The regular season and play-in don’t mean shit right now. Ask the Warriors. And the Bucks. And the Griz. And the Kings.

Did we have a “realistic” chance to win the series? Sure. On paper. But now that we are 4 games in, there are no illusions. They are not just better than us. They are the better team from top to bottom, all things considered. There is nothing flukey about what they are doing, on either end.

Should we have been favored? No way. Let’s keep in mind that the Vegas line is based on what bettors are anticipated to think. The Heat don’t give a shit about what Vegas thinks.

We’re seeing the importance of:
a) having legit 2-way superstars (they have 2, we have 0),
b) having playoff experience beyond the first round (they have oodles, we have a meager amount), and,
c) coaching (they have the very best in the business, we have a second-level guy.)

If you really want to buy into that, then what even is the point of this current Knicks team, if you think they don’t even have a realistic chance against the Heat, who barely made the playoffs?

The Knicks were favored in Vegas to win the series. It’s bullshit.

Looks like yet another season of Thibs “overachieving” but running aground because he “doesn’t have the horses.” Even though he has a big say in picking the horses, and entire say in how many minutes each horse plays.

One of the all-time greatest South Park episodes is “Stanley’s Cup,” where Stan has to become the coach of a pee-wee hockey team, and everyone treats him like he’s this stereotypical coach right out of the movies, to the point where the parents of a kid on the team who has cancer wants Stan to tell their son he’s dying. When Stan says that that sounds like something the father should handle himself, the dad tells him, “Nah, I’m just his father, but you’re his coach, you’re like a father to him.” Hilariously messed up.

Anyhow, that’s exactly how crazy all of this, “You can’t expect the Knicks to beat the Heat!” stuff sounds like to me. Like, whatever, in general, I’m just happy the Knicks won a series at all (and this series obviously isn’t over yet), but come the heck on with this stuff. The Heat got their asses kicked in the play-in game by the Hawks, then nearly lost the second play-in game to the super-mediocre Bulls. That we’re supposed to now say, “Nah, you can’t expect the Knicks to be able to beat the Heat” is bonkers to me. You can say the Heat are better than a typical #8 seed, sure, but that we can’t realistically expect the Knicks to beat them? Come on. The Heat had a negative SRS this season!

If you really want to buy into that, then what even is the point of this current Knicks team, if you think they don’t even have a realistic chance against the Heat, who barely made the playoffs?

No one can do it all the time. Most coaches can do it some of the time. Thibs does it none of the time.

That made me chuckle!

Does the LA arena have 3 levels of luxury boxes?

Yes, there are almost no regular seats left. (I figured msg had gone a similar way, but haven’t been there in 18 years. Is Dolan missing the boat on corporate tax write-offs cum luxury boxes?)