It was Bill Parcells who famously said that you are what your record says you are. Except with the Knicks. They\u2019re still operating as if they are what last year\u2019s record says they are. Or were. It\u2019s one of the reasons they\u2019ve arrived in November looking as if they\u2019re still hungover.<\/p>\n
It was also Parcells, who said really smart things all the time and still does, who said that it wasn\u2019t his job to take his team\u2019s temperature for the media every single day. No worries about that with our Knicks, even just six games into this and even with their defense of that silly NBA Cup \u2014 oh no! \u2014 looking like a problem. The media is taking the Knicks temperature after all four losses so far and two wins, as if practically every possession \u2014 or missed Jalen Brunson shot \u2014 is a referendum on whether or not they can do it again.<\/p>\n
It was Josh Hart, team spokesman and all-around truth teller with the Knicks, who said this after the 76ers did it to them again on Friday night, this time in Philly:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all feel the fatigue. We\u2019ve got to fight through it. Six games in, but we have to find a way to make sure we get our bodies ready to play every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Brunson had some fun with that, saying this in response to another \u2018Nova Knick:<\/p>\n
\u201cJosh says he feels fatigue. So Josh is as old as s\u2013t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brunson didn\u2019t look old on Friday night against the 76ers. Just off, a beat behind the music, the way he has in just about every game so far, absent that rousing finish against the Bulls the other night in Chicago. The leader of the band was 8-for-22 from the field, 3-for-10 shooting 3\u2019s. In what is of course a crazy small and early sample Brunson (coming back from wrist surgery) is shooting 40% from the field through six games, his 3-point percentage is 32.5%. Even his free throw percentage is down from 84% to 76 right now.<\/p>\n
He did make a big 3-pointer to get the Knicks ahead on Friday night, 90-89, with around 90 seconds left. They had come back against the 76ers the way they had come all the way back from much further back to beat the Bulls, at which point this season finally did look like last season.<\/p>\n
But then LeBron James \u2014 once again That Guy down the stretch \u2014 made a fallaway in the lane with OG Anunoby crawling all over him again, the kind of shot that once again made LeBron act as if he\u2019d forgotten what year it is. Brunson missed a right-side jumper, V.J. Edgecombe buried a three at the other end. It was 94-90, Sixers, with half-a-minute left. Knicks timeout. They came out of it and Brunson fell down, got a call against Edgecombe, but only could make the first of two free throws.<\/p>\n
It was still 94-91 and here they came again. Once again Tyrese Maxey, for whom the Knicks still don\u2019t have an answer, was flying again. But Maxey missed this time. Only there was the 41-year-old James tipping the ball home and it was 96-91 with 11 seconds and change left and the Sixers were about to do it to the Knicks again, just as they had on Opening Night at the Garden. It wasn\u2019t the kind of flying tip for the ages from LeBron that OG had made in the Finals. It just got the job done. Once again the 76ers were just a little bit better at the end of October. No Knick was close to being the best player on the court in the fourth quarter because LeBron was, finishing with 20 points and nine rebounds and eight assists, knocking on the door of another triple-double as he did the most to knock out the champs on this night.<\/p>\n
The Knicks started out 0-3. Now they\u2019re 2-4. It\u2019s the same record as the Heat, who started out 0-4 with Giannis and had everybody in a full panic in South Florida, even with 78 games left to play.<\/p>\n