Final Score: Knicks 112, Hawks 108

Ahhh, dammit. Oh well. Barring something unexpected, the Knicks will have the second-best lottery odds, not the best odds. Players don't care about us buttheads and our precious lottery odds, and they can't be expected to. There is absolutely no good reason for the Knicks to win a game like this one, but I don't expect players -- even the coach, honestly -- to obey the greater logic.

It'd be nice for us if Derek Fisher just shelved Langston Galloway in the middle of the best night of his career -- he's made similar moves recently -- but these are real people who know each other. Langston's mom was in the crowd. I can only get so mad at short-term decisions in a self-contained unit of basketball.

This was a very bad team beating a very good team. Good for them for doing that. It's stupid and it sucks, but the odds are still close to the best, and life will go on. Maybe there are basketball gods and maybe they smile upon games like this one. These are the things I depend on when the math slips away.