Hawks 117, Knicks 111: Skinny mirror
Facing Trae Young for the first time since last playoffs, the Knicks ran into a familiar situation: they had enough to get a lead over the Hawks, but not enough to put them away, underscoring the needs of the Knicks vs. their southern rivals.
My senior year of high school I received scholarship offers to SUNY-Potsdam and Fredonia, at the time the two best state colleges to study music. I wanted to become a film composer, so this seemed good news. So how is it I ended up writing recaps rather than soundtracks?
I fell in love for the first time that year. I was very 17, even for 17, so it didn’t take long for me to go from single and convinced no one would ever want me to dating and convinced my girlfriend and I understood love in a way no one else could, that we could and would make it work forever. Late into the decision-making process I still hadn’t chosen a school. I might never have if my father hadn’t more-than-softly told me I better, and quick.
I didn’t choose either music school. I chose Geneseo, a good school for many things, but not film composers, especially film composers who’d have to take out loans to pay to not become a film composer... So why Geneseo? Because you could take a bus from there to Ithaca, where my girlfriend was going to school.. Before freshman year was over, I’d fallen in love with one of her best friends. I had a lot more to learn about my heart. Still do.
“Regret” is too strong a word, given what writing has meant to me, but more and more lately the piano calls to me; secret songs pop in and out of my mind all day. How could I not wonder about a life that once seemed possible, a life that maybe should have been, that never was nor will be? What friends did I never know? What lovers?
The New York Knicks fell 117-111 to the Atlanta Hawks last night. They’re still mathematically alive for the play-in, though the loss dropped their magic number for elimination to five; even if the Knicks win their last 10 games, the Hawks would only have to split theirs to finish ahead of them. The story of the game was the story of the season: the Knicks played well for a while, led by 10 a few minutes into the fourth, then the opposition offered a response to which the Knicks had no counter.
The people we let closest to us are capable of the worst violations; likewise, there is intimacy revisiting a playoff foe. The Hawks are a .500 team after reaching last season’s Eastern Conference Finals. Injuries and inconsistency have kept them down. Yet they’ll enter the play-in with as much reason to feel confident as the other teams, given their experience and that neither Toronto, Brooklyn, nor Charlotte have a player more impactful than Trae Young. Kevin Durant is better, but Trae carries as much weight in the course of a game as just about anyone in the league.
(Imagine Brooklyn finishes eighth between Toronto and Atlanta. The Nets would have to play their first play-in game in Canada, meaning no Kyrie Irving, and if they lost, they’d have to come home to maybe play without Kyrie again, this time in a win-or-go-home showdown with the Hawks? Would the Nets fear a one-game play-in with the Knicks? The stakes would be raised because of the parochial rivalry, but Julius Randle or RJ Barrett or even Julius Randle and RJ Barrett aren’t nearly as terrifying as Young.)
New York’s success last year may have worked against them. In a weird COVID-shortened season played mostly without fans, did they overrate themselves? Remember: before their 16-4 flurry of a finish, they were 25-27. By making the playoffs one time, they may have felt their improvement was further along than it was.
“Regret” is too strong a word for this game or this season: only twice in the last 10 years have the Knicks been better after 72 games than this year’s 30-42. This is disappointing, but not traumatic; we can do 30-42 in our sleep. Reverse this season and last and the picture in front of us looks like what we’d hoped. The truth sucks, but I wouldn’t say it hurts.
Atlanta is a skinny mirror whose reflection flatters New York to deceive. Last season the teams had the same record; their five-game series easily could have gone six or seven; this season they’ve both mostly middled and muddled about. They have a lot in common, right down to giving no playing time to the forwards they traded to each other a few months ago (again, this has worked more to the Hawks’ advantage). Two differences make all the difference between these teams: Atlanta’s had two seven-game winning streaks while the Knicks have yet to win more than three straight, and, not unrelatedly, Atlanta’s best player improbably improved from last year to this while the Knicks’ slipped so far, so fast, it’s fair to wonder how far we are from them being RJ Barrett’s team.
Remember when Golden State visited Cleveland for a regular-season game after winning the title there and Steph Curry said the locker room still smelled like champagne? Atlanta comes to town and it almost smells like June again: Trae delivering from deep, bolts of life the crowd boos all the while it sends shivers down places they don’t talk about at parties; the Knicks getting nothing from Julius Randle, on this night due to an injured quad. A life that once looked possible is going to take some heavy lifting to get back on track.
