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To be clear, most NBA teams — outside of the Cavaliers, Thunder and Celtics — and especially the one a handful of subway stops away over the Manhattan Bridge would trade lineups and coaches and standings locations with the Knicks in an instant. They’re 26-15 at the midpoint of the season. They’re third in the Eastern Conference. They have two superstars in Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns and two other starters who are among the league’s best defenders.
But after their loss to Oklahoma City on Friday, the Knicks faced questions about whether they felt their name belonged among the upper tier of NBA contenders, with an 0-5 record against the top two teams in each conference on their ledger. They responded with a strong win against the Bucks two days later. They fell flat against the Pistons in a disappointing loss Monday. If there were ever a swing that captured their roller-coaster season, that stretch materialized as the perfect sample.
So when Tom Thibodeau fielded a question following their 124-119 loss to Detroit about whether the Knicks were still searching for a defensive identity, it really could’ve been extrapolated into an all-encompassing one about the state of the team. They have a good record halfway through the season but not good enough to be comfortably ahead of the play-in tournament segment of the standings. They have individual pieces to anchor their defense, but it remains a middle-of-the-pack unit — and a spotty one at best in clutch situations such as Monday. Their elite collection of starters could face a major depth problem with just one injury.
Who, really, are the Knicks? They’re still figuring that out as their regular season hits Game 42 on Wednesday against the 76ers. Sometimes, they resemble contenders. Other times, pretenders. And with the NBA’s toughest remaining schedule ahead — with opponents possessing a combined winning percentage of .522, per Tankathon — the Knicks’ path toward the postseason features plenty of chances to earn that elusive win against a contender and plenty of chances to fade further down the standings, toward the four-team play-in tournament portion no one expected them to sniff at the start of the year.
