Knicks being good is good enough for now
Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks walks on the court for player introductions before the home opening game against the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden on October 25, 2023. Credit: Getty Images
Great expectations can be a blessing or a curse, more so the latter in the case of New York-area sports in 2023.
No need to go through the long list here; the guilty parties know who they are.
But, now that we better understand how abject disappointment feels, the 2023-24 Knicks arrive as a breath of fresh air.
Yes, they are highly unlikely to win the NBA championship. The Celtics — who beat the Knicks, 108-104, in Wednesday night’s opener at Madison Square Garden — and Bucks are clear favorites to win the Eastern Conference.
But that’s OK, for now.
The Knicks should be a good team, and for once they are a familiar team, with their roster back almost intact from last season’s 47-35 success.
If they simply match 2022-23 and reach the second round, they can boast of their first back-to-back seasons winning at least one playoff series since shortly before RJ Barrett was born.
Is that enough? No and yes. No in the sense that the mission in pro sports is to win championships, in New York as much as anywhere else.
Yes in the sense that, after watching the collapses of alleged New York contenders this year, and after watching so much bad Knicks basketball this century, it could be kind of fun.
The opener offered a good example of all that.
On one hand, the Knicks played Boston tough on a night when Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson shot a combined 11-for-43 from the field and as a team the Knicks missed 12 of 26 free throws.
On the other hand, they lost on a night when they were 18-for-41 on three pointers, Immanuel Quickley (24 points) was electric off the bench and they led 101-95 with 3:39 remaining.
Jayson Tatum’s 34 points and former Knick Kristaps Porzingis’ 30 sunk the Knicks.
It was simultaneously maddening and encouraging, with a bottom line that was what most of America likely expected given Boston’s superior billing.
“Nights like these happen,” Randle said after shooting 5-for-22 from the field and 1-for-5 from the line. “It [stinks] on opening night, but that’s why it’s an 82-game season. We’ll bounce back. I’ll bounce back. We’ll be fine.”
Said Brunson, who shot 6-for-21, “I hold myself to a higher standard. I just have to be better.”
Coach Tom Thibodeau was in no mood to discuss a moral victory, even after the Knicks trailed by 12 following the first quarter and appeared to be on the verge of being blown out on several occasions before bouncing back.
“No, to me, I don’t want that mindset,” he said. “I want the mindset of, we fell short, and I want us to be determined to get better.
“Whether we win or we lose, I want us to understand why we’ve done either one of those things and make the necessary steps to move forward.”
There are worse places to be than where the Knicks are: a pretty good team with a big-time feel in a big-time atmosphere.
That was the case before tipoff, as players warmed up in and around an overflow crowd of media members, including ESPN’s biggest NBA coverage stars.
It had the vibe of a playoff game, even though the calendar said late October.
“We appreciate your support,” Randle told the crowd before tipoff. “Hope to make you proud. Go Knicks.”
What followed was an entertaining night at the Garden that did do the Knicks proud, with an asterisk: They lost to a better team.
The Celtics were only the beginning of a tough early stretch for the Knicks that includes more road games than home and three games against the Bucks before the end of the calendar year.
Eventually, the object is compete with the Celtics and Bucks when it counts most. The opener was a small taste of what that could be like.
“The other day I saw the clip of what the Garden looked like in the playoffs and how everybody was jumping up and down, and that was great,” Barrett said this week.
“I love going in there and seeing the fans and when we go on a run it gets so loud in there. I’m definitely looking forward to that.”
Looking forward is what openers are all about, win or lose.
For this good-but-not-great Knicks team and its fans, the intrigue is in looking ahead, but not too far – yet.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
