Celtics 127, Knicks 102: Perfect is the enemy of good

It’s all still within reach for the Knicks. It’d feel a lot closer if they just win the next game & end this already

A pianist and aspiring film composer long before I ever started caring about the written word, I grew up as excited hearing piano competitions on classical radio stations as I did Knicks or Mets games on WFAN. Classical music was a godsend growing up for me, someone who needed somewhere healthy to channel what could be an overwhelming obsession with perfection. I could play an 8-10 minute recital, miss one note out of thousands and be inconsolable after, whether anyone’d heard it or not.

Long after I gave up music for writing, I dated a singer who started a Billy Squier cover band. She needed someone to play keyboards; I missed performing. It seemed a perfect match. Our first practice wasn’t technically challenging – “The Stroke” may be more fun to belt out when it’s last call at the bar, but it’s hardly the last Rachmaninoff etude I worked on. Yet there I sat, head buried in my hands, frustrated and confused by what we were doing. Or not doing.

We all knew the songs. The notes weren’t difficult or anything. But when we started playing, it wasn’t perfect. It was nowhere near perfect. And when I played, that was always the objective. Why do something if you aren’t doing it as well as you can?

I’d played with orchestras, soloists, singers, entire choruses. With each, we seemed on the same page from the beginning. But here with this band I felt completely removed, like I might as well be speaking a different language from the singer, guitarist and bassist. My girlfriend, the singer, had come out of the world of rock ‘n’ roll performance. She put her arms over my shoulders and whispered into my ear.

“Perfect is the enemy of good. If it’s good enough for rock ‘n’ roll, it’s good enough for us.”

That was all I had to hear. I now understood the baggage I’d brought to rehearsal, I let it go and from then on we locked in and played great.

The unbelievably tiresome coverage of the Knicks/Celtics Eastern semifinal series will last at least a few more days after New York lost last night’s Game 5 in Boston, 127-102. After four games with the corporate sports media centered on all the champs did wrong in falling behind 1-0, 2-0 and 3-1, I’d hoped last night would be the Knicks’ coronation, that not only would they advance to the Eastern finals but they’d finally get the recognition and the spotlight they’ve deserved, and that we’re starved to hear. It didn’t happen. That’s okay.

First, all due flowers to the surviving Jordanaries, i.e. every Celtic who didn’t go to Duke and recently tear an Achilles. I didn’t expect the Knicks to win last night, because with these Celtics it’s not simply a matter of who they are – defending champs – but who they’re not. They’re not the Pacers, the Timberwolves or the Nuggets. Most teams that lose their best player are pretty much screwed, not only because of the loss of their ace but because it requires their team elevating one or more imperfect players into positions where they’re easier to exploit.

Obi Toppin is a delightful basketball player, but if losing Tyrese Haliburton meant the Pacers needed 20 points and 10 assists a night from Obi they’re dead in the water. If Nikola Jokić quits the NBA to play baseball for the Colorado Rockies – he couldn’t do any worse than their current players – the Nuggets are no more an NBA threat than the Rockies would be. Usually when you have a perfect-or-at-least-pretty-spectacular on your team, you build around them, so when they’re gone, your system starts to crumple because you don’t have enough of what you lost to carry on with what got you here.

Not the Celtics. With Tatum, Boston goes 8-9 deep featuring two-way players who can all shoot threes. Without Tatum, the Celtics run 7-8 deep with two-way players who can all shoot threes. They were playing at home. Feeling aggrieved. Facing elimination for the first time since trailing Miami 3-0 in the conference finals two years ago. Remember? They won Game 4, then 5, then 6, forcing a Game 7 where they bent but didn’t break until the fourth quarter. These Celtics aren’t Joseph K. They’re not walking meekly to their doom, Tatum or no Tatum. Particularly not against a team they don’t consider at their level.

The Knicks shot 12-of-30 from behind the arc, a perfectly cromulent number against 99% of the teams on this planet. But these Cs, even shorthanded with their backs against the wall, have a different worldview than most. Even while Because they were without their biggest bombardier, they were even more aggressive from deep, drilling 22-of-49. Meanwhile the Knicks, who’d been killing them softly inside the arc all series, shot a measly 33% on their twos. If the other guy keeps socking you in the temples while you keep swinging and missing at his ribs, your only hope of escape is being saved by the bell. Maybe the Knicks were.

The game ended mercifully after 48 minutes and now the series shifts back to Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks haven’t eliminated the Celtics from the playoffs since 1951. This franchise has lost its last five home playoff games with a series win on the line; the last time the Knicks closed someone out at home was when they beat the Pacers to advance to the ‘99 Finals. I’m not sure what’s the loudest you’ve ever heard the Garden. For me, that’d be Game 6 of the 1997 semis vs. Miami, after P.J. Brown and David Stern killed the Knicks’ last chance to beat Michael Jordan. I’d like to think tomorrow will test that. The building will be buzzing. I don’t think the Celtics will care, but maybe it gives the Knicks an edge.

Winning last night, the Knicks could have maximized their rest before facing the Pacers, a deeper team who’ll look to tire them out every chance they get. We’d have had days to bask in an upset on the level of Joe Willie leading the AFL Jets over the NFL’s Colts, of the Amazins out-shocking Neil Armstrong on the moon, of everything the Yankees did one summer to put the “Bleepin’” in Bucky Dent’s name, of Eli Manning bringing Tom Brady enough letdowns to make Touchdown Tommy seem almost human. Reporters from national publications would have had to actually write something about the Knicks, specifically something positive. Winning last night would have been perfect.         

But from Willis Reed’s miracle to Patrick Ewing’s knees to James Dolan’s ownership, when has anything ever come easy for this franchise? If the Knicks win a home game tomorrow night they’ll be somewhere they haven’t been since 2000. And they don’t need everything to break their way to do it. They’re good; they’re really good. One more W and teams like Boston and Cleveland can spend all summer lamenting their perfect plans going the way of the 18-0 Patriots. One more W and the Knicks are hosting the ECF. Good enough.