Digging into the Knicks’ Messy 2010 Season
Alright, so I got curious last night about NBA history, specifically why the New York Knicks completely missed the playoffs back in 2010. Seems like they had some hype, right? I remember folks talkin’ about it sometimes. Figured I’d dig into the actual game logs and stats myself instead of just reading summaries. Pulled up a bunch of old websites and databases, fired up my laptop late.
Started with the beginning of the season. Looked up that first month, October-November 2009. Man, it was rough right off the bat! Kept seeing scores like:
- Knicks 89 – Heat 115 (Ouch)
- Celtics 101 – Knicks 89
- Bucks 102 – Knicks 87
They lost like six straight right after opening night. Wasn’t just bad, it was really bad. Point difference was scary big almost every night. Coach D’Antoni’s “Seven Seconds or Less” system everyone talked about? Yeah, couldn’t see it working here. Defense looked completely non-existent too.
Kept scrolling through month by month. December came, a little less terrible maybe, but still tons of losses. Felt like every time they won one game, they’d drop the next two or three. The record just never got above water. Key thing I noticed: injuries were brutal. Danilo Gallinari, their young shooter everyone was excited about? Out for the season in like March? Huge blow. Eddy Curry? Barely played. Everyone important seemed hurt.
Checked February and March specifically. Those are usually crunch time, right? Where playoff teams separate. More pain: Blown out by the Cavs. Lost to the Pistons twice when Detroit was awful. Couldn’t beat the damn Wizards! Just brutal. Went into April needing a miracle. Needed to win almost every game and needed other teams to fall apart.
Checked the final standings. They finished 29 wins and 53 losses. Yeesh. Put them ninth in the East. Only Charlotte stopped them from being the absolute worst playoff chaser. They basically stumbled into a slightly less terrible record than others below them.
Putting it all together: The answer wasn’t one magic bullet. It was like death by a thousand cuts. Horrible start. Injuries piled up. The defense? Practically invisible. The offense looked fast on paper, executed nowhere near consistently enough. They had moments – David Lee putting up numbers every night was solid – but just lacked firepower and couldn’t string wins together against anyone decent. Took a deep breath, closed the tabs. Mystery solved. Man, rebuilding is ugly.
