Knicks' painful first impression isn't without its worries, even if it's still early

Well, that was something.

What it was was carnage. A beating. A blast. It was a spanking and a spanking. It was a beating and a beating, a bleeding and a beating. It was definitely eye-opening and stomach-churning when the loyalty lay with the team that wore white uniforms rather than those that wore green.

What it was was Celtics 132, Knicks 109, at Boston's TD Garden, and it could have easily been much, much worse if the Knicks hadn't waved a white flag, which the Celtics had accepted, but only after they gave the Knicks caught my eye a few more times. This looked like a college buy game where the Knicks cashed in 500 Large to get their heads on Homecoming Day.

The Celtics raised a banner and then put down a hammer.

“Defensively we have to be a lot better than we have been,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said as the carnage ended. “There was some indecision. When you play against a team like that you have to fight. One attempt is not enough, you have to be the second, third and fourth attempt. And even then, they still have the ability to do it.”

That's what they do. At one notable point in the second half, the Knicks shot 59.1 percent from the field, the C's 58; the Celtics led 99-70.

No, this wasn't the way Thibs had hoped. This was certainly not what Leon Rose had in mind when he created the roster with the express goal of better competing with the Celtics. On opening nights, this was “Moose Murders,” and if you’re not an expert on Broadway trivia, you can either trust me or Google it. That was so bad.

And he also evoked the famous final scene of “The Candidate,” in which Robert Redford’s elected senator, Bill McKay, dragged Peter Boyle’s Marvin Lucas into a hotel room and asked, “What do we do now?”

Last but not least, Thibodeau was able to collect more teaching moments in these 48 minutes than in the entire previous season. Look: The Celtics are currently the NBA gold standard. They are the defending champions and as healthy and intact as a champion has been since at least the 2004-05 Pistons, even without Kristaps Porzingis.

The Knicks? In comparison, they are still getting to know each other. They're still in the bonding phase, and Tuesday night's team-building study showed them combining to see 29 of the Celtics' first 48 3-pointers come through. Some of them were open. Most were controversial. And with each one you could see the light dimming in the Knicks' eyes.

(It was almost hilarious that the moment the Celtics broke the NBA record with their 29th three-pointer – with just under nine minutes to play – they missed their last 13 shots of the game, leaving the crowd one more shot at the record bat.) On their final possession, Boston coach Joe Mazzulla ordered them to kneel instead. Like I said: ALMOST hilarious.

“The NBA needs to drug test these guys,” Josh Hart said, cracking a joke at the end because what else can you say? “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

So this is where you start: you look for the thin branches of positivity that have grown through the mud and mud. Deuce McBride, for example, scored 22 points off the bench on 8 of 10, just as we remember him from last spring's best nights. Karl-Anthony Towns, limited to just 24 minutes after the game spiraled out of control, showed why he'll be an entertaining watch all year long.

Perhaps most important was the second half from Mikal Bridges. Bridges had been brutal across the board in the first half, missing all five of his shots and looking like a putter who was having a bad bout of “yips” every time he raised his arm to shoot. But in the second round he was 7 of 8 and 2 of 3 from 3. The game was already decided, but that came against the Celtics' starters. It was something.

It's a long season, yes. It's certainly a long way from now until the critical hours in April, May and June. It only counts for a loss, just like a punch in the gut in four overtimes: undeniable.

But also a little worrying. How could it not be? The Knicks believed they had at least made progress toward closing the gap on the Celtics. And they could still do it. But for now, after one game, a game in which they wanted to see where they could keep up with the Celtics, the result was a painful diagnosis everywhere: head, heart, eyes, ears, esophagus.

It was a long night. Luckily for the Knicks, it's also a long season.