ORLANDO, Fla. — The Knicks didn’t necessarily need a reminder of how fragile good things are in the NBA, and they didn’t want a direct explanation of how fragile the delicate tapestry of a season is. I wasn’t there. But that’s what they got. That’s what they’ll take into the All-Star break.
Tom Thibodeau gave the humble one-legged columnist a solid 10 minutes for the Knicks’ game against the Magic on Wednesday night if he could fax his 10-day contract documents to the Kia Center on time. I didn’t ask if I could have it. But he certainly looked like he was on the brink of it.
And compared to the rest of the roster, your humble one-legged columnist’s health was pretty good.
“We take what the seasons give us,” he said.
It’s incredible to remember how we got here. Just eight days ago, the Knicks went over .500 for a season-high 15 games, defeating the Grizzlies 123-113 and extending their scorching record of winning 15 of 18 games. Two days later, they signed deals to acquire Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdanovic. They passed the 76ers, caught up with the Bucks, and were just a few percentage points behind the second-place Cavs in the East.
One week later, they are the team that needs the upcoming eight-day All-Star sabbatical more than any other team to date. Donte DiVincenzo and Bogdanovic joined the swollen pile of inactive players before the Magic game, leaving the Knicks with only nine healthy players ready, including two call-ups from the G League.
Good news: All six names in bold who missed Wednesday night are expected to return in the days to weeks after the All-Star Game, with Jalen Brunson (ankle) and Josh Hart (knee) also injured. There will be a tendency to sue. pain.
The bad news: While you might hope that they, collectively and individually, can pick up where they left off, there’s no guarantee. And there’s no guarantee that something else won’t lurk between here and the start of the playoffs. That’s the trick of the NBA, after all. No one may want to say it out loud, but everyone knows it.
No, all the Knicks have to do is look across town at the Nets to see how tenuously intertwined their fortunes are in pro basketball. It all ended so badly in Brooklyn for the former Big Three that it’s easy to forget how close they were to realizing their lofty ambitions three years ago.
Former NBA journeyman Justin Jackson appeared on the “Run Your Race” podcast on Tuesday. He was a member of the 2021 Bucks, who played against the Nets in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“If James Harden and Kyrie Irving don’t get hurt, they’re going to low-key sweep us,” Jackson told co-host AJ Richardson. “They beat us by 40 points in the first two games in Brooklyn.” [actually it was 12 in Game 1 and 39 in Game 2]. It was so bad that I wanted a ride home from Brooklyn when I got back after the next two games.
“It was so bad. There was nothing we could do. And injuries happen, of course. James got hurt in the first game, but they still beat us in the second game. We beat them by 40 points, that’s the crazy thing about this game.
“Then we went to Brooklyn and it looked like they were still in charge of the series. Then Ky rolled his ankle, and it actually looked like we had a chance now. Once we got to Game 7, [Kevin Durant’s] I lost my shoes because they were one size too small. So you can say you could, you could, you should, but I don’t care what anyone says because if the team was healthy they would have won all the games. ”
Jackson offered a money-making quote that should send chills down your spine for the Knicks, 76ers, and every other team this currently applies to, as well as a team currently doing as well as the Celtics. . Your knees and ankles bend in directions they shouldn’t.
“In sports, things can happen,” he said. “Injuries happen.”
Brad Hamilton told Spicoli and his crew on “Fast Times.” he knows it. Please live. ”
