Milwaukee, Baby!

No, the Knicks aren't going to Vegas quite yet, but they did throttle the Hornets to advance to the In-Season Tournament quarters against the Bucks.

Good morning! Time to catch that IST fever!!!

Game 17: Knicks 115, Hornets 91

Milwaukee, Las Vegas; tomato, tomato.

In a New York minute…

In a game the Knicks knew they might need to win by a bunch to advance to the IST quarters, they got off to a great start on both ends, passing and defending their way to a 29-13 first quarter lead. From there, things got a little sloppy and the Hornets made it a one-point affair with eight minutes left in the third. After a bit more back and forth, New York used a 26-7 run to effectively put the game away, but there was still a lot on the line, with the point differential potentially being the difference between advancing or not. Perhaps thinking that a trip to Vegas was on the line, Quick and the starters stayed in until late and kept their foot on the gas, ensuring New York would advance to play the Bucks next week.

Three Things

1. They made it! Rejoice? I touched on this a bit yesterday so I won’t belabor the point, but the Knicks’ reward for advancing to the quarterfinals of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament is that they’re the only team in the league who will have to play Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard five times in the regular season.

Hoo-ray.

Win that, and they’ll either head to Indiana or host Boston. Lose, and, well…we’re not quite sure, because the outcome for the non-advancing quarterfinalists hasn’t been reported on yet.

Either way, this achievement doesn’t make their life any easier if piling up wins is the be all, end all. It wasn’t hard to read between the lines on Thibodeau’s comments after the game:

“If they tell us we got to play this team five times, we play them five times and be ready…Whatever the schedule says, that’s what you have. Sometimes it’s in your favor, sometimes it’s not. Just be ready to play.”

As for the players, Quickley admitted afterwards that “we all thought we were going to Vegas.” Given that a win in Milwaukee will send them to their preferred destination, there’s no doubt that the players will approach this like a playoff game. The Bucks also haven’t exactly been world-beaters, falling behind by 26 to the moribund Blazers before coming back to win earlier this week, and then barely beating the Butler-less Heat last night.

All in all, it’s probably a great opportunity for a young (ish) team to get some more experience in a high leverage situation.

Just don’t look the gift horse in the mouth.