Knicks 112, Wizards 108: Too good
Faced with a should-win, the Knicks did.
No matter how big an NBA fan you are, odds are you tuned in to New York vs. Washington Friday night not knowing all that much about Jordan Goodwin. The two-way Wizard splits his time between Washington and the Capital City Go-Go, their G-League affiliate; last night was only his 36th career game, just his fourth-ever start. Yet in the dying seconds of the first half, Goodwin embodied – in flesh – everything about the Washington franchise for as long as I’ve known them. And it put a new spin on the increasingly-common-but-never-old feeling of a Knicks win, in this instance a 112-108 triumph.
Of course, there were a lot of headlines and highlights one could dwell on after this performance. After a low-scoring first half spent mostly trailing, the Knicks scored 62 in the second half, led by usual leading man Jalen Brunson, who followed up a 13-point opening half with a 15-point third quarter. There was New York dominating the paint to the tune of 50-28. The Knicks were by far better in transition. Their comeback was bookended by brilliant blitzes, early and late: a 12-0 run in the first quarter and a 14-0 run to take control in the fourth, capped by an Immauel Quickley transition circus shot Euro-step overhead and-one. Julius Randle continued his recent run of holy s@#! shot-blocks.
That was not the only Randle highlight on the night.
Nor was this one of those magical nights where everything falls perfectly into place. Certainly not. Isaiah Hartenstein continues to channel Billy Halleck, the main character in Stephen King’s novel Thinner. Halleck is a corrupt glutton, and when his insatiability leads to the death of an innocent, the victim’s father curses Halleck: no matter what he eats or how much, he will continue to lose weight. Halleck cuts a miserable figure for most of the film; he cannot enjoy life. Whether giving up a weak 3-point play or performing Charles Smith for our horrified eyes once a game, Hartenstein seems to enter every game with a raincloud over his head.
And here were the Knicks yet again crumbling to pieces protecting a narrow lead late, in this case defending up four with under 20 seconds left and Randle putting his hand smack onto Kyle Kuzma’s body as Kuzma let fly from three. The Knicks can look back at their time in the nation’s capital the way most politicians do after they leave: they got what they wanted, but probably don’t feel entirely good about what it took and how it went.
Still. A win is a win is a win. Speaking of, let’s get back to Jordan Goodwin.
In the last half-minute of the first half, Brunson hit a step-back three to halve the deficit to three. The Wizards inbounded the ball to Goodwin, who let it roll . . . and roll . . . and keep rolling. You see this move more and more often; it’s pretty commonplace, at this point. What isn’t commonplace is for a team to do so right before they milk the end-of-the-quarter clock. There’s really no point to gaining the advantage of starting your possession in the frontcourt when everybody in the building knows you’re just going to hold the ball for 20 seconds and then go into a move. It’s a move that betrays an exceptional blind spot. Imagine you’re a cheetah surveying a horde of antelope on the plain and you notice one wearing high heels. Your heart almost goes out to Goodwin.
After a deep three from Kuzma put the Wizards back up six and as the half’s final seconds ticked off, Goodwin not only failed to keep a desperate and driving RJ Barrett in front of him, he compounded that by fouling Barrett mid-Euro step, giving up a three-point play. There was something sooo Wizards about it, so pathetic on both ends. That’s when it hit me.
There are any number of Knicks I could see performing that same sequence as Goodwin. But they’re all from the past. For all their flaws, the current Knicks don’t have a Goodwin to botch both ends like that. They’re too deep, too professional, too good. Imagine a not-too-distant parallel universe where the Knicks’ Big 3 includes an injury-prone Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porziņģis and Kyle Kuzma. Imagine the people of that universe getting a glimpse at how we have it here. Pretty sweet, they’d say. Do you realize that? Don’t skip past it. Feel it. The Knicks are considered of a higher quality than competent. Drink that in.
Next time you step outside, walk a little taller. Let your voice ring out. Breathe deeply. There’s levels to this life. For a lotta years it felt like we’d always be stuck at the bottom. We’re not. We’ve moved up in the world. The sun is brighter and the air is fresher. Next game is Sunday at Detroit. Breathe deep, true believers.
