The Knicks are in a bit of a rough patch as time winds down on the regular season. They just lost a handful of extremely unsettling games against playoff teams that have many questioning their effort and desire, have fans up in arms about the coach and believing he’s on the hot seat, and there’s been a whole lot of criticism surrounding the starting lineup, Josh Hart’s place in the rotation, and Mikal Bridges’ maddening inconsistency. They’re also struggling to get the big, season-defining win against the elite teams.
The vibes are very bad, and there are several potential first-round opponents that the media and fans alike think will end the season early and cause a massive change in the organization.
Wait, did you think I was talking about this season?
No, no. I’m talking about the early April vibes from last season. What, is something similar happening this year?
Time does happen to heal all wounds, but so do playoff runs. For some reason, the team’s run to the Eastern Conference Final last year blinded some people to the very real narratives that existed leading into the first-round series against the Pistons.
Last year, Tom Thibodeau was very unpopular, the starting lineup was very hated, they were losing late-season games to East contenders, fans were souring on Hart and Bridges, there were nostalgia acts of the “grittier” teams of the last few years, and there was the 0-10 stat. On and on and on.
So when you go into this year, and you see the same things happening this time of year, does it not tell you that you should let things play out before making grand assumptions? Sure, there are very real problems, but there are also things where you should just calm down, relax, and grab a drink (alcoholic or not, your choice).
The playoffs tend to be a lot more unpredictable than they seem. We saw that firsthand when Thibodeau suddenly made drastic changes to the defensive scheme to throw off a Celtics team that had absolutely annihilated the Knicks in the regular season. A defense that looked utterly lost all season suddenly gained fortitude playing a straight-up, switch-everything style. We’ve already seen that style of disciplined defense with the Knicks this season. Why do you think they had the best defense in basketball for eight weeks?
Bad matchups don’t necessarily translate, so why be worried about Detroit or Charlotte or Philly? You could even go in the opposite direction and say you shouldn’t assume the Raptors would be the easiest matchup!
The playoffs are a totally different beast, in which we’ve seen guys on this roster transform into something totally different. Bridges redeemed a very rough regular season with a tremendous playoff run last year, namely. Hart always seems to play his best. Mitchell Robinson’s impact is unmatched in a playoff setting and has swung the matchup in multiple seasons. Jalen Brunson, whose play since his ankle injury in early January has been below his standard, is the biggest playoff riser in the sport right now.
We have a nearly 180-game sample with this group over the last two years with two different coaches. You could say a lot about the team’s ideal lineup, but I’m not sure if a lineup change does much in terms of starting the game off faster, considering we’ve seen the same things when Hart is out. The lineups with Landry Shamet and Deuce McBride don’t perform very well either, and we know they won’t stretch Robinson out. I think this group just naturally comes out of the gates slow and hits their stride as the game goes on and they adjust:
It’s hard to explain why the offense goes from looking fluid and beautiful one night and stagnant and ugly the next, but that might have more to do with certain matchups than anything. Houston’s sheer volume of lanky wings is an extremely tough matchup when they’re all healthy and locked in.
On that point of being locked in, we’ve seen a few times this season where the focus level just drops. This week has been one of the low points, but could that just be the drag of an 82-game season? We see good teams go in ruts during baseball’s 162-game slog.
This team will make its bed and sleep in it come playoff time. None of us know which team will show up when the playoffs begin in just over two weeks, but we do know that they have a switch that can be flipped.
The question is, how long can they keep the switch on?
Brandin Podziemski