Night after night, game after game, the Knicks are treated to a vast array of consolation-level compliments. This time it was Stan Van Gundy, calling the game courtside for TNT, who described them various times Thursday night as “admirable” and “inspirational” and every conceivable derivative of “gritty” and “crafty and “game.”
What Van Gundy could not call them at any moment against the Warriors was “winning” or even “leading.” Golden State scored the game’s first 14 points and beat the Knicks 110-99, slamming the trunk shut on February for the Knicks, a month in which they lost eight of the 12 games they played.
March is the month that’s supposed to come in like a lion and leave like a lamb; for the Knicks, it was February that provided this stark dichotomy. They entered February looking like contenders and exit it as survivors. On Feb. 1 there was legit optimism that the Knicks might have it in them to sneak all the way to the No. 2 seed in the East. On Feb. 29, there was genuine concern whether they can stay out of the play-in.
There are justifiable reasons for all that befell the Knicks in February, sure, and so there are reasons folks like Van Gundy express such admiration for their verve and their vigor. But the Knicks — starting with coach Tom Thibodeau — don’t want to hear it any more.
Thibodeau subscribes to the oldest and most basic credo in his profession:
“You coach the team you have, not the team you wish you had.”
If Thibodeau could control these things, he would have loved to have seen what a Knicks team with Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson might have done against a Warriors team that featured all of its vital parts save for Andrew Wiggins. That’s the team he wishes he had.
The one he has — the one it seems he’s destined to have for at least a few more weeks — battles and bleeds for him, and they snuck back into the game midway through the fourth quarter simply because they refused to be blown out. But in the end there’s only so much you can do when you play an NBA schedule short. It catches up to everybody. It’s caught up to the Knicks.
It is now officially fair to wonder if we saw the peak of this Knicks season at the end of January, when in back-to-back games they blew out both participants in last year’s NBA Finals. But it was at the end of the second of those games, against the Heat, when Randle’s shoulder blew up. And by the time they regrouped in Charlotte a few days later, Anunoby had vanished, too.
than they were to kick off what seemed to be a hopeful February. Jason Szenes for New York Post
They were on such a roll at that point that they actually kept winning without them for a bit. But starting with a loss to the Lakers on Feb. 3 when they blew a late lead, the Knicks are now 3-8. The pipe dream of the 2-seed is a puff of smoke. They are literally hanging on to the 4-seed — which about 15 minutes ago seemed like their worst-case scenario — by a fingernail. And are one game in the loss column north of the 8 slot.
Life comes at you fast in the NBA.
It’s not time for panic yet. But it’s getting near time to start pondering panic. Anunoby is shooting again, which was the biggest news Thursday. Randle still seems a good bet to return not long thereafter. It’s possible the Knicks might be at their healthiest at the exact time you’d normally want to be, once the playoffs begin.
The question is where they’ll be once those playoffs begin. Will generous broadcasters be describing the Knicks as a team “that nobody wants to face in the first round”? Because while that’s intended to be a compliment, it’s the last thing a team wants. Especially a team, like the Knicks, who 15 minutes ago aspired for so much more.
