CLEVELAND — Well, then. So this is the kind of effort we see from the Knicks when they clinch a spot in the 16-team NBA playoff tournament, when they qualify for the right to play either Chicago or Miami, when they achieve the bare minimum of their seasonal goals.
Perish to think what will happen if they should ever win their first playoff game since 2001. Or their first playoff series since 2000. What will we get then? Champagne? Parades? Holidays? Because this was the thing that was impossible to escape if you grinded your way through all 48 minutes of this indifferent 98-90 loss to the 21-41 Cavaliers:
This is a team that sure acts like it’s accomplished something.
“Disappointing,” was the word that Carmelo Anthony used but his coach, Mike Woodson, opted for a more appropriate adjective.
“Unacceptable,” Woodson said. “Completely unacceptable.”
It was that. It was unacceptable and uninspired and unfulfilling, and if it doesn’t completely wash away all this team has done in rallying from 8-15 to the postseason, it doesn’t exactly lay the groundwork for any kind of belief that these lockout Knicks can make any kind of noise resembling the 1999 lockout Knicks. They didn’t just play poorly, they mailed the game in.
And this team simply hasn’t done enough, hasn’t achieved enough, to earn the right to put a postage stamp on anything.
What’s worse, of course, is the fact that the Knicks aren’t a typical team who can argue that a comp day is ample reward for the playoff grind to come. If they want to actually become a basketball team worthy of anyone’s attention, they’re going to have to learn to incorporate Amar’e Stoudemire back into the rotation.
And make no mistake: What last night proved most of all was just how far Soudemire has to go between now and next weekend, when the Knicks will either be in South Beach or Chicago’s West Side, severe underdogs no matter the dateline.
Stoudemire’s numbers were colored by the rust that was all over his game: 15 points (on 5-for-11 shooting) but only three rebounds, five fouls — he struggled defensively from the go — and three turnovers that sure felt like generous scorekeeping by the Cavaliers’ stat crew. Truthfully, that’s about all you could expect following a three-week sabbatical.
But it looked worse. Much worse. Part of that was the step-slow play by just about everyone wearing a blue uniform. Anthony, universally brilliant for almost all of the 13 games Stoudemire missed, only scored 12 points and only played 29 minutes and never seemed to get his rhythm. Tyson Chandler only took three shots, only grabbed eight rebounds. The Knicks were outrebounded by the sinful total of 52-32.
And they just didn’t look … well, right.
Do you want to give them a mulligan? If you want. But as Woodson said: “We only have so many games to get this right.”
And he’s correct about that; tomorrow in Atlanta, Wednesday against the Clippers and Thursday at Charlotte; that’s all that stands between them and a postseason they suddenly don’t look ready for.
Not unless they show something, and soon. Tomorrow in Atlanta would be a splendid place to start.
“I feel great,” Stoudemire reported at night’s end, and that’s wonderful, and it was the only piece of good news that greeted the Knicks on yet another empty trip to Quicken Loans Arena, where they have now lost 10 straight games — the last four against some woeful Cavs teams across the last two seasons.
The Knicks can’t feel great, not after this calamity, not looking at what they’re staring at across the next few days. Over the past couple of days there seemed to be legitimate concerns brewing around this team that adding Stoudemire to the mix could alter the delicate chemistry that had developed in his absence.
That should be a foolish concern, the same as re-inserting Melo in the mix post-Linsanity should have been a foolish concern. But until proven otherwise, it’ll be hard to quell that discontent. And should be.