For a while, this seemed like another perfect chapter in a surprising Knicks novel. For a time, the Knicks made every shot they watched, defending themselves with their usual ferocity, delighting the small but contingent vocalist of Knicks fans at the Amway Arena in Orlando.
Eleven minutes from Wednesday’s game, Immanuel Quickley made a couple of free throws.
Knicks led Magic, 32-21.
And .500 was so close you could smell it. You could taste it. Now, look: .500 is not for everyone. Break-even feels the worst consolation prize most of the time. It is the definition of average. It’s mediocrity. And there are few things less satisfying in sports than mediocrity.
However: The Knicks had not been at .500 after 30 games in 2017. They had not been at .500 on February 17, 2013. This is a season of incremental steps and split wins. Reaching .500 would not have given any dramatic conclusion and, frankly, would not have caused any celebration from any of the Knicks.
But there is something. And it was in sight.
And then, in a terrible, ghostly fog, it wasn’t.
Magic beat the Knicks, but well, 107-89, beating them by 29 points in the last 37 minutes of the game, and more than a beatdown, more than a buzzkill, it was a two-hour reminder. about an essential truth about these Knicks: They don’t need to play perfect basketball every night. You don’t have to maximize every ounce of skills on the list.
But it’s helpful to be close to that.
“They’re a team just like us, scratching and clawing and trying to make the playoffs,” Quickley said when the massacre was over. “Our energy wasn’t up to where Orlando was.”
It was hard to identify anything the Knicks did well on Wednesday night, other than Julius Randle – and even his 25 points and seven rebounds felt off, much of that damage coming in the first quarter.
Quickley struggled on the most difficult night of his young career, failing in 11 of 12 photos. His running mate, Derrick Rose, with whom he had established such immediate and obvious chemistry, was 1-for-10. Few teams can survive two key players who draw 2-for-21; for the Knicks, this is gangplank territory.
Even coach Tom Thibodeau, normally beyond reproach, had a few moments of scratches on his head. On an evening when Knicks’ bench (usually a reliable force) could barely keep its own path, Thibodeau kept both RJ Barrett and Elfrid Payton – who combined for 28 points through three-quarters, the only Knicks other than Randle who reported for service Wednesday night – fixed on the bench.
He had his reasons, of course – “I was in such a hole, I was trying to find a way out, I wanted to see where it would go once I reached 10 [with just over six minutes left in the game]”He said – and it’s not the wisest bet now to guess Thibodeau, who worked with a stroke most nights.
It just didn’t happen to the Knicks. They missed 15 direct goals on the field at one point. They handed 16 triples to a team that generally can’t shoot straight, allowing Terrence Ross (30 points in 30 minutes off the bench) to bury them in one night when they actually did a good job with Knicks regular killer Nikola Vucevic (8-for-24 shooting, 0-for-7 of 3). Maybe it was as simple as Randle’s explanation:
“I just didn’t have it,” Randle said. “For whatever reason.”
They are getting a few days of training now due to the postponement of the Spurs game on Saturday in the garden, and the extra training time is probably coming at a good time. There are a number of games to be won at home. There will be other opportunities to get back to the Holy Grail, to hit .500, to float at sea level. It is still a worthy goal.
Next time, it will be useful to make an effort worthy of it.