On The Brink

The Knicks are a loss away from their summer vacation.

Good morning. Got any good summer vacation plans?

Game 4: Pacers 130, Knicks 121

Should we really have expected anything different?

I did.

And shame on me for that.

At this point, I’ve lost count of the number of times that this team has told us exactly who they are.

Told us that inconsistency is their only mainstay.

Told us that they are almost incapable of putting together 48 straight minutes of serious basketball.

Told us that they will always look a gift horse in the mouth.

For all of their grit and stubborn refusal to give up in any game - and they deserve credit for not letting go of the rope early in this one, when Indiana was making everything from everywhere on the court - there is a reason this team has frustrated even the most seasoned fans as much or more than any Knick team in history.

As Robert DiNiro’s character in Bronx Tale famously said, the saddest thing in life is wasted talent. This Knicks team is the personification of that sentiment. All year long, they have left this fan base wanting more. Not more than they are capable of, but more than they give. It has forced us to question why they consistently fail to add up to the sum of their parts. Is it the individual players? The mix of personalities? The blend of skills and imperfections? The coach?

After last night, Tom Thibodeau is once again front and center in this discussion. His security blanket, Josh Hart, played his worst game of the postseason, yet saw 36 minutes of action before fouling out with two minutes left. Meanwhile, Deuce McBride saw just 15 minutes as Mikal Bridges - dreadful from the field yet again - struggled to contain Tyrese Haliburton as he put on a playoff performance for the ages. Delon Wright gave the Knicks everything they could have asked for and then some, but played only nine minutes. The new starting five was bad out of the gate and even worse to start the third. Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, incapable of surviving for extended stretches on defense, played 26 minutes together, and were outscored 69-65 in that time.

Almost every button that Thibs pushed seemingly produced the wrong result, and the ones that yielded positive returns weren’t pushed nearly enough.

Fair or not, when you’re the head coach of a team that was favored to win a series and you’re down 3-1, you’re going to catch the lion’s share of shrapnel. That’s the thing about results: they’re impossible to hide from.