Ninety seconds into second half of last night’s 112-98 Knick win in Atlanta, cosplay analyst Reggie Miller declared the Hawks were “on a heater.” In that minute and a half, they’d scored five points, cutting a 14-point deficit to nine.
Reggie Miller is full of shit. Was as a player, is as an announcer. He gets away with it because no one who works with him really cares. His name and his game are his CV. And we’re stuck with it. There’s too much bullshit everywhere to know where to start shoveling.
Had the Knicks lost, they’d have nearly completed digging their own grave. Instead the series is all square heading back to New York for Tuesday’s Game 5. If you know anything about the 1960 World Series, you know one team can dominate a series and still lose. That’s been the story this series, with CJ McCollum twice reprising the role Bill Mazeroski made famous.
For once the Knicks won a playoff game without any real tension or drama. The Hawks only lead of the game was a one-point edge in its early days; the Knicks were up double-digits most of the way. Besides OG Anunoby, no Knick played more than 34 minutes, yet heroes abounded.
I’m focusing on Towns today because I’m still trying to make sense of the bizarre points Reggie Miller kept making. A major pet peeve of mine (is that redundant?) is when sports media people say stuff like “People don’t realize how Jalen Johnson is.” Of course we do. Millions of us do. He was a first-round draft pick, is now an All-Star and by the end of his current contract will have earned over $160 million. We know who he is.
After a nice drive by Towns, Miller went there: “Everybody just thinks he’s a stretch big.” Naz Reid is a stretch big. Steve Novak was a stretch big. Wanna go way back? Terry Mills. KAT’s two years in New York have seen his 3-point rate fall to its lowest since the Knicks’ leading scorers were Kevin Knox, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Emmanuel Mudiay. Towns is a six-time All-Star who led the league in defensive rebounds this season and finished just two behind Ivica Zubac last season. We know who he is.
The undersized Hawks know, too. Five years ago when these teams met in April the Mitchell Robinson-less Knicks showed up to a knife fight with Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson. Now Atlanta’s the team looking light up top. Towns led both teams in points and assists, had only two turnovers, tied OG Anunoby for most rebounds and got to the line nine times. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen him push this team over the finish line in a bit spot. It won’t be the last.
The third (but by no means final) stupid thing Miller came in the fourth, after Towns set a pick and Dyson Daniels collided with maybe his solar plexus? Once playing football I got completely flipped over my head in mid-air and came down hard on the ball pointing upwards, right into my solar plexus. For one moment, the weirdness and intensity of the pain swelled into my whole universe. I couldn’t talk or think or process; all I could do was hurt. A lot. After the Daniels collision, Miller noted, sagaciously, “Towns instantly knew it, too.”
Evidently KAT’s nerves are working just fine. Hopefully his team’s are better, too, after a win that was as convincing as the Knicks have had in a while. Humans are humans, we never know what goes on behind the scenes in the lives and interactions of these athletes we follow, but I couldn’t help watching the intensity New York played with last night and think, “If they’d just play like this every night, they’d win it all. Why don’t they play like this all the time?”
That question applies to Towns as much as any New York athlete I’ve watched since Jorge Julio. In one first-half stretch he committed an absurd offensive foul, missed an uncontested lay-up when he was alone under the basket, rebounded it but missed the five-foot follow. What came next? A gorgeous off-hand and-one high off the glass. Soon after he made another tough Euro/hesi runner, right before his best sequence of the night: joining the offense as the trailer, wide-open for his favorite 3, only instead he dished to a cutting Josh Hart, who found OG in the corner, who swung to Brunson for the uncontested triple.
Certainly helped that Mike Brown was willing to sit Mikal Bridges the last 20 minutes in favor of Deuce McBride. I remember when Quentin Grimes seemed pointed toward a role in the starting backcourt, only he seemed too timid or unsure how to run with it. Immanuel Quickley did not. Neither did McBride.
I’m not saying Bridges is timid. I’m saying we have two years of evidence that replacing him with Deuce is like Popeye getting his spinach.
I don’t sports-hate Bridges at all. But even last season he struck me as ideal coming off the bench — better for the team and for him, letting him get going offensively against non-starters. I don’t care how many late first-round picks he cost. He may be their least essential starter, but he’s still a good player who does a lot for them. If they’re getting to or winning the Finals, they need Bridges.
Quoth The Antisola: “[KAT] was fantastic.” If this year ends up as a success, that’ll mean KAT was fantastic much of the rest of the way. I’d like to project he and the Knicks to have figured out everything they needed to after Game 3, and that they roll over the Hawks the next two games. I’m afraid he’ll commit two dumb fouls in the first 90 seconds of Game 5 and have to go to the bench. Machiavelli said it’s better to be feared than loved. If that’s the case, I’m afraid I’ll never love Towns as much as I’d like to.
But Machiavelli’s dead! Worm food long ago. Towns and the Knicks are still very much alive. Hopefully that’s the feeling they’ll leave their fans with after tomorrow’s Game 5.
