If you’re a long-suffering Knicks fan, you understand the premise.
You understand the pain, frustration, thrill and angst you experience from rooting for the orange and blue for decades.
You remain bewildered by this team’s continued inability to guard the pick-and-roll that Indiana implements without resistance and guards so easily on defense.
You yell and curse at the television along with millions of other troubled fans who know what’s going to happen and are powerless to do anything about it.
If you’re a young Knicks fan who hasn’t fully suffered through decades of sadness, excitement, heartache, anger, joy and devastation, then Tuesday night’s Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals was your introduction to the club those of us of a certain age have already paid a lifetime membership to.
I have railed for years about coach Thibedeau being unable to teach the Knicks to guard the pick and roll and in this series, it’s not only evident that he continues to have no understanding of how to guard the play, but that the Pacers are using it almost every time down the floor because the Knicks are absolutely clueless on how to stop it.
Despite this failure, the Knicks, as they have during the entire 2024-25 playoffs, rallied to close the deficit and briefly take the lead.
They did this in the second quarter before relinquishing the short-term lease on the lead they had fought for thanks to miscommunication and timely threes from the Pacers.
Another issue for fans is the franchise’s habit of allowing struggling players to morph into All-Stars in crucial games.
In Game 4, that player was Bennedict Mathurin. Before Tuesday night, Mathurin had scored 11 points total in the series’s three games. So in the pivotal Game 4, New York, of course, let him explode for 20 points, including 10 points from the free throw line.
In a nine-point loss, Mathurin’s 20 points essentially gave the Pacers the win.
The Knicks also have a history of enabling a villain to emerge and flourish. From the Celtics in the 80s, to Michael Jordan, Tim Hardaway and of course, Reggie Miller, the Knicks always allow one player to carve out a special role as the “Knick killer”, one who snatches their heart in big games.
The new villain is All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton.
In Game 1, he flashed the Reggie Miller choke gesture after tying the game and sending it to overtime. In Game 4, he went off with a history-making triple-double (32 points, 10 rebounds, 15 assists) without committing a single turnover.
But even with his incredible night, the Knicks were in the game.
Until they weren’t.
