The Knicks looked beaten by the end of the first quarter in Milwaukee on Friday night, down 19 and falling fast toward their third straight loss.
Then, suddenly, New York turned a potential low point of its young season into a historic comeback.
Armed with an efficient second unit led by Derrick Rose and a long-awaited breakout by Immanuel Quickley, the Knicks, down by as many as 21, stormed back and never relented, leading by over 20 themselves at one point and finishing with a 113-98 victory.
It's the first time the franchise has ever won by double digits after trailing by at least 20 since the NBA began tracking those stats nearly a quarter of a century ago.
"I feel like we stayed resilient," Rose said, after scoring 23 points off the bench and spearheading the furious comeback. "We knew what we had to do, to pick up the energy and intensity. Of course you don't want to start off a game that way, but it is the NBA, and every game is different. We just had to keep working the game…chipping in to the lead. You look up, we got from 20 to 10, then from 10 to five and got it very close. That's when we had a chance to really go for it."
New York cut the deficit to seven by halftime after trailing by 21, then tied it just before the end of the third quarter, and ran away in the fourth, outscoring the defending champions by 22 in the second half.
"You don't want to get down like we did, but we did," head coach Tom Thibodeau said. "It's a long game, you gotta keep fighting and try to get it down to a manageable number. Once we got going a little bit and made some hustle plays, that galvanized us and gave us energy. Then we got it to 10, and once it gets to 10, you feel like you have a chance."
A blowout loss would have been hardly ideal after two straight losses to seemingly inferior teams, and the Knicks were able to turn that potential narrative on its head with a remarkable turnaround, now sitting at 6-3 on the season with a road win against one of the beasts of the Easts. Sure, the Bucks were shorthanded, but New York was still able to wipe away a seemingly insurmountable deficit, and turn in a blowout victory.
"Especially when you lost two of three, it was big, because it was the next game, and the next game was against the champs," Rose said. "We knew coming in, of course we wanted our energy to be there...this can thrust us forward into an area where we want to be in."
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