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Chapter 347: Knicks vs Warriors End
🕑 Added 2025-09-16 14:32:19 +0000 UTCThe Warriors really did spring an ambush on the Knicks inside their own building.
On the TNT desk, Charles Barkley chuckled and shook his head. âMan, Stephen Curry is turning into Linâs personal kryptonite. First, he spoiled Lin in the three-point contest; now heâs out here lighting up the Knicks. New York came to Oakland riding back-to-back blowoutsâwon those games by a combined 84 pointsâbut tonight? Not so much.â
Kenny Smith leaned forward, nodding. âItâs not that the Knicks were bad. They played fine, maybe a little flat. The difference is Golden State played out of their minds. Steph was just named Western Conference Player of the Week for the first time in his career, and you can tell heâs feeling it. The confidence is dripping off him.â
Final score: Warriors 115, Knicks 106.
The stat sheet told the story. Curry was on fireâ11 of 17 from the field, a ridiculous 7 of 9 from deep, perfect 4 of 4 at the line. Thirty-three points, five boards, nine dimes.
Lin Yi had a solid nightâ28 points on 11 of 21 shooting, 12 rebounds, three blocksâbut Curryâs efficiency was absurd.
Even when Lin managed to block him twice, it hardly mattered. Each Knicks run was answered by another lightning-quick three from Curry, sometimes from what felt like the parking lot.
Curryâs long-range percentage on the season? An eye-popping 42.5 percent from well beyond the arc. Tonight, he reminded everyone of that with a couple of bombs that felt closer to half court than the actual line.
After the game, Curry grinned as he approached Lin.
âHey, thanks again for helping me tweak my shooting form during those off-season workouts,â he said
He kept talking, words tumbling out between laughs.
âOh, and if you head back to China this summer, give me a call. Iâve heard Iâve got a pretty big fan base there, too. Next step for me is improving my defense and core strengthâwait, why are you just staring at me?â
Lin gave a weary smile and patted Curryâs head. He didnât have the heart to explain that he felt like heâd created a monster. Tonightâs performance? Partly his fault for sharpening Curryâs tools.
But thatâs basketball. You canât bring peak form every night, and Golden State had everything clicking.
âŚ
Two days later, still shaking off the cross-country flight, the Knicks ran into another buzz sawâthis time in Chicago. The Bulls arenât known for barrage-style three-point shooting, yet fate had other ideas.
Derrick Rose went 5 for 8 from deep. Luol Deng was a perfect 4 for 4. When role players start hitting at that clip, you start wondering if you should buy a lottery ticket.
The Knicks played steady basketball but ran headfirst into a team having a career night. When the final buzzer sounded, Roseânormally the quiet oneâlet out a cathartic roar. After a year and a half of falling short against Lin Yiâs Knicks, he finally had a win.
You could almost feel the weight lift off him.
Do you know what itâs like to give everything, night after night, only to keep losing to the same guy?
Ask LeBron. He might want to jab Lin in the ribs, too.
Back in the locker room, Lin exhaled and allowed himself a smile.
âAccording to the schedule,â he mused, âwe wonât see these guys again until the Eastern Conference Finals.â
He suspected the Bulls might channel all that pent-up frustration into a serious playoff run.
What if they knock out the Heat? Lin thought.
And, truth be told, heâd rather face Chicago than Miami in a seven-game series. The Bulls werenât going to shoot like this every night.
The dream of topping the Bullsâ legendary 72-10 record? After these back-to-back wake-up calls, that conversation was over. But the seasonâs real battlesâthe ones in May and Juneâwere only beginning.
...
After back-to-back losses, the Knicks skeptics finally got the breather theyâd been waiting for. But this time, theyâd learned their lesson: instead of hammering the Knicks themselves, they turned their fire on Charles Barkley and his comments, making him out to be a jinx.
âAre the Knicks snoozing again, or what?â one caller teased on a late-night radio show.
Another fan wrote on social media, âCharles is Americaâs number-one jinx. Please, keep cursing the Knicks. Weâre all counting on you!â
Someone else added with a wink, âCharles forgotâbig cats love to nap. I just hope the Knicks never wake up.â
The chatter spread quickly. Pundits and columnists lined up to declare that New York should be nervous. First place in the league still looked secure, but a losing streak is blood in the water.
As one TV panelist put it, âThe Knicks look comfortable, maybe too comfortable. The playoffs donât care about regular-season swagger.â
Another analyst was blunter. âThis team relies almost entirely on perimeter shooting. Come playoff time, that wonât cut it. I donât see them lifting a trophy.â
A third pundit even dragged Dwight Howard into the debate: âLook at Howardâs career. Fun basketball doesnât win in May and June.â
Howard, watching the segment from home, apparently texted a friend: â?? Did I just become the NBAâs punching bag?â
Inside the Knicksâ locker room, though, the mood wasnât nearly as gloomy. Compared to the pressure cooker of their earlier three-game skid, this short slump almost felt like a relief. Without the constant chase of Chicagoâs historic 72-10 mark hanging over them, the players could breathe again. That record had been like a sword dangling above their heads, every game a reminder.
On March 18, after practice, Lin Yi gathered everyone for a team meeting. There was no finger-pointing, no soul-searching speeches. Lin knew perfectly well that the losses to Golden State and Chicago were less about the Knicksâ failures and more about opponents playing out of their minds.
He also knew the Knicks had been dialing back their defensive intensity in the stretch run, a quiet strategy to avoid injuries before the playoffs. Tonightâs meeting was about the future, not the past.
The focus? The next opponent is Dallas. The Mavericks were coming to Madison Square Garden, and Lin called them the final boss of the regular season.
The coaching staff joined the players around the video screen. Game film flickered across the wall as everyone leaned forward. The usual relaxed vibe was gone; the room felt like a playoff war room.
Lin reminded them, âLook, we stay loose when we can, but we lock in when it matters. Thatâs what separates a contender from a pretender.â
His bigger concern wasnât the Mavericks themselves but the path that lay ahead. If the standings held, the Knicks would likely see the Celtics in the Eastern semis. Two regular-season games against Boston remained, and Lin refused to take the veteran Celtics lightly.
Beyond that, the Eastern Conference Finals would almost certainly bring Miami or Chicago. On paper, New Yorkâs roster matched up well with both. Still, the Bullsâ sudden three-point eruption in their last meeting served as a warning: regular-season dominance doesnât guarantee postseason comfort.
Lin believed the Knicks would actually be stronger once the playoffs startedâdefensive specialists like Ewing Jr. and Beverley could finally play without the leash of regular-season minute restrictions. But he wasnât naĂŻve.
âWe canât sleep on anyone,â he said.
If all went according to his mental script, the Finals opponent would come from a Western trio: Mavericks, Thunder, or Lakers. Dallas, with Dirk Nowitzki still unguardable and a supporting cast full of scoring options, felt like a true coin flip.
Lin laid it out plainly. âA smooth transition into the playoffs is everything. We have to treat tomorrow night as a scouting mission. Dallas will show us what adjustments we need before June.â
He grinned then, breaking the tension. âAnd no, Iâm not planning for a first-round exit. If we canât handle the Sixers or Bucks, weâve got bigger problems than any script can fix.â
The room eased into quiet laughter. Everyone knew the message behind the humor: confidence, but never complacency.
The road to June would be rocky, but thatâs the beauty of the game. Tomorrow night against Dallas wasnât just another regular-season contestâit was the dress rehearsal for the playoffs, the last big test of the 2010â11 campaign.
