Yesterday, I was playing tennis with my son when Shams announced that Dallas had fired head coach Jason Kidd after five seasons. My thoughts immediately turned to those rumors from last summer. Remember how the Knicks brass, needing to fill their own coaching vacancy, allegedly tried to finagle access to Kidd? In the end, they hired Mike Brown, a veteran skipper and two-time recipient of Coach of the Year honors. Not a bad second—or third, or fourth, or fifth—choice, we thought.
The Knicks proceeded
to win the most games in 13 seasons. Last night, they hosted Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Just a hunch, but methinks the number of Knicks fans who would prefer Kidd to Brown right now is quite small.
After their second loss to the Hawks in Round One, New York rejiggered their offense. That led to a legendary tear, with seven straight wins and the Knicks’ offense finally reaching its potential after playing an 82*-game season. One of our concerns before the ECF was that while the ‘Bockers waited nine days for Cleveland to beat Detroit, they could get rusty. Or worse, they’d forget how to execute their brand-new, world-stomping offense.
Both concerns proved valid. Despite limiting the Cavs to 16 first-quarter points, New York looked little like the team that crushed the Sixers. Scoring just 23 points in each of the first three quarters and falling behind by 22, our heroes appeared completely cooked until the Brunson Burner kicked on and Coach Brown pulled all the right levers. Donning his cape—and with ample support from Mikal Bridges and Landry Shamet—Captain Clutch scored 15 points in the fourth quarter to lead a 28-4 run that sent the game into overtime. (If you can believe it, that magical run reached 44-11.) In the fifth frame, the Cavs reached the bottom of their tank, New York scored the first nine points, and the improbable win was secured: 115-104.
Cleveland took their best swing, but the better team dug deep and found a way. And look at that: each Conference Finals Game One went to overtime. Lord Silver must be pleased.
Early on, nine days of rust showed for the home team. Bricks came aplenty, with misfires by OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart (twice), and Jalen Brunson (twice). New York trailed by six before the midway point, having whiffed on their first five three-point attempts and 75% of their field goals. Luckily for them, neither team was shooting efficiently. At the five-minute mark, Mitchell Robinson picked off a Harden pass and then grabbed a rebound, which became a Brunson reverse layup, capping a 10-3 run for their first lead.
After a Cleveland timeout, New York kept the good times going. Bridges stole the ball from Max Strus and added a dunk; Dennis Schröder missed on a floater, and Brunson responded with a floater; Evan Mobley traveled, and Bridges fed Mitch an alley-oop. When the cutting was done, the teams had combined to shoot 16-of-45 from the field and 3-of-17 from deep. The Knicks were up 23-16.
In the second quarter, the Knicks continued to live in the Cavs’ jerseys. After Bridges, Anunoby, and Hart had pressured Cleveland into their lowest-scoring first quarter of the season, the bench did the same. On one sequence, Jose Alvarado closed in on Mitchell, almost wrestled the rock away, forced him into a panicked pass, and Keon Ellis tossed that hot potato out of bounds. Jose won’t get credit for it, but his dogged defense totally killed the possession for The Land.
New York needed the defensive intensity because they still misfired from beyond the arc. When OG finally connected from the corner just past the midway mark, the hosts attained their first double-digit lead of the contest. But then bench guy Sam Merrill retaliated with a triple, Harden matched it, and a 10-0 run cut the differential to one.
All those rusty three-point misses were costly, indeed. With a minute left in the half, a Strus triple tied the game, and one by Spida completed a 13-point swing. That gave Cleveland a 48-46 halftime lead.
The half was won in the paint and lost at the arc. New York dominated the interior, racking up a 32-14 advantage in paint points and shooting an efficient 47% from the floor. That inside success was completely offset by a disastrous 11% shooting performance from deep (2-of-19). Cleveland stayed afloat by knocking down eight triples at a 38% clip, but they bled points on the other end, specifically by turning the ball over 11 times and giving up 15 points off those mistakes. Predictably, Mitchell and Brunson were the top scorers so far, with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
To start the third, Towns missed from deep, then made one to end a 2-for-21 spell. KAT also committed a turnover and a holding foul that nullified a flagrant foul by Allen on Hart. Definitely a mixed bag of a game for the big fella. Meanwhile, the Cavs did what New York couldn’t—namely, convert from deep. With longballs by Wade and Evan Mobley, and Mitchell ripping the ball out of Bridges’ hands for a pick-six, New York fell behind by eight. Spida already had six steals. Things were about to get worse.
The Knicks completely lost control of the quarter, undone by sloppy turnovers (seven in nine minutes), more Siberian shooting, and Cleveland’s relentless transition attack. Mitchell was the biggest problem, carving up the Knicks’ defense and turning multiple steals into buckets. New York’s halfcourt offense crumbled with missed isos and rushed jumpers from Brunson and Towns. Meanwhile, Allen and Mobley dominated the glass and protected the rim on the other end.
You were asking, “Where was OG? Where was KAT?” We were, too. Those guys were essential to the new offense that was birthed against the Hawks. After three quarters, they’d combined for 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
Oh, and Hack-a-Mitch came back. Our man was missing from the stripe again, making 2-of-8 in the deep end of the third. Around then, New York fell behind by 16 and looked nothing like the team that faced Philadelphia. When Hart passed the ball past Brunson’s knees and out of bounds with 50 seconds left, things looked bleak; they got even darker when Brunson missed another free throw with 11 seconds left.
They were lucky to be down just 83-69 to start the fourth. Little was going right in the final frame, too. Two minutes in, Jordan Clarkson missed an uncontested bunny; then Brunson turned the ball over and missed on a drive to the cup. Towns grabbed a rebound, but then Mobley stuffed Bridges on a drive. Clarkson fouled Wade in the corner for a four-point play. KAT missed a layup. Mitchell connected from deep. Bridges airballed from 26 feet. The deficit reached 22, and this game got late early. Hardly anything that came before gave us any confidence that our heroes would turn this tilt around, nor could we dare to imagine the miracle that was about to unfold.
Landry “Always Ready” Shamet hit a three-pointe to get the deficit under 20, and Brunson went high off the glass to score over Wade. In a flash, an 11-1 run brought the hole to a dozen with five minutes left. When Allen missed two freebies, Brunson canned a floater from the elbow to make it 10. Suddenly, the Garden, which had turned silent as a crypt, regained its voice. The fans lost their minds when Harden airballed out of bounds, then Brunson hit a floater and a 26-footer to make the deficit five.
Out of a timeout, Mobley canned a triple at the three-minute mark. Anunoby made 1-of-2 free throws, but a loose-ball foul gave New York another possession, and Bridges hit a Hail Mary from the perimeter.
Down by four, KAT committed a maddening off-ball holding foul that could have doomed the rally. But not so! Brunson found Bridges in the corner for another triple, then Shamet made a three that bounced around and tied the game! With seconds to go, Merrill’s game-winner rimmed out, and the ref missed coach Brown’s plea for a timeout. We had overtime!
During bonus basketball, the team that played a Game Seven two days earlier lost its legs. Harden, specifically, simply disintegrated before our eyes. The hosts scored the first nine points of the frame, capped by another Shamet triple, and although Strus cut the deficit to six with 1:45 left, back-to-back fouls by Merrill kept the hosts in control. Then, finally, Bridges swatted away Strus’ dribble to kill another Cleveland possession, and Anunoby’s free throws carried us out.
Quoth chinaski1980: “Unbelievable comeback.” That, my friend, might be the understatement of the year. According to the broadcast (our very own Mike Breen!), it was the largest playoff comeback victory since 1970.
So, everyone’s cool with keeping Coach Brown, right? Seems to be doing a decent job. Now here’s yours: pay close attention. Commit as much to memory as you possibly can. Because this is the team you’ll be telling future generations about.
Up Next
Game Two will be played here on Thursday. Rest up, Knickerbockers. Box Score
* Should be one more, but NBA Cups are made by Dixie.
