Good morning! The second leg takes place tonight, with OKC suffering its first loss in 16 games. Can the Knicks make it for the second straight year? Join me and the KFS crew at T2 Social as we explore:

For OKC, Alex Caruso and Chet Holmgren are still out, while KAT and Deuce are both questionable. NO Halftime tonight, but I’ll see everyone on Sunday (reminder: tipoff for the Bucks game is at 3 p.m.).

In the first two and a half months of this season, I wrote two odes to New York’s two-time MVP candidates: Jalen Brunson And Karl Anthony cities.

They were fun to write and helpful too. Despite all the things I’m still getting used to about this Knicks team – the passing game, the offense in general, the ups and downs on defense, etc. – the thing I’m still not sure about is the having two real top men who don’t do anything stupid and manage to balance each other out more dangerous than they already are individually. Each time I delve deeper into them, I realize even more how fortunate we are to experience this era of Knicks basketball.

This is new territory since the title years, although we had a few close chances:

• Julius and Jalen were great at best, but they never reached the level of synergy that KAT and Jalen had. The front office obviously felt the same way Reservations It was about making an investment in Randle that was commensurate with what a top-two player on a title team should be making, and I’m not sure anyone blames them.

• Amar’e was in the middle of the MVP race when they traded for Melo, but his season (and his knees… and his career…)sigh) things started going downhill around the time Anthony arrived. Their lasting legacy as teammates is that Carmelo was at his best when Stoudemire wasn’t by his side.

• In the Ewing era we had two close calls, one at the beginning with Bernard and one at the end with Sprewell. The former never happened, and the latter came to fruition when Pat was well past his prime.

What’s the worst thing for me about this last point? I knowledge Intellectually, Ewing was a far more complete player than Towns at his best, and yet, game after game, I say, “I never rooted for a big man who could do that.” The.”