Appropriate Response

The Knicks - finally - lived up to the moment.

Good morning! The postseason is officially back on. I’ll be hosting a subscriber chat ahead of Sunday’s 1pm tip off as New York looks to take a 3-1 series lead, so keep an eye out for an email notification for that. For now though, we celebrate hitting the halfway mark of a round one series victory. Giddy up.

Game 3: Knicks 118, Pistons 116

• The Knicks finally got off to a hot start, moving the ball with the sort of purpose that was largely missing on Monday night.

• In what would become a theme of the evening, the Pistons battled back behind an unconscious shooting performance from OAKAAK Tim Hardaway Jr.

• A 21-3 run midway through the second quarter gave the Knicks a cushion, but they’d hand almost all of it back by the midpoint of the third quarter.

• A back and forth final 18 minutes ensued, and while New York never relinquished the lead, they could never folly put Detroit away either.

• Fourth quarter scoring efforts from the two stars plus just enough big defensive stops late put the Knicks comfortably ahead with under a minute to go, but they had to overcome a wild final minute - including a controversial no-call - to secure the victory.

As I was watching last night’s Knicks win - perhaps their best overall performance given the stakes and situation - a season’s worth of emotions washed over me in the process.

The expectations for this year started sky high. Then, over the course of 82 games, those expectations were gradually tampered down.

Beaten down, one might say.

Stretches of games started to take on a distinct feeling. They might win three out of four or four out of five, but it always felt like that one loss would weight exponentially heavier than any or even all of the victories. The downs were so very down. The highs, fleeting and striving for meaning, did little to tip the scales.

All of this was a byproduct of uncertainty. What was this team, really, when push came to shove? What were they made of. Did they have an identity that could be counted on when their backs were against the wall?

Through 84 games, we still didn’t have a great answer to any of these questions.

Normally, Game 3 of a first round series between a favored 51-win quasi-contender and a should-be-happy-to-be-there 44-win upstart isn’t fertile ground for a season-defining performance. Then again, this has been anything but a normal season.

The eyes of the entire league, not to mention the hearts and souls of Knicks fans everywhere, were glued to this game. With all of their talent, how would New York respond? Would they finally show us who they are, for better or - as many anticipated - for worse? If they got hit, would they get back up? Or would they, at the first sign of real adversity, fold like the cheap suit some have accused them of being?

Well, on Thursday night, we finally started to get some answers.