Delusion, thy name is Knickerbocker.
The Knicks could not hold a 17-point lead against a way-south-of-.500 Cavs team Sunday. And that was despite being at home and the Cavs being without All-Star Game MVP Kyrie Irving.
And now the Knicks are embarking on a five-game Western Conference road trip where their playoff lives likely hang in the balance.
So naturally, they are talking sweep.
“We got to move on and we got to do a good job on this West Coast trip and try to come away with a clean sweep,” Tyson Chandler said.
“Tough loss, it’s one that we definitely wanted. But you’ve got to put it behind us,” Raymond Felton said. “We’re still right there. We’ve got to get on this road trip and try to get all these games”
“It was like a getaway game for us to get us set up for the road and we didn’t close it out,” coach Mike Woodson said. “We have to go out on the road and try to win all five if we can.”
Yeah, good luck with that. Phoenix and Golden State await on the trip and even non-betting men are not liking the chances.
Still, the Knicks are talking 5-0. “A clean sweep … Get all these games … Win all five.”
You got to admit, there have been rosier outlooks in sports than what the Knicks face.
They have the toughest remaining schedule of any team in the East. Of their 12 games, eight are on the road and nine are against teams with winning records. Their tragic number had dwindled to 10 entering Monday night, so any combination of Hawks wins or Knicks losses totaling 10 means elimination. To reach 38 wins, which some project as the minimum required for the playoffs, the Knicks (29-41) need to finish 9-3.
And that assumes 38 wins is enough.
“We can’t worry about how many wins it’s going to take,” Carmelo Anthony said. “We got to go play.”
Grim enough for you? Oh, throw in the fact they start that five-game trip Tuesday in Los Angeles against the Lakers. Not that the Lakers are in any great shape — you have a better chance of seeing the Zombie Apocalypse next month than seeing the Lakers in the playoffs. But the Knicks wouldn’t mind having their home court to help them through it, even if they are supposed to touch base in L.A. with team president Phil Jackson.
Not that the Garden paid any dividends Sunday when the Knicks suffered one of their worst losses this season, a 106-100 defeat to the Cavs that ended a feel-good eight-game winning streak. The Knicks led by 17 points in the first half. But in the second half, they couldn’t score. In the second half, they couldn’t stop Cleveland from scoring. Other than offense and defense, the Knicks were solid.
“This road trip is crucial for us,” Anthony said. “We wanted to [beat Cleveland], just get out on the road on a positive note, but as of late, we’ve been playing great basketball, and we don’t want to take that away from us. We want to take that momentum onto this road trip and see what happens from there.”
So the only number the Knicks really look at is one, as in one game, the next one — except, when they’re looking at this five-game trip.
“We got to keep wining and take it one game at a time. We have a tough road trip ahead with a lot of games in a short period,” Amar’e Stoudemire said.
Actually, maybe getting on the road is a good thing. No need to be reminded of the stench caused from Sunday’s game. What made that defeat so tough to take was that the Knicks knew going in Atlanta lost. And now instead of being two games behind the Hawks, they reside four games back in the loss column.
“Before [Cleveland], I thought we had a chance of winning out,” Chandler said. “So I still feel that way.”