Knicks 113, Bulls 111 (OT): Fight where you can; until then, endure

Sometimes winning tomorrow means surviving today. Live, loves. Live loudly.

I’m coming off a flu that’s had me on the ropes two weeks. Most of those nights I didn’t sleep more than 15-20 minutes at a time, what with all the coughing. When I found myself up and alone in those darkest hours, the nadir of the night, I remembered what my mother used to tell me when I was little and sick, and unable to sleep: just rest. I took great comfort from that lesson. If you can’t fight or flight your way past a problem, simply endure until you can. In a universe where entropy reigns, endurance is the only resistance.

Last night the New York Knicks endured for 53 minutes before ultimately beating the Chicago Bulls, 113-111. Cosmic rules enforced ever since Michael Jordan retired require every Knicks/Bulls game to come down to the wire, often thanks to some Chicago guard sticking improbable daggers: Greg Anthony; Ben Gordon; Nate Robinson; Coby White. Last night it was Australian sex creep Josh Giddey putting up 27 points and 16 rebounds that probably don’t happen if OG Anunoby and Josh Hart weren’t out injured.

Karl-Anthony Towns endured. Over the first 24 minutes the greatest non-German 7-foot shooter of all-time was as useful as a Democrat facing fascism, missing 13 of 15 shots. To be fair, unlike the Dems KAT did actually accomplish things, namely 11 first-half rebounds and a plus-rating despite all the bricking. His persistence paid off in the third, when Towns started driving more, nailing his first eight shots after intermission.    

New York’s depth endured. With OG and Hart both out and Mitchell Robinson still not returned to the fold, Ariel Hukporti was a presence on the glass and on defense in 17 minutes, his third-most minutes played this rookie season. Landry Shamet hit a couple of threes, something he’d only done prior this year in blowouts. Deuce McBride stepped into the starting lineup and played arguably his best game as a Knick, with 23 points, six rebounds, five threes and a troika each of dimes, blocks and steals.   

Mikal Bridges endured. All season long, the worrywarts have pointed to the supposedly falling sky and clucked about any- and everything Bridges hasn’t done, or doesn’t do. At this point if you’re still carrying a torch for Reggie Bullock, Evan Fournier or Donte DiVincenzo, I don’t know what to tell you. The Knicks have played 55 games. Only one player’s suited up for all 55. And when that player found himself pinned under the basket by someone six inches taller than him in a tie game at the end of the fourth, he did what he’s done all year. He made the play that needed making.

Now the Knicks hit the dark hours of their schedule: nine of 11 on the road, including Cleveland tonight, Boston Sunday, at Memphis in a week and a five-game West Coast trip featuring four against winning teams. The Knicks are only two behind Boston but can’t yet ignore Indiana behind them in fourth, not with the Pacers having six more home games than road games while the Knicks are five to the reverse. Everything about this team, its process and its ethos screams “Endure, then overcome.” Entropy’s tough to beat, but the Knicks don’t need to win that battle today. They’re here today, 37-18 and hopefully about to get some bodies back. Whether facing down an 82-game schedule or a swarm of Nazis, endure, loves. Simply endure. Until the day a better option presents itself. 

And it will.