The Warriors really did spring an ambush on the Knicks inside their own building.
On the TNT desk, Charles Barkley chuckled and shook his head. "Man, Stephen Curry is turning into Lin's personal kryptonite. First, he spoiled Lin in the three-point contest; now he's out here lighting up the Knicks. New York ca to Oakland riding back-to-back blowouts—won those gas by a combined 84 points—but tonight? Not so much."
Kenny Smith leaned forward, nodding. "It's 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 nad Western Conference Player of the Week for the first ti in his career, and you can tell he's feeling it. The confidence is dripping off him."
Final score: Warriors 115, Knicks 106.
The stat sheet told the story. Curry was on fire—11 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 dis.
Lin Yi had a solid night—28 points on 11 of 21 shooting, 12 rebounds, three blocks—but Curry's 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, sotis from what felt like the parking lot.
Curry's 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 ga, Curry grinned as he approached Lin.
"Hey, thanks again for helping tweak my shooting form during those off-season workouts," he said
He kept talking, words tumbling out between laughs.
"Oh, and if you head back to China this sumr, give a call. I've heard I've got a pretty big fan base there, too. Next step for is improving my defense and core strength—wait, why are you just staring at ?"
Lin gave a weary smile and patted Curry's head. He didn't have the heart to explain that he felt like he'd created a monster. Tonight's performance? Partly his fault for sharpening Curry's tools.
But that's basketball. You can't bring peak form every night, and Golden State had everything clicking.
…
Two days later, still shaking off the cross-country flight, the Knicks ran into another buzz saw—this ti in Chicago. The Bulls aren't 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, Rose—normally the quiet one—let out a cathartic roar. After a year and a half of falling short against Lin Yi's Knicks, he finally had a win.
You could almost feel the weight lift off him.
Do you know what it's like to give everything, night after night, only to keep losing to the sa 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.
"According to the schedule," he mused, "we won't see these guys again until the Eastern Conference Finals."
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, he'd rather face Chicago than Miami in a seven-ga series. The Bulls weren't going to shoot like this every night.
The dream of topping the Bulls' legendary 72-10 record? After these back-to-back wake-up calls, that conversation was over. But the season's real battles—the ones in May and June—were only beginning.
...
After back-to-back losses, the Knicks skeptics finally got the breather they'd been waiting for. But this ti, they'd learned their lesson: instead of hamring the Knicks themselves, they turned their fire on Charles Barkley and his comnts, making him out to be a jinx.
"Are the Knicks snoozing again, or what?" one caller teased on a late-night radio show.
Another fan wrote on social dia, "Charles is Arica's number-one jinx. Please, keep cursing the Knicks. We're all counting on you!"
Soone else added with a wink, "Charles forgot—big cats love to nap. I just hope the Knicks never wake up."
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, "The Knicks look comfortable, maybe too comfortable. The playoffs don't care about regular-season swagger."
Another analyst was blunter. "This team relies almost entirely on periter shooting. Co playoff ti, that won't cut it. I don't see them lifting a trophy."
A third pundit even dragged Dwight Howard into the debate: "Look at Howard's career. Fun basketball doesn't win in May and June."
Howard, watching the segnt from ho, apparently texted a friend: "?? Did I just beco the NBA's punching bag?"
Inside the Knicks' locker room, though, the mood wasn't nearly as gloomy. Compared to the pressure cooker of their earlier three-ga skid, this short slump almost felt like a relief. Without the constant chase of Chicago's historic 72-10 mark hanging over them, the players could breathe again. That record had been like a sword dangling above their heads, every ga a reminder.
On March 18, after practice, Lin Yi gathered everyone for a team eting. 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 Knicks' 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. Tonight's eting 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. Ga 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, "Look, we stay loose when we can, but we lock in when it matters. That's what separates a contender from a pretender."
His bigger concern wasn't 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 gas 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 York's roster matched up well with both. Still, the Bulls' sudden three-point eruption in their last eting served as a warning: regular-season dominance doesn't guarantee postseason comfort.
Lin believed the Knicks would actually be stronger once the playoffs started—defensive specialists like Ewing Jr. and Beverley could finally play without the leash of regular-season minute restrictions. But he wasn't naïve.
"We can't sleep on anyone," he said.
If all went according to his ntal script, the Finals opponent would co 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. "A smooth transition into the playoffs is everything. We have to treat tomorrow night as a scouting mission. Dallas will show us what adjustnts we need before June."
He grinned then, breaking the tension. "And no, I'm not planning for a first-round exit. If we can't handle the Sixers or Bucks, we've got bigger problems than any script can fix."
The room eased into quiet laughter. Everyone knew the ssage behind the humor: confidence, but never complacency.
The road to June would be rocky, but that's the beauty of the ga. Tomorrow night against Dallas wasn't just another regular-season contest—it was the dress rehearsal for the playoffs, the last big test of the 2010–11 campaign.
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