Before this afternoon’s game, I expected the Knicks would get clobbered by the Philadelphia 76ers and I’d open with something snarky like “This was the closest the Knicks came to winning today” and post this:
But despite Embiid and Butler combining for 60 minutes while the Knicks got zero from Tim Hardaway Jr., Enes Kanter, Trey Burke, Courtney Lee, and Mitchell Robinson, a spirited second-half and furious final minute saw the Knicks come within inches of an unforgettable comeback. History will record this as a 108-105 defeat, but deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties this was that most precious of gifts: a moral defeat, a reason to hope when the world keeps telling us to despair.