Knicks vs Pistons Recap

A Final Look Back before we turn the page.

Good afternoon! I wanted to get this one out before we hit the weekend. Much like the Knicks themselves, I’m going to try and rest up before the madness begins again next week. On Monday, I’ll have a full Knicks vs Celtics preview ahead of Game 1. Until then, savor the moment. We earned it.

Knicks vs Pistons Recap

As I look at my laptop screen today with bleary eyes and clouded thoughts, there is an overarching thought going through my mind:

I will remember that series for the rest of my life. I will cherish the moments it brought me forever. I appreciate the experience and the growth it engendered. Now thank GOD it is over.

In that sense, the only appropriate comparison I have for that Pistons war is the experience of raising my first daughter. When I brought her home from the hospital, I was filled with delusions of grandeur, convinced that I was going to parent like no one has ever parented before. I’d been waiting nine months for that moment, and I was ready for whatever came my way. Nothing was going to stop me.

In the days, weeks and years that followed, all of those fanciful notions slowly devolved into a quest for self-preservation as my mind and soul quietly descended into madness. Life becomes an exercise in triage. Survive and advance to the next day. That was the priority.

At some point, I got out of the weeds. I remember the first day I dropped my oldest off at Pre-K. Driving away from her school wasn’t dissimilar from the feeling I experienced with Brunson’s final shot.

Looking back, did I live up to the lofty goals I had set for myself? Absolutely not. Not only was I not at my best, but on some days, I was at my absolute worst. It wasn’t because I didn’t care or try; I cared about nothing more. It wasn’t because I lacked the ability to be better. A lot better. It was because I was overwhelmed, and it was all coming at me for the first time, and I had no muscle memory or experience to fall back on.

From the moment this Knicks team was fully assembled, like mine as a parent, their goals were sky high. They didn’t lack for ability. Their intentions were pure. They had all the components for success. But until you go out there and try to do it, you never know how you’ll be impacted by the challenges that appear.

I’m under no illusions about what this group is and the flaws that will likely prevent them from living up to expectations, but it’s impossible to judge them without considering that this is their first crack at the gauntlet. Last season’s team is a distant memory. This group needed to forge their own path, their own identity, through their own shared successes and failures. Countless teams over the years - Donovan’s first Cavs team, the Kawhi/PG13 Clippers, the Heatles, even the KG Celtics that needed seven games to beat a 37-win Hawks squad - have been inexplicably underwhelming and maddeningly inconsistent in big moments.

Inexplicably Underwhelming and Maddeningly Inconsistent. Might as well be the title of their biography.

Now they move on. For that, we should all be thankful, even if it didn’t happen in the way any of us envisioned.

Winning a series against a team like the Pistons, like parenting, ain’t easy (I’ll save you any more analogies, although a Diaper Geenie filled to the brim comes to mind when I think about Detroit’s illegal screens throughout this series). But they did it.

And that’s all that matters in the end.

On that note, here’s some other random thoughts about the game and the series before we turn the page…

🏀 What more is there to say about Jalen Brunson?

Since he came to the Knicks, he has the second highest playoff scoring average in the league at 30.5 points a night. Only Devin Booker, at 32.1 points per game, is higher, and he’s played in exactly half as many games as Brunson. The names he’s ahead of are NBA royalty, a who’s who of MVP’s and First Team All-NBA regulars. He has outpaced them all.