It can happen this quickly. Friday night, around 9:30 or so, the Knicks walked off the floor at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center up a dozen points at the half over the Thunder, having played their best quarter of the season, an exquisite and pristine 36-point explosion against one of the NBA’s gold standard teams.
They’d won nine straight. They looked terrific, both ends of the floor. They made the Thunder look downright ordinary. It was something to behold. It wasn’t a reach to wonder, in that moment, what this team’s ceiling really was.
Seventy-two hours later …
Well, put it this way: 72 hours later, the honeymoon is officially over. By the time 9:30 hit Monday night, Madison Square Garden was rapidly evacuating, and those who stayed didn’t have a lot of love in their hearts, and rightfully so. The Knicks were putting the finishing touches on a sixth straight unwatchable quarter of basketball and were about to absorb their first three-game losing streak of the season.
