Knicks’ feel-good rout doesn’t erase previous concerns

There were times Sunday afternoon when the Knicks tried their mightiest to counteract the space-time continuum, moments when it seemed they were trying to batter the Bucks so ferociously that somehow they could turn the clock back two days and try to figure out how to reverse the bludgeoning they’d received from the Thunder on Friday. 

Doesn’t work that way, though. 

The Knicks wound up chasing Milwaukee out of Madison Square Garden 140-106, and that’s not an insignificant thing. The Bucks entered the gamer right behind the Knicks, fourth in the Eastern Conference (though by day’s end they were fifth). With a similar cast a year ago the Bucks were a brutal match-up for the Knicks, but so far this year the Knicks have beaten them twice, once by 22 points, now by 34.

Still doesn’t eradicate the 126-101 beatdown OKC administered Friday, but that humiliation also didn’t mathematically eliminate the Knicks from the playoffs, either, much as it seemed like an Irish wake most of the night. There’s lots of season left. The Knicks needed to lick their wounds, dust themselves off, get back on the horse. It’s all they can do. It’s what they did.