Anyone treating the Knicks' 2-3 start as a crisis is reading the box score and ignoring the film. New York trailed by as many as 19 points in Chicago, let a rebuilding Bulls team hang around into the fourth quarter, and still won 133-127 at the United Center. The shot just isn't falling yet. Everything else that wins playoff basketball, defense, composure, and depth, is already working.
The record says 2-3, and that's the exact mark New York sat at through its first five games last season, the season that ended with a championship and Jalen Brunson as Finals MVP. Last year they got there by losing to Chicago. This year they got there by coming back from 19 down against the same team. Same number, opposite verdict. If you're going to read "2-3" as an omen, at least admit the omen already has a precedent, and a good one.
The scoreline swings matter more than the standings. The Knicks have now opened the season needing a furious finish to beat a team that lost by double digits in Boston two nights earlier. Chicago is 1-4, hardly a measuring stick. New York letting them lead for three quarters is about how this team starts games, period. The slow starts are a coaching and focus problem. The contender underneath is fine.
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RatingWhen it mattered, the Knicks did exactly what a contender is supposed to do. Brunson scored 38 and took over in the fourth quarter when Chicago still had a lead, exactly what you'd expect from a Finals MVP. Jordan Clarkson, who'd barely played through the first week of the season, came off the bench for a season-high scoring night in limited minutes and helped close the door. It's a roster with answers it hadn't needed to use yet.
People who aren't panicking point out the Knicks were 2-3 at this exact point last season too, and it worked out fine. Why treat this like new information? They're right that the record isn't a crisis. They're wrong if they think that means the slow starts don't matter. A team can be a legitimate title contender and still have a habit worth fixing, and letting a 1-4 team take a 19-point lead at home, sorry, on the road, is a habit. The Knicks are winning despite the slow starts. At some point this spring, the Finals MVP catching fire in the fourth won't be enough to erase a bad first three quarters.
RTGFor now, the people wringing their hands over "2-3 déjà vu" have the wrong target. The problem is that the champs keep spotting bad teams a double-digit lead before deciding to play like champs. Fix the start, and nobody's having this argument in a week. Keep ignoring it, and the record will stop bailing them out eventually, just not against this version of the Bulls.
