Rookie point guard Immanuel Quickley may just have the moxie to play fearlessly against Warriors megastar Stephen Curry when the Knicks (7-8) begin their four-game West Coast trip Thursday in San Francisco.
Quickley said he feels coach Tom Thibodeau’s defense-savvy Knicks have a solid game plan for the high-flying Warriors (7-6), who no longer are championship caliber, but still boast a formidable offense led by Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and 2020 No. 2 pick James Wiseman.
These aren’t last season’s league-worst Warriors. On Monday, Golden State beat the Lakers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“It’s going to be cool,’’ Quickley said after Wednesday’s practice at the Warriors’ new downtown arena. “I feel our team is really locked in. Steph Curry is a great player — one of my favorite players that I grew up watching. It’s just how well he plays, how much fun he has on the court. The whole West Coast trip is going to be good for us.’’
The electric Quickley patterned his game after Curry, who, like the Knicks rookie, is a deft 3-point shooter and exudes an abundance of enthusiasm.
Immanuel Quickley and Stephen Curry Getty Images; EPA“I feel like a little bit the way he’s changed the game shooting the ball, he’s big on space,’’ Quickley said. “And the way he carries himself off the floor as well having fun.’’
Teams are resorting to a box-and-one defense on Curry, who is averaging 28.2 points — and once wanted to be drafted by the Knicks.
The Knicks will enter on a two-game winning streak, in which they allowed 75 and 84 points. That has vaulted them to No. 1 in the league in defense — opponents’ scoring average (102.7), field-goal percentage (43.3) and 3-point field-goal percentage (31.2).
“It’s a good challenge for us,’’ Quickley said. “We’re No. 1 in a lot of defensive categories, but I don’t think we’re satisfied at all. We want to get better and find new ways to be able to be defensively better. We worked through a lot of things [Wednesday] that I won’t share because it’s game-planning. But I feel we have a pretty good game plan in place to do what we do.”
Quickley has been red-hot the past four games — shooting 45 percent from 3-point range during that span. Former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy raved about the 25th-overall pick to The Post, noting he was projected as a late second-rounder.
“Whoever was in charge of drafting Quickley needs to have an article dedicated to him,’’ Van Gundy said.
“For me individually I don’t feel I’ve really accomplished anything,’’ Quickley said. “I don’t feel like I’ve done anything yet in this league. As for the mock draft, it’s just mock drafts, people just — you’ve got to put out something so people can read it.”
Thibodeau said he is pleased the defensive numbers have been top-notch, but added he only cares about the won-loss record, which is a lot rosier than preseason projections.
“The most important statistic is the winning and we still have a long way to go,’’ Thibodeau said. “ People get locked into numbers. And you can make numbers say a lot of things. But the reality is the most important number is the winning part of it. Did you score more than our opponent did? That’s what matters.
“But if we can rely on our defense and rebounding and keep our turnovers low, I know that puts you in position to win regardless of how well you shoot the ball on any particular night.”
Amid a pandemic, Thibodeau still chose to fly west a day early — on Tuesday — to be in place for a full-out practice on the eve of the game with the Warriors.
“We got the travel out of the way [Tuesday] and wanted to have a good practice today,’’ Thibodeau said. “We know how tough Golden State is. Any team that has Curry and Draymond Green, Wiggins and Wiseman — that’s a lot of talent.’’
The Kings (5-9), the only losing club the Knicks will face on the trip, will be up on Friday followed by the Trail Blazers (8-6) and the Jazz (10-4). By trip’s end, the Knicks will have played 12 of their 19 games away from the Garden. Thibodeau reiterated there are “some benefits’’ to that in getting the new players to bond.
“We don’t look at it as four games,’’ Thibodeau said. “When you look at four games in a row and not just Golden State, you get lost regarding the things that are important in terms of preparation.’’
