THE REGULAR season was supposed to be insignificant when it came to revealing anything substantial about the 1999-2000 Knicks. Their ups and downs, great games followed by bad games, and other battles with inconsistency were deemed irrelevant.
Jeff Van Gundy moaned about rebounding from the opening of training camp.
“Wait until the playoffs,” was the team’s collective response.
He worried about their consistency on offense.
“Wait until the playoffs,” they said.
That’s when the Knicks would be all they could be, an experienced team, waiting for the tournament to start before shifting into high gear.
It seemed to make sense only because of what happened last year when the Knicks went from 21-21 to the NBA Finals, becoming the first eighth seed to reach the championship round. A team that was largely dysfunctional during the lockout year became fluid and athletic in the playoffs, eliminating the Heat, sweeping the Hawks and upsetting the Pacers before falling to the Spurs in five games.
The post-season run became the Knicks’ crutch for much of this year, like when they were 8-8 after the first month of the season or beaten by the Nuggets in the Garden as they were in December, or on the nights when Vince Carter and the Raptors made them look slow and old.
“Wait until the playoffs,” we were told.
If we’ve learned anything from this Knicks-Heat series, it’s that the regular-season wasn’t so insignificant, after all. Give Heat coach Pat Riley and his players credit for their performance in this series. They’ve showed more grit, determination and competitive zeal than anyone could have expected.
But with Tim Hardaway playing virtually on one leg, the Knicks with more talent and healthier bodies had no business entering last night’s game down 3-2 and needing to win Game 6 at the Garden and then Game 7 in Miami to save their season.
The problems that plagued them during the regular season have been visible in this series. The lack of rebounding Van Gundy groaned about all year has hurt them against the Heat. After beating them in rebounding margin by 24 in last year’s playoff series, the Knicks have been out-rebounded by 40 going into last night’s game.
The inconsistencies of Allan Houston that sprouted during the year have carried over into the playoffs. His shooting percentage of .443 in last year’s playoffs is down to .416 and he hasn’t been the clutch player he was. No one has picked up the slack either. The offensive droughts we saw on nights when the Knicks couldn’t break 80 (nine times) were magnified by a resilient Heat defense.
Sweeping the Raptors in the first round offered a false sense of security that all those problems were solved. The Heat have proven that they weren’t. The Knicks we’ve seen in this series are not the Knicks we saw last year. They are not taking advantage of their speed by running in the open court, their athleticism is not the advantage it was a year ago when they were Just Ballin’ and creating problems for the opposition.
The Heat have turned them into the Just Crawlin’ Knicks, slowed down enough so that ancient warriors like Dan Majerle and Tim Hardaway can keep up. Brilliant coaching by Riley? Partly. But much of the problems lie within the Knicks.
Houston made the All-Star team this year, but hasn’t played like an All-Star in this series. Marcus Camby, who terrorized the Heat last year with his arms and agility, has hardly been a factor. Larry Johnson hasn’t enjoyed the fourth-quarter heroics he did in 1999. As a result the Knicks have struggled, finding themselves on the brink of being eliminated from the playoffs in the second round for the fifth time in six years.
They are paying the price for not caring as much as they should have during the regular season. There was never a sense of urgency. First …Third seed … Eighth seed: What’s the difference. That seemed to be the attitude.
Not winning the division didn’t hurt them in 1998 or 1999 when they eliminated the Heat in a deciding game at the Miami Arena. No one seemed to care that much when the Heat won the homecourt again by winning a fourth straight division title.
Now Game 7, if it gets that far, will be in Miami again where the Heat whipped the Knicks 87-81 Wednesday night in Game 5. The feel is not the same as it was a year ago. The Knicks aren’t the underdogs with nothing to lose. They are not a loose team.
Even their good games are not as impressive as they were a year ago. Are the Heat that much better? Or have the Knicks regressed and if so why?
Anything short of a victory in Game 6 and 7 and the Knicks will have the rest of the summer to ponder those questions.