Knicks guard Alec Burks reacts after a call during the first half of an NBA game against the Celtics at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Credit: AP/Vincent Carchietta
In the most optimistic fantasies as the Knicks embarked upon this improbable season, just months after being left out of the bubble restart to last season, maybe you were enough of a believer to think that with an expanded playoff field they could contend for the play-in tournament. And maybe as they showed that Tom Thibodeau’s teachings were being absorbed, you thought maybe even a top six spot and a certain return to the playoffs was in the cards.