Disaster averted — a minimum of for now. The Knicks are lastly again within the win column.
How lengthy they keep there’ll decide whether or not or not the core of this roster stays intact past the Feb. 5 NBA Commerce Deadline.
Make no mistake: The Knicks are nonetheless on the clock, and their historic Wednesday night time victory over the Brooklyn Nets purchased them a while. Time to show to the entrance workplace accountable for assembling this forged that it may possibly make good on proprietor James Dolan’s championship declaration.
Dolan believes his workforce could make it to — and win — the NBA Finals this season, and in the event that they performed the 12-win Nets each night time, their stats and file simply would possibly again up his confidence.
The Nets are one of many worst groups in all of basketball, younger and inexperienced, residing and dying by the poor shot collection of its two-best gamers, Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas. And the Knicks, coming off of a disappointing loss to the Dallas Mavericks’ C-Workforce plus a participant’s solely assembly within the aftermath of that disappointing loss, had every little thing at stake at Madison Sq. Backyard on Wednesday.
So, like outdated instances, they took the little brother to the woodshed.
The Knicks constructed a lead that swelled higher than 40 factors by the second half. Their 54-point margin of victory was the biggest in franchise historical past. The 66 factors they allowed was a season-low for all 30 NBA groups. The Knicks shut down Porter Jr. and Thomas, holding each to a mixed 17 factors on the night time.
The Knicks held the Nets to twenty first-quarter factors and 18 factors apiece in each the second and third quarters. The Nets didn’t rating their sixtieth level till there have been 5 minutes left within the fourth quarter.
Nice.
That clears issues up.
Both the Knicks can play protection and have chosen to not all alongside, or they will solely guard groups whose offense constantly bails them out with ill-advised threes.
Doing this to the second-youngest workforce within the league is, appropriately, baby’s play. The Knicks must show they will play at this degree constantly. One sport in opposition to a lottery-bound workforce incentivized to lose is hardly convincing sufficient to say these Knicks have turned a brand new leaf.
In any case, the Knicks beat two lottery-bound groups — the New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Path Blazers — earlier than every of their four-game shedding streaks. The Knicks have a far steeper problem looming within the reinvented Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday.
That, nonetheless, is an issue for tomorrow. In the present day, the Knicks can exhale a sigh of reduction.
In banding collectively to beat the Nets on Wednesday — sure, the lowly Brooklyn Nets — the Knicks saved their season from an all-out collapse.
They nonetheless have tons of labor to do. The outlet the Knicks have dug themselves is huge.
The Knicks ought to have a greater file than the Boston Celtics, who traded away Jrue Vacation and Kristaps Porzingis after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles within the second spherical of the playoffs final season. They need to even have a greater file than the Detroit Pistons, who they eradicated within the first spherical of the East playoffs final yr.
As a substitute, the Knicks made a mad sprint to the NBA Cup, gained the entire thing, then fell off of a cliff. They’re now scratching and clawing for his or her lives with each sport they play forward of the early February commerce deadline.
Subsequent time, it gained’t be Porter Jr. and Thomas. It’ll be Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Joel Embiid and a 76ers workforce that’s already overwhelmed the Knicks this season. And after Philly? The video games solely get harder by way of February and into March. The Knicks wanted to pad their file with wins in opposition to the poor opponents they conceded video games to throughout this stretch.
That chance is now out the window. Now, the Knicks must battle.
Their season will rely upon it.
