Today's the morning where you wake up, the sky is beautiful, the sun looks awesome, and you can envision winning an NBA championship.

Yes.

Now, I get it. The Atlanta Hawks are a flawed team. We kind of knew that going in. This was a series you needed to win, and you are likely going to do it on Thursday.

So it's not about being up three, two. I think we all would have expected to be up three, two, or we thought the series would have

been over. It's how it looked. It's the way Carl Anthony Towns looks. It's the way Jalen Brunson

even bounced back with a monstrous fourth quarter. It's the way OG looks. It's even the

adjustments that this head coach

has made. Last night, and we have witnessed 82 plus 5, so that's 87 Knicks games this season.

That may have been their most complete dominant performance we've seen all year. And so I think

you can wake up and envision it.

And sometimes it's been tough this year to envision it.

But I thought it was so complete last night, Teak,

that those kinds of dreams feel realer today than they do most days.

I think the only way they truly feel like it's their possibility is if they do it again.

Sure. Because I think it again. Sure.

Because I think the M.O of this team has been inconsistency.

Offensively, defensively, particularly.

I mean, hell, they weren't even really that good defensively in this game.

But just the Hawks missed a ton of shots.

Wouldn't they take 40, 42, 3? Well, I thought in the first quarter, they allowed a lot of easy buckets around the basket, but Atlanta missed a lot of open threes. And then I think their defensive intensity from then on was pretty electric, including Kat, who I thought was great defensively. And you could tell, look, Atlanta says, they're still a young team. And when things got way behind the eight ball, it was like apathy. I mean, the Knicks were doing whatever they wanted offensively. So, yes, there is optimism after a dominant win at home against a team that you're supposed to beat. But I need to see another one. Sure. I need to see one on the road. I get you. And then you start believing again that this Nick's team has what it takes. Because right now, you still feel like, yeah, they beat the Hawks. They're supposed to, but they're getting knocked out in the second round. And so I think that's the hurdle, mental hurdle that Nick fans are fighting because they want to believe because it was so great of a win last night, but you also don't want to be fooled. No, I get you. And it's more than a great win. Like any win in the playoffs to me is a great win because they all count the same. That was a dominant win. Yeah. That was one of those games. So as a big basketball fan, I will tell you things that bother me. I heard Boomer at the end of their show talking about pet peeves. I'd like to give you a sports pet peeve I have.

As a basketball fan, I hate when people say, I can just watch the last two minutes. That bothers me, because it's not normally and necessarily true. Last night was not a basketball game that you can watch the last two minutes and say you watched it. Because you know who you would have seen on the floor if you turned on the game with two minutes to go? But he healed. Tyler Colick, Jeremy Schohann, Ariel Hookporty, Lattery, Laudrey Shabbitt. No, last night was not one of those games where you could watch the last two minutes. Last night's game was systematically destroying a team that you're better than. And I thought one of the great

stats, Ernie Johnson gave this after the game, was that from about a minute and a half to go in

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