, the frustration didn’t stop there. Tensions boiled over again—this time between Tom Thibodeau and Josh Hart. During a timeout, the two were caught in a heated back-and-forth, likely venting their frustration over their inability to contain Steph’s onslaught.

PJ Tucker stepped in to calm Hart down, while the rest of the Knicks’ coaching staff simply watched.

With the Knicks trailing by nine during the timeout, even Mike Breen couldn’t ignore the tension. He weighed in on the heated moment, saying, “Tom Thibodeau, who loves Josh Hart as a player, who’s always raving about what he gives him—giving him something a little extra there.”

Clearly, emotions were running high, and with the game slipping away, the frustration was impossible to hide.

But even that fiery exchange couldn’t change the outcome—Curry torched them for 28 points, and the Knicks fell short, losing by just three.

Obviously, this loss is not a good look for Thibodeau, especially after he was publicly called out by Mikal Bridges for overexerting his players.

Mikal Bridges claims Playing under Tom Thibodeau is “NOT FUN” on the body

Although Thibs is a great head coach, his methods can be polarizing. Of course, the biggest concern is that he overexerts his starters and doesn’t utilize the bench, risking potential injury. Both Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges are leading the league in minutes played at 37.9 per game. OG Anunoby is not too far behind.

Looks like players have also started feeling the effects of Thibodeau’s coaching style as Bridges said earlier this week, “Sometimes it’s not fun on the body.” The forward also revealed that he has addressed this issue to the head coach, “You’ll want that as a coach but also talked to him a little bit knowing that we’ve got a good enough team where our bench guys can come in and we don’t need to play 48 (minutes), 47.”

Well, Bridges is one of the most reliable players in the league health wise, as he has never missed a game in his career. If he is admitting that Thibs’ methods take a toll on the body, then it might be something to worry about.

Obviously, there is an easy fix to this problem, as Mikal continued, “We’ve got a lot of good guys on this team that can take away minutes. Which helps the defense, helps the offense, helps tired bodies being out there and giving up all these points. It helps just keeping fresh bodies out there.” However, its unlikely that Thibodeau will mess with the winning formula this late in the season by relying on his bench. Do you agree?