Three straight wins to start 2021-2022 weren’t in the cards for the New York Knicks this season, as they dropped a Sunday night matchup to the Orlando Magic, 110-104.

Perhaps the New York Knicks are who we thought they were.

Which is not an 82-0 team, and one that is indeed susceptible to the occasional loss.

Which, good news, means they can still qualify as a really good basketball team.

There’s no reason to panic, no need to sound the alarms. Just as there was likely plenty of arguments against planning the championship parade following their 2-0 start.

Alas, here we are, three games in with an above .500 record. And god dammit if this Knicks team doesn’t have more to show for that than most teams around the league.

This one started out similarly to New York’s blowout win over the Magic just two nights ago — they got a couple of threes down to start, with Kemba Walker leading the way.

Julius Randle, RJ Barrett, and Evan Fournier all followed suit — and in that order — to keep things tied at 12 all with seven minutes left to go in the first frame.

The Knicks walked out of the first quarter up 29 to 27, despite a scorching hot first 12-minute effort from Cole Anthony, who poured in 15 points.

Fournier knocked in another three, and Derrick Rose added two of his own to give New York seven makes from behind the arc after 12 minutes.

They would go on to make just six more over the next 36 minutes of play. But more on that later.

The second quarter started much like the first one ended — with Anthony making things happen on both ends of the ball.

New York had next to no answer for the UNC product, one who they undoubtedly considered taking in the 2020 draft, which I’m sure won’t come up at all in the next 48 hours.

It was Alec Burks, a name most of you won’t want to hear too much about after this one, who scored the Knicks’ first bucket of the second quarter — at the 9:23 mark. 

But it was a 3-pointer, bringing the score back even with the Magic at 32 all.

Five more threes to go.

And then New York started to run with it, thanks to a few more moves from Burks, the continued excelsior play of Rose, and... Mitchell Robinson?

Four more threes to go.

Yes, the Knicks big man, three games into the season, had another game that reminds you just what he’s capable of, and why he’s considered among the best bigs in the NBA. 

After scoring just six points against the Magic on Friday, Robinson walked into halftime with seven points, helping New York to a 5-point lead at the break.

Despite the fact that the Knicks hadn’t yet put their foot on the gas to put away a rebuilding Orlando team, as they’d done some 48 hours ago, there was still optimism at halftime that things would turn for the better over the final 24 minutes. Largely because without Cole Anthony, the Magic scored just 31 points to New York’s 57. 

And just two games ago, they overcame a stellar performance from another opposing guard in the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, albeit on a much grander scale.

Quarter three opened up with some aesthetically pleasing offensive run involving Kemba. The point guard found Barrett for a second-half opening bucket, and then made his second three of the night to give the Knicks a 62-55 lead.

Three more threes to go. 

Fournier, Randle, and Obi Toppin missed their multiple threes, and just like that the defense allowed the Magic to take back the lead halfway through the third.

This is where things got dicey. 

New York’s been a team Tom Thibodeau has long trusted to keep their composure in these situations, but it’s undoubtedly hard to watch so many shots miss the net and not start worrying.

But what does any team do in these situations but let their best player take over?

Randle had some nice moments in the third as things started running thin for the Knicks, including this find to Barrett for the cutting dunk…

…as well as a 3-point make with just over two points remaining in the third. 

Two more threes to go. 

A last-second 3-pointer brought the Magic within six (80-74) going into the final quarter. 

It seemed a game the Knicks were destined to win, with resilience to their own shooting woes to credit for their position heading into the fourth. 

And then, as he has so many times before, Terrence Ross happened. 

Nicknamed “the Human Torch,” the Orlando swingman did just that, scoring all 22 of his points on the night in the fourth quarter to put New York away, 110-104. 

Notes

• New York finished the night having shot 37-100 from the field, 13-48 from behind the arc, and 17-25 from the charity stripe. That kind of effort is never going to win you basketball games in today’s NBA.

• Cole Anthony had 16 rebounds???

• With first-time dad Taj Gibson back in the mix, Obi Toppin took a back seat in the rotation. The second-year big, after playing 28 and 23 minutes over the first two games, saw just 12 minutes of action on Sunday night against the Magic.

• Terrence Ross is a goddamn Knicks killer. According to StatMuse, he’s averaging 11.9 points against New York over 29 career matchups. That feels way too low.

• Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Derrick Rose was the best player in a New York Knicks uniform tonight. He finished with 23 points in 28 minutes, including the final 3-pointers that we never got to in the countdown to 13 on the night.

• New York won the turnover battle, albeit just 13 to 12, and held this Magic team to 12-43 shooting from deep. They were just a subpar shooting effort away from pulling this one out and starting the season undefeated through three games.

It’s been some time since we questioned Julius Randle as a leader, and he addressed the team’s efforts appropriately after tonight’s loss. 

Sometimes it really is that simple, and trust head coach Tom Thibodeau to continue driving that “no excuses” point home to the team at their next practice. 

Randle’s equally as right in assessing Tuesday night’s matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers as the top priority following New York’s first loss of the season. 

The last time the Knicks won a game against the 76ers was Rose’s first stint with the team. So yeah, that would be one way to rebound from an unexpected, disappointing loss.

So many times we’ve seen this New York Knicks team do just as Randle’s instructed on Sunday night, throw poor performances in the trash, and come out focused in the next game.

Tuesday night’s matchup represents an opportunity to remind us of their abilities to do so.