What should be most obvious about these Knicks by now is that the moment you want to paint them into a corner in order to declare who they are — They’re contenders! They’re pretenders! They’re Finals bound! They’re frauds! — is exactly the moment when they will all but openly laugh at you and reply:
“Oh, ya think so, eh?”
We are back on the express elevator for now. The Knicks spent the first eight minutes of this Sunday matinee with the Spurs looking like they were going to get run out of the gym in front of 19,812 Garden denizens and one of the most star-spangled Celebrity Row rosters of the year.
It was 19-7 then. The Knicks couldn’t buy a basket. They looked a half-step slow on defense on those possessions when it wasn’t a full-step slow. It felt like one of those games when San Antonio was going to show the Knicks what a genuine contender looks like, plays like, feels like — one of those afternoons when the Knicks would be left wanting.