The IQ Game

No player or team will admit it, but NOBODY wants to face these Knicks in the first round of the 2023 playoffs.

So, how you guys feeling? Birds chirping, sun shining? 

The Knicks have been awful for the better part of the past two decades, so there isn't much competition, but has there been a better, more enjoyable week for the franchise since the start of this century? 

On Monday, the Knicks blew out Boston at home, forcing Jayson Tatum to rage quit as a cherry on top in the waning minutes. 

On Wednesday, Jalen Brunson poured in 30 of the team's 81 first-half points en route to a brutal beat down of Brooklyn at MSG.

On Friday, with boisterous "Let's Go Knick" chants raining down in Miami, Julius Randle drained an incredible buzzer-beater, garnering a rare "Double Bang" from Mike Breen. 

On Sunday, Immanuel Quickley, starting in place of an injured Brunson, scored a career-high 38 points in a thrilling double-overtime victory in Boston, pushing the Knicks' win streak to nine. 

When I posed the question to Knicks Twitter late last night, most fans replied that the peak of Linsanity was the only moment that compares to what we just witnessed over the previous seven days. 

And as one commenter noted, this current run has Linsanity on the ropes! 

It's funny, Landry Fields, now the GM of the Atlanta Hawks, was being interviewed on NBA Radio earlier this week and was asked about his favorite Linsanity moment. Fields said it was the game-winner in Toronto. He explained that as he was standing in the corner, watching Lin waive away a Tyson Chandler screen to isolate at the top of the circle, Fields said he was 100% certain that the shot would drop. Fields had no doubt whatsoever that another miracle was on the way. 

I thought of those words last night while watching the Knicks take on the Celtics. About the conviction that something remarkable and improbable seemed inevitable. 

Midway through the third quarter, Grant Williams hit a deep three to give Boston a 77-63 lead. 

As noted above, the Knicks were playing without their starting PG and on-court leader. Randle was struggling a bit. Grimes wasn't doing anything. 

Down 13 points on the road to an uber-talented Celtics team desperate for a win, Boston fans surely felt confident they were about to snap the Knicks' eight-game winning streak. 

But someone forgot to tell Quickley that New York was supposed to fold.