During the early to mid-1990s, the Knicks were a whole lot of fun to watch because they were such a good team that every night they had a really good chance of winning. The NBA is one of those leagues where the better team almost always wins (that’s why the gambling is about the point spread, not the who will win) and the Knicks were as good as anyone. That was a lot of fun – a consistent good team is awesome.
These Knicks, however, are more like a mediocre team. Mediocre teams win their fair share of games, don’t get me wrong. A player gets hot, someone surprises, stuff like that. So they’ll look great one night and awful another night. It is not as fun to watch and I think building a mediocre team is a bad idea. However, on a pure case of “What does this mean for Brian’s chances of enjoying the basketball game tonight?”, mediocre teams are better than awful teams because mediocre teams will give you the occasional amazing game. Remember David Lee’s last second game-winning tip in? Jamal Crawford’s 52 point game? Mediocre teams can give you some great moments.
In other words, don’t count the Knicks out tonight against a good Toronto team in Toronto. Toronto is also on the second half of a back-to-back (they played a tough game against Charlotte last night – they won). DeMar DeRozan is red hot, but I still like the Knicks’ chances tonight.
Let’s go, Knicks!