Take 2

The Knicks try - again - to close out the Celtics, this time at MSG.

Good Morning. You know what’s up. 8pm tip off, ESPN. I’ll be on at halftime.

Take 2

Have you ever had that friend who was in a relationship that you and everyone else knew would end poorly?

Or worse yet, have you been that friend?

In either case, it’s a brutal situation.

When you’re on the outside looking in, you know that nothing you say or do is going to convince your buddy to make better life choices. He (or she, although I imagine the experience is a bit different for women) is going to have to figure out for themselves that this thing is not going to end well. In the meantime, you have to watch them go through the roller coaster ride of emotions, all while you sit on the sidelines waiting patiently for the ride to be over.

The experience of being in the driver’s seat is far more surreal. You can see the looks on your friends faces every time you show up with a new story about the ringer you’ve just been put through. You know what advice you would give them if the shoe were on the other foot. Your head isn’t buried in the sand, even if everyone around mistakes you for an ostrich.

And yet, you stay - not because you can’t quit the highs, but because you keep hoping for a world where the lows no longer exist.

Unfortunately, that’s not reality. Certain relationships aren’t meant to be stable. Whatever the mix of personalities is, it adds up to volatility. Wish it away all you want, but tortured love remains undefeated.

Of course you know this if you’re reading this newsletter, because we’re all in one of those very relationships with the ‘24-25 Knicks.

Game 4 was like that magical weekend getaway - the one that makes you think no one else on earth could possibly be experiencing that same level of happiness. Game 5? That was the night out with both friend groups that starts innocently enough and ends with a shouting match across the bar and a bite mark on your forearm¹.

How can things go from so promising to so hopeless? Let’s take a look…

The vibes couldn’t have been better out of halftime.

After Josh Hart got in Jaylen Brown’s face when Brown decided to play handball with his hacky sack, Hart responded correctly: by nailing an open three. By the principle of Occam's Razor, this is the correct way to defeat Boston’s strategy of ignoring Hart and allowing their center to play free safety to muck up the spacing elsewhere.

The only problem is that for this counter to work, Josh either needs to keep taking and making shots or prove himself to be enough of a threat that Boston changes their strategy. As we’ll see, neither happened.