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Is Knicks' Game 5 Win vs. Heat a Spark or a Sizzle?

Did the New York Knicks' Game 5 victory provide a legitimate path to a comeback against the Miami Heat or did they simply delay the inevitable?

Geoff Magliocchetti

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If the New York Knicks need any advice in erasing a 3-1 series deficit, they normally wouldn't have to look far. 

The Knicks, after all, share Madison Square Garden with the New York Rangers, a National Hockey League group that has come back from three such disadvantages over the past 10 postseasons, including the first leg of last year's run to the conference final. 

But even as the Rangers were dealt an early eviction, the Knicks conducted themselves well when facing the fateful 3-1 on Wednesday: behind matching 48-minute outputs for Jalen Brunson and Quentin Grimes, not to mention sterling scoring efforts from RJ Barrett and Julius Randle, the Knicks made a sixth game of the Eastern Conference Semifinals fully necessary with a 112-103 triumph over the Miami Heat. Part two of the do-or-die comeback trilogy lands on Friday night in South Beach (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT). 

Euphoric as Madison Square Garden became as the finishing touches were placed upon the win, there was a hint of somberness in the New York locker room.

"There's nothing really to celebrate," Brunson, he of a 38-point effort, said. "We obviously won and we get to see another day. This was great but we have to get one (in Miami)."

Statements like that are admirable, uniform, and well-expected of a newly-minted franchise face. But it's still enough to have a fanbase that's often one win/loss away from respectively planning a championship parade route to throwings names and numbers into the ESPN Trade Machine on edge. A 48-hour clock that has nearly run out has asked Knick fans to ponder if Game 5 was simply the last scrumptious, delightful, spicy yet satisfying meal to this banquet of a basketball season ... or the hint of a comeback for the ages.

True to form, the Knicks even somewhat bungled the idea of working with a consequence-free playoff trip and later a deficit: if New York managed to keep its lead within the teens, as did so in the middle stages of the game, fans would breathe a bit easier when they bit "buy now" on four/five-figure Game 7 tickets. 

But since the Knicks allowed Miami to crawl back in, namely to the tune of deep-balls from Duncan Robinson and Max Strus, there's a sense that Game 5 was simply a stay of execution. The fact they held postseason superstar Jimmy Butler in relative check (the 19 points he earned on 42 percent shooting was the first time he was held under 20 since late March, also against the Knicks), it still took all of the metropolitan might to stave off Miami's comeback. That's why the Knicks failed to instill any faith when they won a nailbiter in Game 2, a Butler-free contest that was perhaps more difficult than it had any right to be.

A return to Miami, where the Heat have not lost since the proper Playoffs tipped off, raises an interesting question that somehow hasn't been answered through 92 games: will the real New York Knicks please stand up?

Everything we've seen over the past eight months suggests that the Knicks are fully capable of staging a comeback. This is a group that has routinely done more than it's asked of such as posting a 3-1 record against Boston, finishing among the East's top six, and removing themselves from the Donovan Mitchell conversation before ending his season in the opening round. 

It has taken, however, only five games to respray a cloud of doubt over the Knicks' proceedings, to raise questions over both its resident All-Star and its veteran head coach. Conventional wisdom suggests that this season is a win for the Knicks as is. Half of their NBA brethren, maybe even more, would give their left arm to see a prophecy of a top-six posting and a sixth date with the Eastern Conference's defending top seed fulfilled. The big-city, blockbuster connotations attached to the Knicks almost prevent them from living and appreciating such a moment.

No matter what happens on Friday night, Game 5 should be a tutorial for both the immediate and far future of Knicks basketball. It was a thrilling showcase of perseverance and physicality, of overcoming both mental and living obstacles. 

The idea of Grimes, for example, playing a full 48 minutes, seemed unthinkable as little as two weeks ago after he sustained an injured shoulder in the Cleveland series. While his conventional numbers were disappointing to the naked eye, he was primarily responsible for Butler's woes and even swiped a key turnover from his supposedly magic arms ... all while nursing a newly-endured ankle ailment. 

Those ideals and growings norms further manifested in Mitchell Robinson: Miami threatened to fully control the pace of the game when attacked the fifth-year center in an attempt to drag him to the foul line. Robinson, already headlining the Knicks 50-36 advantage in rebounding, ensured the Heat's plan backfired by sinking his shots to help the hosts pull away.

Game 5 could've gone wrong in so many different ways: the Knicks had 14 points in the first quarter, Josh Hart had three fouls before the first commercial break, and Randle missed six of his first seven from the field. Knicks teams of the past would've tried to rely purely on star power ... i.e. expecting Brunson to be Brunson, for Randle to keep firing ill-fated shots up until something went in ... but this team is different. 

Honestly, the only way Game 5 will gain any proper perspective, be it as a spark that lights the fires of a comeback or a brief sizzle, is to see how Friday's contest plays out. There's no denying, however, the benefits that can be reaped, even in the face of the unthinkable.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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Geoff Magliocchetti
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks

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