Editor’s note: The following is a brief selection of a running diary of Game 2 of the Knicks-Celtics playoff series, played on April 19, 2011 at TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.

At 11:15 PM, in the grand ballroom of the downtown Philadelphia Sheraton hotel, a small crowd surrounds board 20 at the far end of the table.

Rumor has it that at the Nass, there is a gap in the otherwise omniscient knowledge of the staff, and that that gap is called “sports.” Not so, ladies and gentlemen. Let me tell you a thing or two about layin’ up the three-pointer ball and slammin’ in the dunkin’.