Knicks’ fight earns them nice slice of credibility even in defeat

The ball was in the air, and it looked true, and the way things had gone it sure seemed Evan Fournier was about to buy the Knicks five extra minutes of basketball on opening night. The way things had gone, the way the Knicks had fought, why wouldn’t he keep the folks at FedExForum in their seats for another five minutes?

Of course it would go in.

It didn’t go in. The buzzer groaned. The Knicks lost, 115-112, to the Memphis Grizzlies in overtime, couldn’t quite finish off what would have been a remarkable first chapter of this 2022-23 season.

Down 19 in the third quarter, down three with 3.3 seconds left in regulation, they still had a shot. They still got a clean look. They lost a game. But they may have won something else:

A nice slice of credibility.

“I love the fight that we had,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I didn’t like how we got there, but I loved how we fought to get back out of it. Down the stretch it’s couple of plays here, a loose ball there.

“I like the part of us being mentally tough when you face adversity,” he said. “That’s a big part of this league.”

Memphis Grizzlies center Steven Adams, left, and guard Ja Morant and Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein try to get possession of the ball. AP

There was so much to like across the game’s 53 minutes. Jalen Brunson started slowly, played brilliantly in the fourth quarter, had good numbers — 15 points, nine assists, zero turnovers — and ran Thibodeau’s offense as if he’d been running it his whole career.

The final offensive play of regulation was a gem, three different Knicks touching the ball capped by Cam Reddish — we’ll get back to him in a moment — knocking down a corner 3 that forced overtime.

How many times last year had the final shot come down to an iso — usually Julius Randle, but there were others — the guy with the ball counting down the clock in his head like he used to in the driveway as a kid, then launching a brutal and ill-advised prayer.

Not this time. Not this year. This time the ball was whipped around to the corner for a good shot. This is what Brunson brings to the equation, and it was evident all game long.

Though Randle fouled out in overtime — which essentially doomed their pursuit of a happy ending — he looked more at ease and more comfortable than he did at just about any time last year: 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists.

He was terrific.

Julius Randle and RJ Barrett. Getty Images

Then there was Reddish, whose impact was almost nil last year when he arrived from Atlanta. On opening night, he had his finest hour as a Knick: that game-tying 3, but also 22 points and five rebounds off the bench. It seems implausible to think that’s going to be a common line for him, but it’s not like he hasn’t owned intriguing talent and an unknown ceiling since his first day in the league.

If he can even approximate that most nights?

Then you might really have something here. But you already do have something, because of the way the offense hums now; because of the way they play with heart even as it seemed Wednesday night that the game was slipping into the neighboring Mississippi; because it seems they’re as closely in sync with what their coach wants them to be as even the 42-32 team two years ago was.

And there is Brunson. He isn’t the electric guitar solo that Ja Morant is — Morant had 34 points and nine assists, though he also had six turnovers. But he’s a damn fine acoustic guitarist, exactly what the Knicks craved. On the last play of regulation, Morant lifted off for one of his patented Iverson 2.0 moves. Brunson coaxed him into a charge instead.

“We made some plays down the stretch. We didn’t make enough,” Brunson said. “We’re only going to get better from here. On to the next one.”

That will be Friday, the home opener, the Pistons at the Garden, and if the Knicks play as they did Wednesday, it ought to be a satisfying experience. The Knicks didn’t win Wednesday, and as a wise man once said about pro sports, there’s no medals for trying.

Usually. This was different. This was an exception. If this is really a preview of what we’re going to see the next 81 games, maybe we’ll look back on this as the next best thing to a win.