The Knicks are about to return to reality.
They carry a seven-game winning streak to their four-game road trip. All seven of those wins came against teams under. 500. All but one came against teams at least 23 games under. 500, in fact. The only other one was against the Warriors, who had a skeleton squad without Stephen Curry or Draymond Green.
“Good teams win games that they’re supposed to,” Josh Hart said after the win over the Pelicans on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. “Obviously anyone in the league can beat you on any given day. … It feels good. Obviously we got a tough nine or 10 games left to finish the season. It’s all in preparation.”
Yes, the schedule is certainly about to heat up.
The surging Hornets, whom the Knicks play Thursday, are 22-6 in their past 28 games.
Then comes a trip to the defending champion Thunder, who now have All-NBA guard Jalen Williams back in the lineup. He was out when the Knicks narrowly lost to Oklahoma City earlier this month.
Then comes a matchup with the Rockets before a reprieve by finishing the trip against the lowly Grizzlies.
Hovering over these games is a battle for the No. 2 seed in the East with the Celtics. The Knicks entered Wednesday just a few percentage points behind the Celtics with a chance to leapfrog them with a Boston loss to the Thunder.
Are the Knicks paying attention to the standings jockeying?
“Maybe a little bit,” Hart said. “It’s still kind of early. There’s a cluster of teams that are really close in the standings. Maybe in like four or five games I’ll look at it.”
After about two weeks against NBA bottom-feeders, the Knicks enter the homestretch of the regular season.
It’s not always a determinant of playoff success, but it would behoove them to play their best basketball as the postseason approaches.
Landry Shamet (right knee contusion) will miss his third straight game Thursday.
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