Heading into the weekend, the Knicks—and, more to the point, their fans—were at their highest point in eight years, arguably more, after winning Game Two of their Eastern Conference first-round series over the Atlanta Hawks. A thrilling win, led by former MVP-turned-savvy-veteran muse Derrick Rose, in front of a roaring, vibrating home crowd tied the series and sent it back to Atlanta with the Knicks only needing to win one of their two games to return to Madison Square Garden all tied up. Winning in Atlanta wasn’t expected to be much of a problem. After all, did you see that Garden crowd? Three-quarters of the fans for the road games will be Knicks fans!
Three days and two games later, the Knicks’ dream season lies in shambles, torn apart by a clearly more talented Hawks team and a State Farm Arena crowd that showed up and matched their Garden counterparts scream for scream. (Though perhaps not spit for spit.) Everything the Hawks tried was successful, and the Knicks could get nothing to work. Trae Young looked like he was going to be the Reggie Miller of this series, but Reggie Miller had to work like crazy to beat the old ‘90s Knicks: Young is doing whatever he wants, like the rest of the Hawks, and not having to sweat much to do it. Meanwhile, Julius Randle, a legitimate top 10 MVP candidate for most of the year, has been nothing but flopsweat and clanging jumpers for four games straight, and all the 3-point shooters who catapulted the Knicks into the No. 4 seed have gone silent. Only veterans Rose and Taj Gibson appear to have noticed the playoffs have begun. The two games in Atlanta were brutal for any Knicks fan to watch. This is what we were so excited about?
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As the Knicks stagger back home to try to avoid elimination on Wednesday night, it’s worth wondering whether this season—the most fun for Knicks fans since maybe Linsanity—will end up feeling like a bit of a fluke. The primary driver of the Knicks’ success this year was the quantum leap forward by Randle, who won the Most Improved Player award and was regularly serenaded at the Garden with chants of “MVP.” But the playoffs have exposed Randle as a bit of a regular-season curiosity,whose signature tricks were shut down by a team that could focus its playoff defense entirely on him. If Randle isn’t enough of a star to shine on the playoff stage rather than wither—and he sure doesn’t look like one yet—then suddenly the whole Knicks roster looks suspect. The Hawks have talent everywhere that the Knicks obviously lack, and it is definitely worrisome that the Knicks’ best two players in this series are in their 30s and will be free agents this offseason. Much of the hope for this Knicks playoff run rested on showing a proof-of-concept to potential disgruntled veterans who might force a trade to a suddenly-competent marquee franchise, even if meddling owner Jim Dolan always looms, ready to muck things up.
Which raises the scary question: What if this actually is the Knicks’ peak? Even if you brought this same team back for 2021-22, there are six teams you’d clearly put above them (Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Miami, Boston and Atlanta) and probably three or four others with more talent (Indiana, Toronto, Charlotte, maybe Chicago?). It’s difficult to imagine the Knicks being in any sort of position for a No. 4 seed for several seasons to come, short of a superstar like Damian Lillard or Kawhi Leonard forcing himself to NYC (which isn’t happening). New GM Leon Rose has shown a base level of competence that is deeply appreciated, but for all the cap space and promising young players like Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley, the Knicks look more likely to fall next year than to rise. Which means this year might have been as good as it’s going to get for a while for the Knicks. Which might be even more depressing than not having this season happen at all.
Just a couple of days after seemingly righting the ship, the Lakers are in trouble again. LeBron James and Anthony Davis asserted control, with a little help from Chris Paul’s injury, in Games Two and Three of the series, but the Suns grabbed it right back with a definitive 100-92 win in Los Angeles on Sunday. And the story was, once again, injuries. Paul was back, and while he wasn’t at 100 percent, he had 18 points, nine assists and zero turnovers, which was more than enough to spur the Suns past a Lakers team that lost Anthony Davis to a groin injury.
Davis is likely to be out for at least one game, which means, once again, everything is on LeBron. Famously, LeBron has never lost in the first round before, but now, with a wobbly ankle and a body that’s starting to show both its age (36) and recent wear and tear (remember, LeBron played deep into October in the bubble last year and had hardly any time off at all), he will have to pull back from the abyss just for the opportunity to not suffer the most humiliating loss of his career. It’s another reminder of the perils of the two-stars-together theory of roster construction: Lose one guy, in this case Davis, and you can careen off the rails fast.
It is possible that in four days, LeBron’s season will be over. It will not be his fault, but that will not stop it from being portrayed that way. Six months ago, LeBron was on top of the planet. Now he’s facing the most dangerous three-game stretch of the last half-decade of his career. Aging’s a tough racket.
Will Leitch is a contributing editor at New York Magazine, national columnist for MLB, a writer for Medium and the founder of Deadspin. Subscribe to his free weekly newsletter and buy his novel “How Lucky,” out from Harper Books now.