The Knicks used up their mulligan Saturday afternoon. They lost their margin of error.
Those two stunning comebacks in Boston created that room to breathe. The rallies from 20 points down in each contest gave them that cushion.
But that was eliminated in an ugly Game 3 performance at the Garden, an effort Josh Hart said was “not acceptable.”
Monday night, the Knicks will have to be considerably better — better defending the 3-point shot, better on the glass, better on the offensive end.
A win, and they would regain control of this Eastern Conference semifinal series, move to within one victory of the franchise’s first berth in the conference finals in 25 years.
A loss, and the series is tied, and the Celtics reclaim control.
“I think that’s the challenge of the playoffs. The playoffs are going to challenge you in a lot of different ways,” coach Tom Thibodeau said Sunday. “You can get knocked down. You got to get back up. Got to keep fighting. Emotionally the playoffs are a roller coaster.”
The Knicks postseason run sure has been one.
They have trailed in the fourth quarter in all six of their playoff victories. They have won just once in four games at the Garden, but are a perfect 5-0 on the road, with all those wins coming by three points or fewer.
A fast start would be nice. The Knicks have trailed by at least 20 points in all three games of this series.
They have been playing uphill constantly. It may have worked at TD Garden, but it’s a recipe for disaster, as Game 3 illustrated. The Knicks have trailed for 128 minutes, 17 seconds in this series and led for only 12:16.
Most of that falls upon the starting five, which has been outscored by 29 points in this series as a unit, which has a minus-7.0 NET Rating in the playoffs (meaning it is being outscored by seven points per 100 possessions).
In this series, that number is a staggering minus-20.7 across 68 minutes.
“We haven’t done a good job imposing our will into the game from the jump,” Hart said. “That’s something that we struggled with in Detroit also, coming out of the half. There were times we had a 10-, 12-point lead and then we surrendered it in the first three, four minutes of the half. That unit, we have to come out with more sense of urgency, more desperation, more competitiveness and let everything else fall into place.”
As much as the Celtics hitting their 3s in Game 3 may have been expected after they made only 25-of-100 attempts in the first two games, the Knicks didn’t give themselves a chance with how they defended.
There were far too many wide-open looks. The pick-and-roll defense was shaky and disconnected.
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They let Boston get comfortable early. The Celtics hit six of their first seven from beyond the arc, and made 20-of-40 overall.
But the Knicks also weren’t much better offensively. Jalen Brunson started slowly. OG Anunoby has managed just seven points in the past two games. Hart had an off night in Game 3.
All of this has to get better in a hurry, and the Knicks know it.
There is another side to this, though. If someone had suggested to Thibodeau or any of his players a week ago that they would have a 2-1 lead in the series, they would have taken that advantage and run with it. They remain in a very strong position.
“It’s the playoffs, it’s what you always dream about being in, in these situations,” Hart said. “We have to come out with that sense of urgency. We can talk about it, but at the end of the day, it comes from a player’s heart. I think we’ll be ready [Monday night].”