The Knicks are… maybe the favorites in this game against the Heat? The Knicks are riding a three-game winning streak, and the Heat a six-game losing streak. Could we be treated to a heavyweight fight between RJ Barrett and Jimmy Butler?

At what point do we start thinking of the Knicks for the team that they are?

Yes, their hold on the fourth spot in the East is a bit like a grandpa with osteoarthritis trying to hold onto a 50 pound dumbbell, but the Knicks have managed to only work their way up this year (or at least the last couple months).

After their surprise 5-3 start, the Knicks fell into their doldrum period, ironically enough reaching their lowest point against these very Heat, losing back-to-back games and falling four games below .500 back on Feb. 9. Since then, it’s almost been like Tom Thibodeau has bulletin board goals set for the team.

The first was “get back to .500,” and that took a couple weeks, but the Knicks got there on Feb. 27 against the Pacers. Then there was “get over .500,” which happened the very next night against the Pistons. Getting higher than that proved difficult, in large part thanks to that hellacious week of March 15-21, where the Knicks lost three games to the Nets and Sixers by a combined nine points. And yet, here we are a week later, and “two games over .500” has been checked off the bulletin board as the Knicks are riding a three-game winning streak.

Even with all the recent success, it’s hard to shake that ingrained feeling that the Knicks shouldn’t be here. We all expected this team to be some version of a lottery team this year, whether a cellar-dwelling Cade Cunningham hopeful or a scrappy 30-win-equivalent team that finished in the mid-late lotto. But now here we are, 46 games into a 72-game season (almost two-thirds of the way!), and the Knicks keep finding new ways to impress us and new benchmarks to clear. Could tonight’s game against the Heat be a revenge story after Miami plunged the Knicks to their lowest depths a month and a half ago? Guess we’ll see tonight.

The Knicks have won three games in a row, which is good for the best active streak in the East right now. The Heat are skidding, losers of six straight, which is currently the worst active streak in the East. Either something’s gonna give, or we’re about to double down.

A lot of that probably has to do with the health of Julius Randle’s contused thigh (for those unfamiliar, a contusion is a bruise. Don’t panic!). He’s listed as questionable for this game, as is his partner in crime Reggie Bullock. Meanwhile, Elfrid Payton runs free, not atoning for his heinous crime of kneeing Julius and contusing him. Is there no justice in this world?

The Heat are without Kendrick Nunn and Victor Oladipo, but it still probably wouldn’t be wise to underestimate them. This team operates in huge, exaggerated waves. Since Jan. 22, the Heat have lost seven of eight games, then won four straight, then lost three straight, then won 11 of 12, and now lost six straight. You don’t want to catch this team when they awake from a slumber. Hopefully missing Oladipo and Nunn will keep them asleep for just a bit longer. No matter what, the Knicks can’t come out flat in this game like they have the last two — you can overcome bad starts against the Wizards and bad finishes against the Bucks, but that won’t fly against the defending East champs.

Also keep an eye on the RJ Barrett/Jimmy Butler matchup. Our own Benjy Ritholtz just wrote this morning about how a blink-and-you’d-miss-it interaction between those two in the last Knicks-Heat game featured some advice from Butler that Barrett has clearly been applying in the time since. RJ’s been absolutely on fire since that last Miami game, averaging 18.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists on .463/.418/.733 shooting splits. Butler, meanwhile, has been averaging almost 25 points per game over his last 12. Randle returning could be the swing factor for the Knicks, but Barrett/Butler might be the heavyweight fight in this game.

The game is at 7:30 PM on MSG. Feel free to comment along here or join us on Twitter!