Pacers 125, Knicks 108: Job incomplete
A memorable season for the New York Knicks comes to a forgettable close
It’s 9:17 p.m., the day after the New York Knicks’ season ended at the hands of Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers, 125-108, and I’m exhausted. I wanted to take time and let this Game 6 loss marinate. It’s not every day – nay, every year – your favorite basketball team falls short in its first conference finals appearance in 25 years. Life had other plans.
My buddy called and asked if I’d help him do a tile job. I don’t know shit about tile. But I’m a pair of hands and eyes, and ears, above all else. His judgement told him my attendance would make the job easier. I don’t think he was wrong. But after 10 hours in a bathroom so small I can now relate to Jalen Brunson and how he was guarded in this series, we left the site with the job incomplete.
That’s the story of these Knicks this season. A contender in their own right after losing in seven games to the Pacers last year, the Knicks reached out and brought in some help. Now, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns are more qualified at championship chasing than I am at carpentry. But bear with me for the sake of the analogy. It’s not about that. What it is about is a sentiment shared by many fans, if not most, at one point or another.
Were those two trades by Leon Rose entirely necessary? Or were they accessory acquisitions for a team capable of getting the job done? Julius Randle, his regular-season aside, showed what New York was missing last playoffs for this postseason’s Minnesota Timberwolves. They ended up meeting an immovable object, the Oklahoma City Thunder, as a very stoppable force, and thus their season ended in the conference finals too.
But there’s also Isaiah Hartenstein, doing exactly for a young OKC team what he provided New York: interior defense and offense, both non-disruptive and reliable down the stretch. The Thunder will handle the Pacers in the Finals, of that I have little doubt. But every Hartenstein screen, every pocket pass to a cutting gun, it’s going to sting just a little.
Bojan Bogdanović? Donte DiVincenzo? Mere pawns at this point of the match; they had their moments. I don’t think either moves the needle for this Knicks team in a way that was needed, based on their respective calendar years. This may all sound dramatic, extreme. I don’t care. To be a fan is to remember what you’ve lost while you’re losing. We certainly won’t forget those who’ve come before when we’re finally on top.
But that won’t be this year. And that’s an idea that’s not yet realized. Not for me at least. Before tip-off last night I had a good feeling; feelings, even. New York had won two of three, one in Indiana. This team had played its best ball with their backs against the wall all season long. And from the start, that looked like a trend that would go uninterrupted. When the halftime buzzer sounded and the Knicks were down just four, visions of the Boston series played through my head.
What followed couldn’t have been any less like what I was envisioning. Haliburton and the Pacers scored 34 to the Knicks’ 23 in the third quarter. Indiana’s lead, 15 entering the fourth, proved unconquerable for the Knicks’ resilient rats of Tobruk, who’d completed larger comebacks. The final boss got the final say.
Now we’re . . . well, I’m not really sure. This isn’t the drawing board. Nor is it a start from scratch. No, what awaits New York this summer is far more complex – yet, in the same vein, comforting?
To be two wins away from an NBA Finals berth only 242 days after trading for the enigmatic Towns, 330 since acquiring Bridges and 378 days since last year’s defeat to the Pacers is surreal, in retrospect. No calendar year has been as eventful for the Knicks in my 28 years of life, and somehow they got better? This season was no smooth stroll on sandy shores. It was a year-long walk across hot coals, with sandy strips intermittent. The terms “up” and “down” have since been redefined in my mind, now equated with the existential crises and euphoria that this season brought. Roller coasters don’t got shit on watching Bridges, Brunson and Towns assimilate at the pace of a Tom Thibodeau-led offense – literally.
People will reference this team’s age, price tag and lack of depth. But if you’ve been paying attention, you know the truth is not just in the middle, but leaning in New York’s favor. Everyone on this team is in their prime. They had individual displays of greatness, one after the other, throughout the year. Remember when Bridges’ outshined Victor Wembanyama on Christmas Day? What about Towns’ 44-point overtime performance against the Atlanta Hawks? I don’t need to remind you of Brunson’s greatness. And no highlights are more near and dear to me than OG Anunoby’s 40-piece in Denver. .
Landry Shamet and Delon Wright won’t count towards next year’s roster depth until we hear otherwise, and I think that's unlikely. Perhaps the sentiments behind their climb through the ranks and postseason contributions will. Thibs is widely criticized as the NBA’s oldest dog who will never learn another new trick. That’s just not true. The last 18 games disprove that much. And no games counted more.
I’m not here to pitch you on my latest, greatest trade machine idea. Don’t ask me who this team should target with the 50th overall pick in the draft. Will they keep Thibodeau? This isn’t the time for that, either. I will say this: this Knicks team started the season as a group of individuals. They walk out of it a collective, a team, a unit, and better than their 2023-24 predecessors on paper. Rome wasn’t built in a day. How can we ask for the next New York championship team to be?
