Knicks keep eyes on standings as regular season draws to close
The Knicks' Donte DiVincenzo celebrates with Jalen Brunson, right, during the second half of an NBA game against the Bucks on Sunday in Milwaukee. Credit: AP/Aaron Gash
CHICAGO — When the Knicks took the court Sunday night in Milwaukee, they were reeling. They had suffered four losses in the last five games, digested the news that Julius Randle was gone for the season and were in danger of slipping back into the play-in tournament.
It didn’t get better for a while as the Knicks trailed the Bucks by 11 at halftime. But in 24 minutes of action in the second half, they turned things around, including maybe their season.
The Knicks suddenly found their identity, with most of their overachieving cast of characters hustling frantically around the floor and Jalen Brunson providing another superstar scoring performance en route to 43 points. When the night was over, the Knicks were one game behind the Bucks for the second seed in the Eastern Conference and tied for third with the Magic.
Before the game, even coach Tom Thibodeau, who preaches focusing on the task at hand, said he was watching the standings. “Yeah, it’s your business,” he said. “I think you need to know exactly where we are, what’s going on, but also to make sure that you’re just focused on today. And so you understand what goes into each and every day, put everything you have into it, and then tomorrow is tomorrow. Then you deal with that then.”
Where the Knicks are is tough to figure, even with the season down to four games for them. The Knicks’ remaining schedule starts Tuesday in Chicago against the Bulls and the road trip finishes in Boston on Thursday before they head home to face the Nets and the Bulls.
“We focus on where we are and controlling what we can control,” Brunson said. “Obviously, we know where we are, but we just got to control what we can control and go from there.”
Here is the simplest math for the Knicks: If they can win their final four games, the lowest they will finish is third and they will hold home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Orlando and Milwaukee will play each other twice, so if the Knicks win all four, they will gain ground on one of those teams, both of which hold a tiebreaker over the Knicks.
The Bucks also are home against Boston and on the road against Oklahoma City. The Magic also have two road games vs. Houston and Philadelphia.
If the Knicks can win out, any loss by Orlando would push the Knicks ahead of them. They would need two Milwaukee losses to jump the Bucks.
While the Knicks don’t have Randle, OG Anunoby has returned to the lineup and already has begun to round into defensive form, as has Mitchell Robinson, who blocked three shots Sunday. Orlando’s Franz Wagner left Sunday’s game with a sprained right ankle and is listed as questionable for Tuesday’s game at Houston.
“I have no idea what day it is,” Thibodeau said. “It’s the best time of the year. If you love competition — and I think even the way everything is structured right now, I think the play-in, the idea behind that was really good. It’s made it fascinating down the stretch, because you have to have a lot of different schools of thought and understand the intensity that’s involved in these games right now. And it’s across the board. You have teams that everyone is fighting for something right now.”
Knicks fined
The league announced that the Knicks have been fined $25,000 for violating league injury reporting rules. The Knicks failed to accurately disclose Robinson’s game availability status before their March 27 game against the Raptors when he was listed as out in the morning.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
