If we win, the series is tied and becomes a 3-game series with two at MSG. Advantage Knicks. Obviously they can still blow it, but it does reset the series. It would be a reprive, but not a vindication. Nothing short of winning the series and then going on to win the next one would suffice for vindication, and even that might come up short. But it’s a must win if ever there was one.

If we lose, the series is almost surely lost and the entire Leon era runs into a brick wall and crashes and burns. There will be no way to sugar-coat the outcome. I don’t think he gets fired, but you could certainly justify it. Brown will probably be shitcanned, but he’s only partly to blame. The stage will be set for flailing away at the big names out there…Giannis, Kerr, etc.

This is why I have felt all season that the regular season was virtually meaningless and that I couldn’t judge this season until after the playoffs. And here we are. Buckle up!

If this team were a TV show, Alan would have given up covering it a long time ago because there’s no character development and the writers keep recycling the same dumb plot.

This team is Dexter.