It can never be normal, can it?
There always has to be a dollop of torture. There always has to be a villain doing villainy things. There always seem to be a whole lot of blown free throws, and maybe a dumb technical, and a couple of coaching decisions that make you want to throw your sneaker at the TV screen if you’re not at the Garden, or boo till your throat spasms if you are.
In theory, the Knicks have plenty of time left to recover from this return to Gag City, this 107-106 Garden gargle of a choke that left an arena devastated and a series headed for cruise control knotted at 1-1 instead. In theory, the Knicks still look like the better team, and have played like the better team for 7 ½ quarters so far.
But in theory, the Knicks are an unassailable fourth-quarter team, too. Whatever other issues dogged them this year, they were always reliable closers, losing only two games in which they took a lead into the fourth quarter.
