Lakers 101, Knicks 99 (OT) : “Why does it hurt?”
The Knicks lost a one-possession game in overtime to the defending NBA Champion Lakers. This season has been a much better outcome than anyone could have imagined, so it begs the question: Why did this loss hurt so bad?
So ask yourself: why does it hurt? Better still — where? Does a 20-year-old missing an off-balance 35-footer at the buzzer even hurt? How can it? You knew that would happen. Surely you suspected it when the rejuvenated former MVP had his drive to the hoop stopped seconds earlier. Or before that, when LA’s Talen Horton-Tucker hit the 3-pointer to give the Lakers the last lead they’d need in a 101-99 overtime win over the Knicks.
But think back. What about earlier? When Julius Randle was double-teamed by Wesley Matthews and Anthony Davis and was whistled for a travel? How much did that actually hurt, coming on the heels of Rose hounding THT the length of the court before knocking the ball away, then saving it to Reggie Bullock?
If some good is good, more must be better. If more good is happening, odds are Randle is involved. When he hit a rainbow longball over all-world defender Anthony Davis, did you dwell on the heat of the moment, the Knicks reclaiming the lead? Or the light it shines on a future both bright and burgeoning?
The Knicks lost the game, and it hurt. Pain is proof of life. The final buzzer is loud and the final score always gets the marquee, but don’t let your senses narrow your awareness. Take the overtime as a whole and what do you see? Rose, the 32-year-old with 20,000 minutes on the odometer, fighting for a loose ball on the floor with the much bigger, much younger Anthony Davis. You see Barrett missing a 3-pointer early in overtime that rimmed out. Is that all you see? If you squint, you might be able to make out the blue spark of future clutch forged in the furnace of failing. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Go back even earlier. The last time the Knicks were champs they won it in L.A., in a season that started in 1972. Seventy-two seconds into overtime last night, the Lakers took possession. Rose stopped a THT drive. The ball found Kyle Kuzma in the corner, where Barrett contested enough to force him to pass it back out. Horton-Tucker tried to take Randle off the dribble, but the Knick cornerstone kept on him and forced a 24-second violation.
Go back to the beginning of added time, the very beginning. Davis and Taj Gibson at the jump ball. There it was. Your visual metaphor: the platinum pivot versus a lunchpail incarnate. Two teams with the same record coming in. One built by glamour and glitz and GOATs and a glittered, gilded past. The other built with very different materials. The Knicks lost a game they desperately wanted to win. Still: 3-3 on a road trip that could have been 1-5 is good bones.
They were fourth in the East before last night. They’re tied now with Atlanta and Miami. It hurts because they’re alive. Pain is sharp to the living, numbing to the dead. Next game is Thursday when the Knicks are home for the Spurs. Time for more feels.
