It’s gameday, everyone.
The New York Knicks are in the NBA Finals. June basketball is here. I never thought this day would come.
I’ve spent the last few days reliving the recent playoff runs via YouTube highlights to truly encompass the path we’ve endured to get here, and while we can maybe save the whole story of the Knicks for another day, it’s important that we reflect on the 14 games that bridged a topsy-turvy regular season and the pinnacle of basketball.
The Knicks are 4.5-point underdogs tonight
and +160 underdogs to raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy, both according to FanDuel, but with the way this team has been playing and the lessons they’ve learned about themselves over the course of the postseason, I don’t know how you can be anything but confident in their chances.
Let’s look back at the five plays that have defined this playoff run thus far:
The ending sequence of Game 3 in Atlanta
This might seem like an odd choice, given that this sequence resulted in a Knicks defeat, but we likely don’t see the absolute dominance we’ve gotten for the last 11 games without this game.
It was easy to chalk up Game 2 as a game of playoff shenanigans. A young team scrapped their way back from a 14-point deficit and rode the coattails of a generational heater by their vet, CJ McCollum, and caught the favorite napping in their own gym. It happens.
But when Atlanta burst out to an 18-point lead in Game 3, you started to get concerned, but the veteran team was able to weather the storm of being punched in the mouth on the road and came all the way back to take the lead late. This was the moment that the Knicks’ experience would prevail.
Well, not quite. After a very bad offensive possession resulted in a shot clock violation, Atlanta inbounded with 16 seconds left, trailing by one. The Knicks decided to play straight up, allowing McCollum to get the ball and face Deuce McBride 1-on-1. That strategy failed, and the Hawks took the lead.
Still, they had a chance to take the lead back or even win the game if they held the ball long enough. Yet, despite having one of the most clutch players on the planet, his resolve vanished in a similar fashion to the way it did in Game 6 against Miami three years ago, a mistake that ended their season.
This play personified the Knicks’ offense at this point. Mikal Bridges didn’t want the ball. Karl-Anthony Towns was willing to sit in the background. The team was utterly dependent on Jalen Brunson bailing them out late in games. If he struggled, the team was dead in the water.
Tears were shed in that locker room after falling behind 1-2. Knowing that this was unacceptable and sensing that a premature exit would mark the end of this era of Knicks basketball, everything changed after this.
They stopped letting McCollum work in isolation, blitzing him to force it out of his hands. They shifted to a KAT-centric offense, lightening the load on Brunson. Bridges found his confidence. Losing this game was necessary to be the wake-up call this team needed to get to the NBA Finals.
OG’s and-1 to go up 50 in Game 6
Fast forward to Game 6. The Knicks rolled to a Game 4 win to even up the series heading back to MSG and eviscerated the Hawks at home to put them on the brink of elimination in Game 6.
Despite falling behind 9-5 early, the Knicks looked the part of a Great White Shark. Their opponent was wounded and on their back feet.
They. Smelled. Blood.
The next 17-ish minutes saw the team go on a jaw-dropping 67-13 run, repeatedly turning over the Hawks, running out in transition, and scoring at will. The margin was incomprehensible. This sequence personified the degree of ass-kicking this game was.
Jalen Johnson, whose terrific All-NBA season went up in smoke over the course of this series, gets put into a box by Mitchell Robinson in the paint. Josh Hart races into the frontcourt before Atlanta could set their defense, allowing OG Anunoby to get downhill and score. The only reason it didn’t sound like a funeral after this was because of the Knicks fans.
Brunson’s five-point swing in Game 4 to close out Philly
There was no adversity to overcome in the four-game sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round. The only game that was competitive in the fourth quarter was Game 2, when Joel Embiid sat. The only game that Philly took a double digit lead was Game 2, but they didn’t lead for the last 34 minutes of the game.
By Game 4, the Sixers were dead. The Knicks were making triple after triple, much to the chagrin of the jarringly small number of Philly fans at Xfinity Mobile Arena. It was a Mother’s Day Massacre.
But no sequence displayed the true disparity between the heart and desire of these two teams more than when the Knicks extended their lead from 24 to 29 in less than 10 seconds early in the second half.
Brunson shakes Dominick Barlow out of his shoes and goes up-and-under Embiid for a reverse layup. A misguided outlet pass from Embiid was picked off by Deuce McBride, who got a hockey assist after Bridges hit Brunson in the corner for a three that gave the Knicks 99 points with over 19 minutes of game time remaining.
Landry Shamet’s gift from the heavens
The only time the Knicks have felt adversity in the last 40 days was Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. A rusty Knicks team couldn’t buy a make and were repeatedly exploited defensively as the Cavs abused the same game plan that stunted Tyrese Maxey and the 76ers.
It was 93-71 with under eight minutes to go, but we all know what happened from there. Brunson showed Tyler Kolek the true meaning of BBQ chicken with what he did to James Harden, dragging this team back into the game.
If I could pick a few more clips, I’d give credit to two gigantic shots by Bridges that countered the lone buckets from Cleveland down the stretch and gave the team life. Most of us thought it was over when Towns committed a dumb offensive foul, but his clutch shotmaking set up what happened next.
Towns got a piece of a Spida floater with a minute to go that gave the Knicks the ball, down by three. Brunson brought the ball up, was double-teamed, and made the right read to kick it to Anunoby, who then swung it to a wide open Landry Shamet.
If he misses this shot, the Cavs will have a three-point lead and the ball with under 45 seconds to go. The margin for error would be nonexistent. When the ball first hit the rim, it seemed like that was reality, but the basketball gods repaid the Knicks for Tyrese Haliburton’s improbable game-tying shot in a similar spot last year, giving Shamet a friendly role.
The Knicks aren’t here without Shamet’s blisteringly hot shooting. Every contender needs someone who can turn into a flamethrower on cue.
Cleveland gives up in Game 3
In case you haven’t noticed, a trend of this article is the Knicks breaking their opponents. It’s like Mike Brown’s been showing them clips from Rocky IV:
At this point, it’s all but academic in Game 3. The Knicks had come to Rocket Arena and had all but killed the Cavaliers. A 3-0 deficit is logistically impossible to come back from in basketball.
But you kinda had a feeling that the Memorial Day massacre was coming when Cleveland basically gave up at the end of the game. It looked like a team that was mentally checked out, something that was validated by Kenny Atkinson’s foolish remarks the next day at shootaround.
Aside from Max Strus, everyone stopped playing. This was a team dead in the water, mortally wounded by Game 1’s impossible comeback and firmly on life support after two more devastating blows to the heart. The Knicks are breaking their opponents, and that’s how they’ve made it to the NBA Finals.
BONUS: Danhausen’s curse
This has nothing to do with basketball, but the results speak for themselves, don’t they?
Maybe I’m just a tad superstitious.
