TONIGHT: Knicks vs. Raptors

Can there be must-win games in the middle of January? Can a 1st place team have their backs to the wall? Can the coach of a 1st place team be fired? Yes, yes, and most definitely if the team in question plays in the horrendous Atlantic Division of today's NBA. Although mired in a three-way tie with Philly and Boston for 1st place, the Knicks have clearly lost cabin pressure.

Please fasten your safety belts and return all Knicks City Dancers to their upright position.

Tonight the Knicks will take the floor in one of the few places that could possibly be colder than Manhattan is today: Toronto, Canada. The Knicks and Raps have split this season's previous two games with each team winning at home. The Knicks need to change this trend if they hope to alter their downward trajectory.

I know that it's still relativley early in the season, but I just feel like tonight is one of those games. If they win, right the ship, and make a run deep into the playoffs, you'll hear someone on the year-end highlight video saying how, "winning that game in Toronto really turned things around, got us back on track." If they lose, it'll be their 4th in a row, and 8th out of their last 9; Lenny will most likely be a goner, and with a few tough home games leading up to a foreboding foray out West, the season could be out of reach before the end of February.

A quick look at the schedule would seem to hint that the time for righting the ship is passing and that the Knicks have been stumbling through one of the softer parts of the schedule (New Orleans followed by a double-dip with Chicago). However, both the Hornets and the Bulls--undeniably awful to mediocre--are both surging and playing better than they have been all season (this is not an excuse, rather hopeful explaining away). Regardless, the past can only be prologue to the rest of the season, and if the rest of the season is going to look any better than the parts that have proceeded it the Knicks NEED* to win tonight.

*allow me to qualify NEED, a bit. Clearly it's January and the team is in 1st. They can lose tonight and still potentially be tied for 1st place. So, they don't necessarily need tonight's game to keep things going, this is just a game they SHOULD win and the type of game that they HAVE to win from here on out if they are going to become the team that we all think they can be.