New York Knicks In Middle of Toughest Stretch this Season

It’s been a solid start to the season for the New York Knicks, who sat at 15-15 Christmas Day. But after a loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday night, they began their toughest stretch of the season.

With how strong the New York Knicks kicked off the season, sitting at 15-15 on Christmas Day, it’s often difficult to remember that this is a team only a year removed from winning a grand total of 17 games.

Despite only sitting a few games out of the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot, Phil Jackson‘s team is still in the middle of its much longer rebuild and must be viewed as such. Sure, Kristaps Porzingis has helped to blow both expectations for himself and the Knicks out of the water, but overall, New York is still a couple years away from being a legitimate contender for the Finals.

It’s because of that fans must remain patient. With the flashes of brilliance this team has shown (Kristaps put-back dunks! Carmelo Anthony evolving into a team-first player! Just an absurd amount of Kevin Seraphin missed-hook shots from the low post!), many have raised their Knicks expectations all the way from “Don’t be so bad we somehow get relegated to the D-League” way up to “Playoffs, anyone?” and in all reality, it isn’t fair at all to this team.

Porzingis certainly has been a pleasant surprise, Carmelo Anthony’s evolution has been a lot of fun to watch, and Kevin Seraphin’s hook shots have been…well Kevin Seraphin’s hook shots have not been that great, but this is still a team that overall has major holes in it.

The Knicks don’t have a guard capable of consistently attacking and getting himself to the rim to create offense, while the bench lacks a scorer with the ability to carry the team on occasion if the starters aren’t getting the job done. Plus, both Kristaps and Melo are in the first years of much larger, longer journeys.

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With that being said, the Knicks have now entered their most challenging stretch of the season, with 11 consecutive games against teams above .500.

The run kicked off last Saturday in a home game against the Chicago Bulls, with the Knicks managing to topple Derrick Rose and company 107-91. Don’t get ahead of yourself though, because things quickly went down hill. The victory was followed by a 107-99 loss at home against the Orlando Magic, followed by a three-game road trip where Kristaps and Co. would visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday, and most recently the Boston Celtics on Sunday. The results? Three consecutive losses, with final scores of 91-84, 117-98, and 100-91 respectively.

But hey, maybe the Knicks can turn this around! Who do they have in the remaining seven games?

On Tuesday night, the Knicks will return home to face the Detroit Pistons in what is probably the most winnable game of the remaining stretch. Still though, Andre Drummond will give Robin Lopez and Kristaps one of their toughest matchups to date and with an attacking point guard like Reggie Jackson, Jose Calderon could have a tough time keeping up.

Not looking good…

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Then our heroes hit the road again, this time heading to play the Chicago Bulls and Derrick Rose. While the Jimmy Butler vs. Carmelo Anthony facedown should be fun to watch, the Bulls seem to be finding their stride under coach Fred Hoiberg recently and currently sit as one of the East’s best teams.

Oh boy.

The Knicks then head back to New York for a home-and-home with the Hawks, who have already beaten the Knicks during this stretch, plus have been amongst the NBA’s hottest teams, winning six-straight as of this writing.

This is going to get ugly…

Our guys stay on the road after that, going down to South Beach for a nationally televised game against the Miami Heat. The Knicks on national TV is practically begging for a beatdown.

Is this ever going to end?

Nope! New York finally finishes its’ hellish run with a road game against arguably the best team in basketball, the San Antonio Spurs. Wonderful.

The Knicks are finally given mercy on Jan. 10 in a home game against the Milwaukee Bucks. But will there even be a team to play in that contest after the run they’re currently enduring?

There’s a really good chance this team will limp into that game with the Bucks sitting at just 14-24 with a winning percentage of just .379

To compare, the Bucks currently have a .387 percentage and sit 13th in the East, just a spot behind the Knicks. The difference is that currently, the season is still relatively young and the Bucks still have enough time to fix their record and get into the playoff discussion, plus the firepower to do so.

At 14-24 just a month before the All-Star break, it could be too late for the Knicks, who at their best had been only a couple games above .500, to do something similar.

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This was a team that was going to need a lot of breaks to catch a ride to the playoffs anyway in the suddenly competitive East, but with a potential 10-game losing streak on the horizon for the Knicks, this may be the beginning of the end for any postseason dreams Kristaps and Co. may have been having.

It’s going to be a long time until Jan. 10, isn’t it?

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New York Knicks In Middle Of Toughest Stretch This Season

By Sean Linhares | Dec 28, 2015

It’s been a solid start to the season for the New York Knicks, who sat at 15-15 Christmas Day. But after a loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday night, they began their toughest stretch of the season.