It never feels good to blow a late lead, especially on opening night, but C-Mac came away from the Knicks' season-opening loss to the Celtics with plenty of reasons to be optimistic for the next 81 games, and hopefully beyond.
"It's a game they absolutely should have won…overall, just a weird game.
Hit another five foul shots, you win the game," C-Mac said. "The takeaway from it…if you look at this game, you do not expect Randle and Brunson to be this bad. Randle was 5-for-22, Brunson 6-for-21. They were about as bad as you can be…they were awful. The Knicks, early on in this game, were awful. Couldn't hit a shot…and they had every opportunity to win this game. I'm going to take it as a positive. It was the first game, no shots were falling early on, their two best players were doing nothing in this game…and yet, up late in the game."
Not only did the team's usual top contributors struggle badly from the field, but the team's top bench player in Immanuel Quickley showed a sign of what could be to come after not coming to an agreement on a contract extension before Monday's deadline.
"Hopefully, that's the kind of motivated, talented Quickley we get all year long," C-Mac said, noting Quickley's 24 points on 7-11 shooting.
The Knicks shot just 37 percent from the field and lost the turnover battle, yet still were in a position to win in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. After just one game, C-Mac says there was plenty to be hopeful about.
"Despite all of that, playing against a team a lot of people still believe is the best team in the East, Porzingis had a great night, Tatum scored 34 points," C-Mac said. "They still were right in this game."
