It’s funny, really. Six months ago, it felt like this season-ending three-game stretch for the Knicks — home-and-home with the Pacers, the Pelicans in New Orleans sandwiched in between — would carry the stakes of a final-table all-in showdown at the World Series of Poker.
Surely, these games would matter for the Knicks, surely they would be jockeying for position among the rest of the East’s middle class, jostling to land 7th, 8th, 9th or 10th. Maybe — maybe — if things broke right they could sneak into the sixth spot, though that seemed ridiculous at a time when the Nets were still loaded and the Heat still feared.
Worst-case scenario?
That would be another season where these final three games would mean nothing. We’ve seen too many of those seasons, ones that ended with nothing to show and less to play for. Easter Sunday they maybe would’ve given away some sodas and some candy at the Garden finale, a parting-gift wait-till-next-year to the most damaged tribe of fans in New York.
But then a funny thing happened.
The best-case scenario happened.
And the best-case scenario is going to look a lot like the worst-case scenario. Starting with Wednesday night’s 138-129 shootout win over the Pacers at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse, these last three games of the Knicks’ schedule are meaningless — in the best possible way. They are exhibitions, if that. Imagine that.
Want to catch a game? The Knicks schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
“Obviously you start with all the things you can accomplish, qualifying is the most important thing, and then the highest seed possible,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said before watching three of his players (Immanuel Quickley, 39; Quentin Grimes, 36; Obi Toppin, 32) break 30 points, only the third time that’s happened in team history, first time since Toby Knight, Earl Monroe and Ray Williams did it on March 24, 1979.
“Now the next step is to continue to play as well as we can to take that into the playoffs.”
They did that Wednesday, even if the priority was self-preservation, Toppin giving the team a temporary scare early on by crumpling to the court and clutching his knee (he was fine). The trick is to maximize the 10 or 11 days they will have before their next relevant game, at Cleveland next weekend, in a 4-5 matchup with the Cavaliers.
So the Knicks are in the almost-surreal place of being able to breathe and relax. No need to fret about Julius Randle, no need to rush RJ Barrett back from illness, no need to keep playing Jalen Brunson at all. No need to be troubled by off-court silliness, like Mark Cuban sounding like a tormented travel-team soccer coach complaining about the Brunson family.
They can phone in the final three games of the season. They can watch the NBA’s play-in tournament from their living rooms.
“I [almost] wish we didn’t have a long break,” Josh Hart said. “I feel like we’re going in the right direction.”
Kid’s heart is in the right place. But the Knicks could use the time. They need every available day to get Brunson as close to 100 percent as possible by Game 1 in Cleveland. They need every available minute to coax Randle’s ankle back to full usability.
Maybe the NBA can convince the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League to move their 3 p.m. game on Sunday, April 16 to, say, 8 p.m. in order to accommodate a New York Sunday rating for one of their TV partners (and give Randle an extra 24 hours). After all, it’s been almost 38 years since the NBA last gave the Knicks a break with the Patrick Ewing frozen envelope.
(We jest, we jest. Come on, if you can’t laugh a little during the NBA’s Silly Season, when can you laugh?)
So the Knicks happily went with a reduced lineup Wednesday night, and won anyway, and will do so two more times. The Cavaliers, also with zero to play for, will go with a JV lineup Thursday night in Orlando, giving Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen the night off.
The Knicks have actually been one of the few teams who have gone all season without tinkering with “load management” off-nights; it seems like Thibodeau would go into a full spasm if he even thought about trying to say those two words together. They played over their heads for 79 games. That earned them the stamps to mail these last three in.
And if you’re a Knicks fan — even with ducats for Sunday in your pocket (or, more likely, your phone) — you’ll take that. Happily.