Schedule not only challenge for Knicks in this key stretch

You dont settle anything in December, no matter how many feel-good wins you can collect and no matter how devastating the news of the day happens to be.

We are still very much in the preamble part of the NBA marathon, just 27 furlongs on the way to an 82-furlong race. Lots of basketball left. Lots of season left. You dont define yourself in December.

But you can sure make a case for yourself.

The Knicks are making a case for themselves, despite receiving the gut-punch news Wednesday that Mitchell Robinson already thought to be lost through the middle of February will now be home for the rest of the season. They capped a five-game road trip Wednesday night in Brooklyn, walking into Barclays Center and stomping the Nets 121-102, a game in which they led for the final 46 minutes and sure looked like the more interested of the two city teams home after long treks west.

Schedule_not_only_challenge_for_Knicks_in_this_key_stretch 3Jalen Brunson, who scored 16 points, drives past Nic Claxton during the Knicks’ 121-102 win over the Nets. Getty ImagesWe played with a lead, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. That was very important for us.

And as good as the feelings have mostly been during this 16-11 jump to the season, the Bucks have been a reliable buzzkill both times the teams collided, both times during the In-Season Tournament, both times in Milwaukee. The first time, playing without RJ Barrett, the Knicks took a late lead before Dame Lillard drained a back-breaking 3 late.

The second time, with visions of Vegas dancing in the Knicks heads, the Bucks made them look like the JV, crushing them 146-122. The Knicks have shown this week that they can beat good teams; now they get to measure themselves against one of the best, one of the favorites to represent the East in the Finals.

Schedule_not_only_challenge_for_Knicks_in_this_key_stretch 3Immanuel Quickley celebrates with Spike Lee after hitting a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ win. Noah K. Murray / NY PostIts silly to put too much emphasis on games this early in the calendar. Still, it feels like a split, at the least, is imperative. At some point the Knicks need to prove to the league, to the Bucks, to themselves that they are much closer to the team that fought the Bucks to the 48th minute in November and even played them to a virtual first-half tie in the blowout two weeks ago and not the pretenders who looked outmanned and outclassed at the end.

And, yes, they will be shorthanded, as they will be for the rest of the season. That will not exactly make Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez quake in their Nikes. But they also go in playing as well as they have all season, their defense somehow getting better even as they try to neutralize Robinsons absence, with a nice burst of momentum. Its clear that in six games without their starting center, theyve begun to embrace their new normal. It will have to be more of the same.

We cant worry about other stuff, Thibodeau said. We want to be locked into whatevers in front of us.

Its the Bucks who are in front of us (and then the Thunder and the Magic, the Pacers and the Timberwolves). The gauntlet still awaits, and Robinson wont be a part of any of it. So far they have survived. So far they have leaned into every turn. So far theyve done well. They need to keep doing well.

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