For a while this seemed like another enjoyable chapter in a startling Knicks novella. For a while the Knicks took every shot they looked at, defending them with their usual ferocity, raving about the small but vocal contingent of Knicks fans in attendance at Orlando’s Amway Arena.
Eleven minutes after Wednesday’s game, Immanuel Quickley made a few free throws.
The Knicks led the Magic, 32-21.
And .500 was close enough that you could smell it. You could taste it. Watch now: .500 isn’t for everyone. Break-even usually feels like the worst kind of consolation prize. It’s the definition of average. It’s mediocrity. And there are few things less satisfying in sports than mediocrity.
Still, the Knicks weren’t up .500 after 30 games since 2017. They haven’t been up .500 on February 17th since 2013. This is a season of incremental steps and fractional wins. Reaching .500 wouldn’t have led to any dramatic conclusions – and frankly, it wouldn’t have elicited a celebration of any of the Knicks either.
But it is something. And it was in sight.
And then, in a ghastly ghostly haze, it wasn’t.
The Magic beat the Knicks well, 107-89, beat 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 of an essential truth about this Knicks: They don’t have to play perfect basketball every night. They don’t have to maximize every last ounce of skill on the roster.
But it is useful to be close to that.
“They’re a team just like us, scratching and clawing and trying to make it to the playoffs,” Quickley said as the carnage was over. “Our energy was not where Orlando’s was.”
It was hard to identify anything the Knicks did well on Wednesday night, except for Julius Randle – and even his 25 points and seven rebounds felt muffled, much of that damage came in the first quarter.
Quickley swept through the toughest night of his young career, failing on 11 of 12 shots. His running mate, Derrick Rose, with whom he had built such an immediate and clear chemistry, hit 1-for-10. Few teams can survive two main players shooting 2-for-21; for the Knicks, that is the gangway area.
Even coach Tom Thibodeau, who was normally flawless, had some head scratching moments. On a night when the Knicks bench (usually a reliable strength) could barely stay out of its own way, Thibodeau kept both RJ Barrett and Elfrid Payton – who combined for 28 points in three quarters, the only Knicks besides Randle to report for Wednesday night service – attached to the bench.
He had his reasons of course: “We were in such a hole, I was trying to find a way out, I wanted to see where it would go when it was 10 [with just over six minutes left in the game], ‘He said – and it’s not the wisest bet right now to question Thibodeau, who has worked with a masterstroke most nights.
It just didn’t happen for the Knicks. They missed 15 straight field goals at one point. They handed 16 3-pointers to a team that generally can’t shoot straight, allowing Terrence Ross (30 points in 30 minutes off the bench) to bury them on a night they did a really good job with the usual Knicks killer Nikola Vucevic (8-for-24 shooting, 0-for-7 of 3). Maybe it was as simple as Randle’s explanation:
“We just didn’t have it,” Randle said. “For any reason.”
They are now getting a few days of practice thanks to the postponement of Saturday’s Spurs game at the Garden, and the extra practice time will likely come at a convenient time. There are a lot of winning home games coming up. There will be other opportunities to re-reach the holy grail, to hit .500, to float to sea level. It is still a worthy cause.
Next time it will be helpful to make a worthwhile attempt.