Last Night Suuuuucked, But God Damn It Felt Good To Feel Something Again
Alright so last night hurt. A lot. Getting all those playoff jitters back and watching the Knicks claw themselves back into the game with their All NBA candidate struggling only to come excruciatingly short stunk. But any Knicks fan that remembers the 90s remembers this feeling all too well since we got it in some form every single year, whether it was from Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, or those fucks down in Miami ripping our souls clean out of our chest at the end of a hard fought playoff game.
But despite all that, it felt good to actually care about the NBA in May for once other than the lottery. It felt good to hear The Garden lose its collective mind with that sound you only hear at The Garden.
It felt good to celebrate with your fellow Knicks fans after a big play in a big game.
It even felt good to hate a guy like Trae Young, even if you knewit could end up feeling like a rusty knife through the heart as he shushed 15,000 maniacal New Yorkers. But it also felt kinda right after all we've seen at MSG over the years, which after the last year of life and eight years of Knicks fandom is all you can ask for, right? Actually fuck that, I still wanted the win.
But if you believe that this franchise is truly on the right track, at least as long as James Dolan stays out of Leon Rose's way, this was just the appetizer of things to come. This was the most organically fun season I can remember because it feels like the Knicks are actually building something. One tough loss to start a series doesn't wipe out all the good mojo or toughness this team has shown this season.
A few other quick thoughts:
- For all the talk of Trae Young's shot, this is the shot that kept me up all of last night.
I mean how the fuck does Bogi catch that let alone drain that? It still doesn't make sense after the 100 times I watched it and 100,000 times I thought about it. That play was the last 8 years of Knicks basketball summed up in 2 seconds, which we've somehow avoided all season.
- If Nerlens Noel is injured, we are in a world of pain. Clint Capela looked like a parent getting rebounds over his kids when Noel wasn't in the game. I love Taj Gibson but he can only do so much to stop these pick and roll alley oops by being the right spot, especially since I feel like the Check Engine light has been on in his body for years now.
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- It's a tough day for those of us in the Frank Hive. I still would like to see him on Trae Young more, preferably for more than the last possession of every half coming in cold. But this was still a tough look for our "stopper".
- Thank GOD the Knicks don't play until Thursday because I think Derrick Rose is gonna need to ice up for 72 hours in order to play anywhere near the level that he did in Game 1.
- Immanuel Quickley is going to be a big game player. I'm honestly one game away from renaming him Playoff Quickley.
- Gotta round up sucking the bench's collective dick by shouting out Alec Burks. Wasting that performance hurts, but I am guaranteeing he has at least one more game like that in this series. I don't throw around the G word lightly, so you know it's legit.
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- Losing Game 1 at home after working your ass off to get home court advantage sucks. But that was as much about avoiding Giannis as anything. I rest easily knowing that Thibs locked himself in a film room last night and will be in there figuring out ways to stop Trae from now until tip off on Wednesday.
- GET CODY COURT SIDE FOR GAME 2!!!