Dangerous Games

The Knicks again played with their food, and it almost cost them.

Good morning! Did the Knicks play a game last night? I couldn’t tell…

Knicks 93, Nets 92

46-25 (W5), 21-16 on the road

If you’re one of the many sane people out there who watched the college basketball action last night in favor of the Knicks game, kudos. You made the right choice.

At this point, the only reasonable explanation for what we’ve been seeing lately is that the Knicks have issued themselves an internal challenge: how poorly can we play and still come out with a win? They’re like a married couple who started going to swingers parties to spice up a bland sex life. Might it lead to divorce? Or better yet, syphilis? Who knows! But it sure keeps everyone on their toes.

For most of its two and a half hour run time, this game was the basketball equivalent of a venereal disease. The shotmaking for both sides was awful, although it was slightly less awful for Brooklyn, who shot 37 percent from downtown, many on open looks. The Knicks turned it over a season-high 22 times, five of which came on 24-second violations as the offense resembled a herd of elephants traversing a sea of quicksand.

I’ve never wished injury on a player but I sincerely hope Jalen Brunson was playing hurt, because he repeatedly struggled to cross half-court in under eight seconds and had zero shiftiness or quickness of any kind. Until he hit two late shots, this was comfortably the worst he has looked all year, and the absence of Josh Hart (OUT - knee) was palpable. The Mikal Bridges “MISSING” flyers that have blanketed the city over the last two weeks have still not yielded fruit, so we’re expending our reach to Westchester and Long Island.

The Knicks pulled off a rare trifecta and managed to disappoint us not once, not twice, but three times in a single 48-minute contest. Follow me, if you dare…