Coming off eight straight wins, including six by double-digits and one over the conference-leading Pacers and holding a fifteen point halftime lead over the Cavaliers last night, it was suddenly easy to dream about the Knicks getting into the playoffs. The eighth-place Atlanta Hawks had lost again, and a win would have left New York just two games back. Instead, the Knicks reverted to form, allowing Jarrett Jack, backup point guard by trade and killer of Knicks for sport, to carve them up in the pick-and-roll while Carmelo Anthony tried to keep pace but instead forced mid-range brick after forced mid-range brick. In the end the Knicks lost 106-100 and, with just twelve games left in their season, likely dashed their hopes of making the playoffs.

Prior to last night's game, it was a heady time to be a Knicks fan, at least headier than it's been all year. There was the aforementioned eight straight dubs, the celebrated hiring of Phil Jackson to run the team's basketball operations, the episodes of James Dolan speaking to the media without disgracing himself too badly. There were long spells of willing ball movement and energetic defense. Mike Woodson seemed to have found a lineup that worked right under his nose, doing the unthinkable and starting Chandler, Stoudemire and Anthony, revitalizing Amar'e in the process (he responded by averaging 18.6 points and 6.4 boards in just under thirty minutes a night over a five game stretch that was his best in years).

But the 2013-14 New York Knicks hadn't turned things around, even if it all of a sudden kinda-sorta looked like they might be capable of giving Pacers or Heat, both struggling, trouble in a first round series. It probably should have been obvious: the Knicks, without a first round draft pick, are one of the few teams out of the playoffs who still want to get back in. When they face off against the league's worst teams (Utah, Milwaukee, Philadelphia twice, Boston, etc) they're out there trying to win while their opponents have already clicked their franchise over to the rebuild setting and stacked their rosters with replacement level players. Of course, the players on the other teams are still out there battling.

That's how the Sixers almost came back to beat the Knicks on Friday night when Mike Woodson fell asleep and left the end of the team's bench in the game as they coughed up what had been a comfortable lead all game, with the Knicks barely hanging on for a 93-92 victory. That's how Jarrett Jack, starting for the Cavs in place of the "injured" Kyrie Irving, ends up filleting the Knicks for 31 points on 13-19 shooting to go with nine assists and Dion Waiters puts up 22 of his own while the Knicks, assuming the Cavs will lay down and die for them, decline to finish the job themselves.

And that's how the 2013-14 Knicks reminded the world this month that they might be capable of getting hot and winning a few games against the league's worst and stealing one against the Pacers here and there but that they aren't capable of much more than that. At the end of the day they are a team unable to play pick-and-roll defense in a pick-and-roll league because they don't have the personnel or the game plan. They are a team that has no clear offensive scheme that opts instead to ask far too much of its superstar.

On the bright side, the streak may have showed Phil Jackson, James Dolan and Irving Azoff that they might not need to tear this whole thing down to build a winner. On the other, it's obvious that the Knicks' issues can't be fixed on the fly. It remains to be seen what Carmelo Anthony thinks of all this and whether he'll decide he wants to play somewhere else next season.

As for what's left of this year, the Knicks will try to get back on track Tuesday when they travel to LA to take on the Lakers in the first game of a five game west coast trip. After last night's loss, it'll take a miracle for them to follow that track into the playoffs.

You can follow Jonathan Fishner on Twitter @therealkingfish, and check out his blog The Real King Fish.