It took a fan knocking down a 3-point shot for big bucks to finally get the faithful fully engaged at the break between the third and fourth quarters. It took Immanuel Quickley channeling Caitlin Clark to finally allow the 19,812 inside Madison Square Garden to breathe properly. It will take something else to make this all feel normal again.
It will take Jalen Brunson out of civvies and back in a uniform to do that.
The Knicks got the NBA equivalent of a bye Monday night at the Garden, allowing the Wembanyamapalooza-bound Rockets to hang around for a half-and-a-half before throttling them 137-115. Quickley was remarkable, hitting 14 out of 18 shots and pouring in 40 points while adding nine assists. And the Knicks looked sharper than they’ve been lately on offense, piling up 35 assists on 50 made baskets.
(The defense? Yeah. You can continue to sweat about that. This was lunchtime-at-the-Y-level D for both teams.)
Coupled with a productive weekend, both the Nets and Heat helpfully losing, the Knicks have had themselves a feel-good couple of days.
“Winning solves a lot of things,” Quickley said. “Winning makes everyone feel better.”
They will feel better once Brunson is back.
“Over the course of a season guys get nicked up,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said before the game, just before it was announced that Brunson would miss his second game in a row and eighth of the last 11 overall. “I think they know how to play through things. Just take care of the ball. That’s one of the things I think as a team we’ve done very well all season long. It’s a big part of winning.”
A bigger part is being whole when you most need to be whole. The Knicks probably could have beaten the Rockets if they’d dressed Kevin Bacon, Chris Rock, Edie Falco and the rest of a crowded celebrity row and given a few other regulars the night off, too. Winning the game — this game, after three straight losses — was important.
“Every game,” RJ Barrett said, “is a must-win.”
More of a must is getting Brunson back. This is the flip side of all the energy Brunson has brought to the Knicks this year, all the leadership, all the fourth-quarter savvy and toughness and leadership, all the times he’s taken charges and dived after loose balls like he was trying to impress the coaches enough to make the freshman basketball team.
All of that was superb, sublime, splendid.
But this is what you get now: a fundamental and daily wonderment about both his availability and his sustainability. Monday began a critical three-day stretch of the season: first the lowly Rockets and Wednesday the Heat, lurking like trench soldiers just behind the Knicks in the standings.
This will be a thing from now on, of course. Will he play or won’t he? Can he go or can’t he?
Is he 100 percent? Ninety? Seventy-five? Less?
It is clear there will be a Brunson Question from here to the end of the season, however long that lasts, because with Brunson at or near full strength the Knicks have shown themselves capable of beating every team in the NBA.
If he’s out, or if he’s compromised?
That’s too disturbing a thought for the Knicks to think about. They are 6-5 during Brunson’s 11 absences thanks to various bumps and bruises to his ankle, his knee, his wrist. They can win a game here, a game there, without him. But for them to make the Garden hum again in April, they need to have the shelves fully stocked.
And that means Brunson running the show, at the same All-Star level at which he’s played most of the season. Quickley having a night like this was fun, undoubtedly. But he is far more dangerous coming off the bench. The Knicks are far more lethal when he rises and trundles to the scorer’s table six minutes into a game, rather than getting introduced with the starting five.
“You don’t replace a guy like Jalen with an individual player,” Thibodeau said. “You do it with a team.”
It helps when the other team last played a meaningful game around Halloween. Wednesday it’s the Heat. Wednesday, the Knicks have to hope the game-time decision yields a whole team in what is sure to be the most anticipated game of the year to date. They need to be whole. Brunson makes them whole.
