End of Knicks’ brutal loss is just beginning of this team’s story

The joint was fixing to jump. The ball looked good as it left Jalen Brunson’s fingers. It sure looked like it was going in as it settled softly on the rim. And from various precincts around Madison Square Garden, there was a premature spasm of glee. From there, it may have looked like the ball went in.

The ball didn’t go in.

“I thought it was in,” Mikal Bridges said, “and then it wasn’t.”

The ball spun out, and when it did, the Knicks had suffered their first heartbreaking loss of the season, a 124-123 gut punch to the Bulls that was intriguing as hell, because across all 48 minutes we were treated to the very best and the very worst of what this team is capable of, especially in this first quadrant of the season.