These are the playoffs. This is not the time to speak in absolutes, or to make bold declarations. The playoffs are designed to surprise you. Take the Pacers, who have twice in these playoffs faced odds of 99 percent or higher to lose games against Milwaukee and Cleveland with less than a minute to go and won both times.
Take the Knicks, who have trailed in the fourth quarter in all six of the games they’ve won, who themselves were facing odds of 92 percent or higher to lose in the first two fourth quarters of this series against the Celtics.
You expect to be surprised in the playoffs, so it’s best to keep an open mind about such things. But this isn’t about keeping an open mind anymore. This is about what eyeballs have already witnessed, about what logic has already decreed.
The Knicks need to win Monday, Game 4 at Madison Square Garden, best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals.
