There are not so many losses, which have reached a much more regular clip lately than at any other time this season. It’s the kind of loss. It is how these losses took place. If the Knicks had been blown up, kicked out of the gym night after night, it would be almost easier to explain.
Almost everyone set them up for 22 wins; they already have 25.
Almost everyone thought they would play strings so far, counting the days to the project, to the free agency, to a recalibration of the list; instead, they joined TD Garden on Wednesday night for the Celtics, who played in the Eastern Conference finals just a year ago. That says as much about the Boston fights as it does about the Knicks’ surprises, but the ranking is really true.
So are the final scores.
This time, the dashboard told the story of Celtics 101, the Knicks 99, another tight loss, added to a growing pile. In the last 23 days alone, the Knicks have lost to the 76ers by 3 points and 1 point; at the Nets with 5 and 2, at the Timberwolves with 1. Now the Celtics with 2. They are 2-8 in decided games with three points or less.
This is wonderful and it is terrible.
This is a sure sign of progress; it is a more sure sign of how far he has to go.
“Every day we strive to form our winning habits,” said Tom Thibodeau, perhaps half an hour after the Celtics played a game against the Eastern Knicks, leaving them two games below .500 (25-). 27) for the first time since February 23.
“We try to do the right things and understand what it means to win, analyze and learn, and you want to learn from every game.”
The coach could never, could not admit this, not even with a serum of Big Gulp truth, but elimination has always been a secondary concern this year. The main thing was to formulate a positive impulse after almost two solid decades of running the train in the other direction.
This happened. Knicks play defense every night. They refuse to be intimidated on nights when they are overwhelmed in terms of talent – which, despite the record and the absence of Kemba Walker from Boston, was certainly the case on Wednesday.
The hope was that Julius Randle’s talent could be maximized under Thibodeau; there is zero debate about it. There is hope that RJ Barrett, in his 20-year season, will improve and that has become an even bigger reality and an even brighter surprise. Barrett is actually playing in the conversation as the best player in the entire league and this progress is starting to show every night.
“He got into this with the right attitude,” Thibodeau said, “and it’s starting to bear fruit.”
All this is true. It also does not alleviate the growing frustration when winning games against good teams go the other way. You can get comfort, if you choose, from the knowledge that the Knicks are light-years ahead of the place where even ardent optimists thought they would be in the second week of April. It does not change the aggravation of seeing a seven-point advantage evaporate in the fourth quarter. You shouldn’t either.
And it does not change that closing the transaction during such games is part of the progress – and later, after establishing credibility and demanding competitiveness. These elements are there. The last part is finding a way to close. This trick is still ahead.
“We have to figure out where we are every night,” Thibodeau said. “Someone is playing for something, they are fighting for something, the intensity is boiling. We need to understand that we need to respond to this. I’m sure we will. ”
Barrett said (29 points, 6-for-6 out of 3): “Everyone is playing for something. We too. We must continue to bring this intensity. ”
Thibodeau’s methods have left a mark – “It’s the NBA,” said Barrett, his star student, “and we have another Friday, we have to focus and take that” – and now there’s another hurdle in this Knicks edition to negotiate. At some point, closeness is no longer the goal. The closure is.