A quarter and change into the season, the Knicks are so-so. They are win-one, lose-won, win-two, lose-two. They are sea level. They are even Steven. They are .500.
They are 11-11.
They are a puzzle.
“We started slowly,” coach Tom Thibodeau said after the Knicks threw a scare into the Bulls, erased a 21-point deficit, took a late lead, then stepped aside, 119-115 — another near-miss, another close-sans-stogie, another bewildering night at the home gym in a season that is already stuffed with them.
“There was frustration and it’s so hard to play when you’re frustrated.”
The Knicks are right on the Eastern Conference cut line, tied for 10th with the 76ers for the time being, technically ahead thanks to a 2-0 record against Philly so far this year. They were 5-1 at one point. But they are 6-10 since. They are unable to get out of their own way at Madison Square Garden, where a packed house saw them fall to a hard-to-fathom 5-7 on the season.
They have made a troubling habit of playing games precisely like this one, games where they spend so much of the early portion looking like the very worst versions of themselves, then spending so much energy — along with copious amounts of heart — that even with the encouragement of a sellout crowd there’s not enough left in the tank at the end.
Happened Tuesday in Brooklyn. Happened Thursday at the Garden. Happens way too often.
“We need to stop digging holes,” Evan Fournier said.
For so long Thursday night it looked like the Bulls might try to do to the Knicks what the Grizzlies did to the Thunder in Memphis, handing them a 152-79 beating that looks like a typo every time you stare at it. The Bulls did race to a 37-17 lead in the first quarter that ballooned to 65-44 with just over two minutes left in the half. Taj Gibson drew two quick moving screen calls and two quicker technicals, ending his night after three minutes, further thinning the Knicks’ options.
Yet when Alec Burks made a 3 with 8:12 left in the game, the Knicks had climbed all the way back to 97-97. When Julius Randle twice made lovely offensive moves underneath, the Knicks actually took one-point leads, at 106-105 and at 108-107.
TV viewers at home had seen Randle and Fournier engaged in a lively argument as they walked off the court — which Randle later described as a debate about rebounding — but now everyone was happy, everyone was caught up in the moment, everyone thought there might finally be an ending that goes properly for the Knicks …
Except right now, it doesn’t happen that way for the Knicks.
Middling record. Middling team.
“We’ll find it,” Randle insisted. He spent times on both extremes Thursday night, turning in a fine 30-point, 12-rebound, six-assist night but also missing a couple of killer free throws late in the game and turning the ball over seven — seven! — times.
“Too many,” he grumbled, shaking his head.
The last one was the worst one, Randle with the ball, just under a minute to play, the game tied 111-111, the Garden ready to unload, send the Bulls back to O’Hare without a plane. But Alex Caruso — who seemed to play every defensive possession with an extra hand, maybe two, Thursday night — took the ball away. Zach LaVine made two foul shots.
And that was that.
“We have to understand we have to be more consistent and get guys healthy,” Randle said, referring mostly to RJ Barrett, who missed the game with an illness. “But we’ll be fine. A great run could put us at the top of the East in two weeks. We just have to have a sense of urgency.”
They may well be owed a great run. Their fans are certainly owed that sense of urgency, especially the ones who have seen them become an inexplicably bad team within the friendly confines of Penn Plaza. They do come at you with a lot of heart. They do offer you thrills in games that so often look headed for garbage time.
It’s what middling teams do. It’s what .500 teams do. It’s what 11-11 teams do. Win one, lose one. Offer hope, offer despair. Up. Down. That great run would come in handy right about now.
