I Guess the Sixers' Part Will Be Played by the Knicks This Year
AU on the 'Bockers stealing our playoff pointlessness swag this postseason.
This first round of the NBA playoffs has been a pretty good reminder that even when the Sixers are eliminated long before the second season starts, the ghosts of Sixers postseasons past are still pretty much everywhere you look. Jimmy Butler being annoyingly indispensable in Golden State. Tobias Harris being weirdly productive in Detroit. JJ Redick trying to jump straight to being an irate grizzled old lifer coach in Los Angeles, despite being a sideline rookie who still looks like he's steamed about missing the varsity water polo team. I think Alec Burks is maybe still around somewhere? Couldn't say for sure. But the biggest ongoing reminder of the Sixers' playoff impotence is, of course, the understudy play of the New York Knicks.
Buzz in when this sounds familiar: Coming off a second-round elimination last year against a team they really should've beat, and following the addition of some talented but questionable-fitting and perhaps over-spent-on players, the Knicks had a regular season heavy on wins but short on true inspiration. This week, they survived a first-round scare against a good-but-not-like-good team that they beat in six, but probably could've finished off a little quicker. And who do they get to face in the second round? The Boston Celtics, of course, who are a deeper, more playoff-proven team, and who absolutely dominated the season series against them.
We're mixing and matching Sixers vintages here, of course -- a bit of 2019, a bit of 2023, a whole lot of 2022. But the beats will generally be familiar to Process Trusters -- as, of course, will the moaning of the Knicks' fanbase, who seems pretty well out on everyone associated with this team except for (maybe) Mike Breen and Walt "Clyde" Frazier. You'd think it'd maybe take Knicks fans a couple more seasons to get to such a crispy point of doneness with their team -- we suffered through this five times in six seasons, after all -- but it appears two straight second-round exits with a third presumably on its way has proven more than sufficient. Fair enough, I suppose; can't blame them for recognizing the patterns of true futility a little earlier than we did.
Some Sixers fans may take particular joy in the Knicks following in our path to playoff oblivion. I know FOTB Jason Lipshutz is rooting for the Knicks' failure above all else this postseason, even if it means cheering for Boston in the second round. I cannot get there, of course, nor do I wish the Knicks any more ill than any of the other East teams I hate for wrongs major or minor perpetrated against the Sixers over the years. But I guess I am in some way enjoying another East team and fanbase coming to know the joys of being just less than good enough, of having predictable character flaws that will invariably show through at the worst possible times, of having a coach and a bench you can't trust and the fucking Celtics always waiting just around the bend to remind you about all these failings. Of coming to know The Long Offseason, and of bracing the idea of having to do this all again next year and knowing it'll likely end the same way. Probably all still preferable to missing the playoffs by 20 games, but after seven years of this specific shit, it's nice to have this all be someone else's story for once.
And in truth, a large part of me feels like even this season, the Knicks are way better off this postseason than the Sixers ever were. The fans are too busy being pisssed off at them for blowing their Game Six lead in the first place to notice or care, but that was a pretty gutty win to come back from down seven in the final two and a half minutes against the Pistons. And though Jalen Brunson certainly had his struggles, particularly late, he still ended up with 40 and the go-ahead three with four seconds left to put the game away. More than the shot, it was the sureness I felt that he was going to make it as soon as he got the look that felt extremely non-Sixers-y. We can hope that Tyrese Maxey or Jared McCain or even Quentin Grimes gets there someday, but it's certainly something we've never really known to this point.
But all the Jalen Brunson magic (and Josh Hart voodoo) in the world probably won't make a ton of difference against the C's. The Knicks will hit some clutch shots, perhaps steal a game in Boston, maybe even push this thing to six or seven, but they will ultimately come to the same realization as the Sixers have -- when you're looking to get to a later save point in the playoffs than you've ever previously reached, the Celtics are the last level boss you want to be standing in your way. I don't know if seeing the Knicks hit their head hard against that ceiling will make me feel all that much better about our own seven years of noggin-bumping, but at least it'll make the cruelty of it all seem a little less karmically personal -- and remind me that there are some benefits to the Sixers having bowed out of the drama this year before it even began.
Andrew Unterberger writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey as Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard.
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