28.9 Seconds

There's no way to sugar coat what happened at Madison Square Garden last night. The New York Knicks were 28.9 seconds away from advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals. Deuce McBride had just nailed a 14 foot jump shot to put them ahead 96-90. The crowd was going wild. Yours truly was pumping his fists in the air for joy.

And then...

Then the roof caved in. The most disciplined team in the NBA unravelled like cheap sackcloth. They made error after error and wound up losing to the Philadelphia 76ers in overtime.

Let's go through each of them.

One: After the Sixers called their final time out, Tyrese Maxey took the inbounds pass and was fouled by Mitchell Robinson while making a three point shot. Maxey made the free throw to cut the Knicks lead to two. Every basketball player from high school on knows that when you're up by six with under a minute to go you don't foul under any circumstances. Robinson had no business being anywhere near Maxey. He should've been under the basket to secure the rebound in case Maxey missed. Terrible lack of judgement.

Two: After the Knicks inbounded the ball, Josh Hart was fouled with 15.1 seconds left. All he had to do was make both free throws and the Knicks would've been up by four. Instead he missed one, thus giving the Sixers life.

Three: With the Knicks up by three and the Sixers out of timeouts, Maxey dribbled the ball across half court and drilled a 34-foot three pointer to tie the score at 96. Mike Breen, who called the game on MSG Network, said the Knicks could not let Maxey take that shot. But that's exactly what they did. Instead of fouling him when he was in the backcourt and letting him make two free throws, they gave Maxey a chance to tie the game, which he did. Unconscionable.

Four: With 8.1 seconds left in the 4th quarter, the Knicks elected not to call their last time out to set up a play. Instead, Jalen Brunson took the inbounds and dribbled the ball up court where he took a wild shot that was blocked out of bounds with no time left on the clock. 

We all know what happened in the overtime; that's not the point. The point is the game should never have gone to overtime in the first place. 

And, no, this collapse was not, as Chris "Mad Dog" Russo said on ESPN's First Take, the same as what happened to the Sixers in game two. In that game, after Brunson made his three pointer to pull the Knicks to within two, there was a sequence of events that happened in quick succession, beginning with a bad inbounds pass by Kyle Lowry and a loose-ball scramble that led to two three-pointer attempts by Donte DiVincenzo; the latter finally going in. The whole sequence took 14 seconds. Before the Sixers knew what hit them, they went from leading by five to trailing by one.

The Knicks had numerous opportunities to recalibrate, gather themselves and prevent this collapse. Their poor judgment and lack of execution was what did them in. And now they have to go to Philly to play a game six instead of resting up and preparing for the winner of the Milwaukee / Indiana series. And don't assume they win that game. You think the Sixers are going to lose two out of three in their building? If I were a betting man, I'd say we're heading back to the Garden for a game seven.

And here's the thing: even if the Knicks manage to advance, what this series has revealed is that, apart from Brunson - who scored 40 in a losing effort - this is an offensively challenged team. Face it: once Julius Randle went down with that shoulder injury, the Knicks no longer had a genuine second option to go to. DiVencenzo has been inconsistent pretty much all season; with the exception of game two where he put up 19 points, he's been virtually invisible this entire series. And while Hart has contributed on the boards, his offense sometimes has a nasty habit of disappearing as well. Think about it: were it not for the 42 points the bench scored in game one, New York would be trailing 3-2 in this series instead of leading 3-2.

In retrospect, it was a mistake for Leon Rose not to go after someone like Dejounte Murray of the Atlanta Hawks at the trade deadline. Yes, it probably would've cost him multiple first round picks, but it would've been worth it. Unlike DiVencenzo, who, let's be honest, is more of a sixth man than a starter, Murray is a  bonafide star who averages 22.5 points per game. "Can you imagine a backcourt of Brunson and Murray?" I wrote back in January.

Regardless of how this series ends up, Rose must do everything in his power to land a scorer during the offseason. For the Knicks to be legitimate contenders in the Eastern Conference, they must have multiple options on the court. Right now they have only one.