It’s been a million years since the New York Knicks last graced a basketball court. But the playoffs haven’t stopped and our beloved Knickerbockers are back it, starting on Tuesday, and hooping in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second year and row.
After beating a pesky Atlanta Hawks squad and vaporizing the Philadelphia 76ers, the Knicks are facing a much tougher matchup on paper against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Can they keep it rolling? Can they extend their ongoing seven-game winning streak?
Will the vibes stay the same as they’ve been for the past few weeks and into the depths of June!?
As usual, the Posting & Toasting crew has squeezed back around the round(ball) table to cut through the noise and tackle the juiciest questions surrounding New York’s EFC showdown with their Cleveland foes. Our panel of basketball geniuses tackled the following questions:
How many games will the Knicks-Cavaliers ECF last, and who makes the Finals?
Antonio: I failed miserably predicting Embiid/Maxey to have an unwinnable game each against the Knicks. I’ll put my reputation on the line once again cause I don’t think it’s that risky. I refuse to believe Donovan Mitchell won’t at least have one of those ridiculous 50-burger outings he puts together here and there, and the Cavs have a bunch of very solid starters, so as not to combine for another victory. Give me Knicks in six and I’d be pleased.
Miranda: Knicks in five. The Cavs won two Game 7s to get this far, and that has to mean something. But those wins were over two teams still learning to rub two sticks together on offense, so how much those Cavs wins matter is pro’ly more eye-of-the-beholder than usual.
Zeno: I gave the Sixers way too much credit last round, and that’s my bad, but I would truly be shocked if the Cavs looked as bad as they did, even with the grueling postseason they’ve endured so far. There are a lot of key matchups in this one, but I lean the Knicks to win a war of attrition and wear down a fatigued Cavs squad in six games to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in 27 years.
Kento: The Cavaliers will be the best team the Knicks have played. They, even more so than the two previous teams the Knicks played, pose some unique challenges, but they aren’t hurt, and they aren’t inexperienced. The Cavaliers have a lot of talent, and are more versatile in the ways they can play than the Hawks, and 76ers too. I also think the Knicks’ offense, partly because of how the Cavaliers will defend them, will come back down to earth. But I still think they have the depth, talent, home-court advantage, and rest to take them over the top. Knicks in six.
Beyond Jalen Brunson, who is the most important Knick in the ECF?
Antonio: Everybody’s talking about OG—both health- and talent-wise—but I just can’t go with anyone else than Mitchell Robinson. Yes, bench guy. Yes, awful at the line. Yes, a limited-minutes, strategical advantange for the Cavs. But when Mitch is on, he’s a menace, and the Knicks will need all of it to deal with the Mobley-Allen pairing in the paint. Robinson already dominated Cleveland’s bigs in 2023. Let’s have a re-do.
Miranda: OG Anunoby. Specifically, his hamstring. Both these teams feature multiple quality big men. Both feature elite combo guards. Both are led by coaches whose CV would be gussied up quite a bit with the addition of an NBA title. And while I agree with Joe Vardon that Max Strus looks a little beefier than in the past, maybe the biggest difference between the teams is one has an 80-inch, 240 pound two-way monster who was the Eastern playoffs MVP before hurting his hamstring, and the other has Strus. If OG is anything close to what he was the first two rounds, Cleveland has no chance.
Zeno: The longest tenured Knick, Mitchell Robinson. In 2023, he and Isaiah Hartenstein brutalized Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen to a pulp on the boards. iHart is gone, and Karl-Anthony Towns does more than enough on the boards to replace him, but I truly believe this series needs to have a gigantic performance from Big Mitch on the boards. In two games against Cleveland this year, he grabbed 29 rebounds (16 offensive) in 36 total minutes. More of that, please.
Kento: Josh Hart. The Cavaliers have the defensive personnel to guard Hart with a center-something that has long stifled the team’s offense. The Knicks have found some workarounds, but still lack a consistent enough counter to when opponents do that. If Hart is a willing, and effective enough shooter, it won’t matter. But if he becomes hesitant, or goes completely cold, this series could get uncomfortable. I also think his offensive rebounding, and defense on Harden and or Mitchell will be imperative to winning this series as well.
What must New York do to win this series and represent the East in the Finals?
Antonio: Drag the series into a seven-game affair so the Cavs wave the white flag. No, seriously, they simply have to do what they earned in the regular season and Cleveland helped them get for the third consecutive round: play to their home-court advantage, start the ECF going up 2-0, and go from there. There’s no way the Cavs pull off the miracle if they go two games behind to start the conference finals, coming off playing 14 games in a month, let alone with New York having nine days off. If we’re going Xs & Os, be mad quick and jump all possible passing lanes. Yes, you’ll get caught here and there, but the Cavs turn the ball over like madmen, so more often than not, those mistakes and an active D should do wonders for the Knicks.
Miranda: The Cavaliers barely beat a Raptors team with RJ Barrett as a leading scorer and a Pistons team whose best scorer after Cade Cunningham was Tobias Harris, who shot 39% in the series. So they’re obviously leveling up taking on the scoring Xanadu that is these Knicks. But the surest way for the Knicks to win the series is to pick their poison on defense and stick with it: either play Donovan Mitchell pretty straight-up and ensure none of his teammates get going, or refuse to let Mitchell beat them and leave it to the rest of the Cavs to make shots. The Cavs are by far the best scoring side the Knicks have seen this postseason, but I don’t think they have enough players capable of going off. After Mitchell, I don’t think they have any.
Zeno: Make Cleveland’s offense uncomfortable. They lead all the teams in turnovers and points allowed off turnovers as Donovan Mitchell and James Harden are trading bad performances. It’s hard to shut the water off on both of them, but even making one extremely frustrated can disrupt their offensive flow and allow you to score in transition.
Kento: Win the possession battle. Throughout the ups and downs, and the craziness of the Cavaliers’ postseason run, a few things remain a constant. They’ve actually been a good offensive rebounding team, but still struggle with keeping opponents off the offensive glass, and they have not only been turnover prone, but have been abysmal in transition defense. Thankfully, the Knicks have been great at rebounding the ball on both ends of the floor, and while they don’t force a ton of turnovers, they’ve been among the best in the league at converting their limited opportunities into points. If the Knicks can win the possession battle against an already fatigued team, it could be the ultimate difference-maker.
What concerns you most about the Knicks entering the ECF?
Antonio: Rust. If you frequent the comment section of P&T, you’ve read me mentioning it since the day the Knicks clinched their spot in the ECF, let alone each passing day the Cavs-Pistons series extended for yet another game. Having a few days off might help, but being out for damn nine days is unheard of, so we don’t even know how that might or might not work out in favor of or against New York. That said, once both teams settle into the series, and the longer they last, it’s fair to assume the Knicks should have a sizable fresh-legs advantage.
Miranda: Madison Square Garden is as big a homecourt advantage for a Game 7 as there is in the Association, but earlier in playoff series it can feel more the opposite. I think that’s more about how fandom has evolved over time than anything specific to MSG, but I suspect that as players have become more like comrades than enemies (which I don’t mind) and every team is now a billionaire vanity project, the little things that used to differentiate between the haves and have-nots don’t really apply anymore, including homecourt advantage.
When the Bad Boys won back-to-back titles in the late 1980s, owner Bill Davidson made them the first team to have their own private charter, Roundball One. If the Pistons were flying private during a playoff series and whoever they were beating up on was still flying commercial, that was a big advantage. A year ago Forbes estimated Cavs’ owner Dan Gilbert’s “worth” as $22.5 billion. That’s par for the course nowadays. My biggest worry, at least earlier in the series, is whether playing at home with all the pressure to win that there is on this group, for the first time ever, could build to an uncomfortable point.
Zeno: The long time off might be an obvious answer, but I’ll go with Cleveland’s 3-point shooting. The biggest advantage you had in a potential series against Detroit was their lack of it, but the Knicks will have to not only guard Mitchell and Harden closely, but stay home on guys like Max Strus, Dean Wade, and Sam Merrill on the perimeter. This team is very capable of pouring it on offensively.
Kento: As mentioned above, the Cavaliers defense, and more specifically, how they defend Hart. Dean Wade has boasted great individual defensive numbers against Brunson this year, but seeing as he averaged damn near 30PPG against VJ Edgecombe, who had similar success, I’m not as worried there. But the Knicks’ worst offensive droughts often come when teams put their centers on Hart. When, not if, the Cavaliers deploy that strategy, how will Hart, the rest of the Knicks, and Brown respond? And just as importantly, if the offenses starts to struggle, can Brown pull the plug, and not only make the necessary adjustments, but do so quick enough to avoid becoming the next Thibodeau?
Heading into the ECF, what gives you the most confidence about New York amid its postseason run?
Antonio: It took them more than 90 games and a few locker room discussions amid the Hawks series, no less (welp) to get their excrement together, but the Knicks have finally blossomed into the uber-killing machine we envisioned in August and watched win the winter tourney. Seriously, there is just no realistic scenario in which the Cavs catch such a massive break as the Pacers did last year—injuries, bounces, whatnot—to kick the Knicks out of contention. I just refuse to believe it.
Miranda: They’ve never lost a playoff series against Cleveland. Plus, after their last four ECFs dating back to 1994 came against Indiana, the Knicks’ mirror nemesis, it will be refreshing not to face the dark chaos magic that is every f***ing Pacers team ever.
Zeno: Two things, actually. The rest advantage and the way they’ve been playing. The Cavs have played 14 games in 30 days leading into this series and could play as many as 21 in 44 days. In the regular season, players will load manage, and the games are less intense, but it’s a whole different beast in the playoffs. They were exhausted against the Pacers last year, and the Knicks can do the same thing to them. Secondly, we just watched the most dominant seven-game stretch in Knicks history. I’m not going to doubt them until I see them deviate from this winning formula on both ends of the floor.
Kento: I’ll cheat and go with two. One is Brunson. I tend to believe that in the postseason, when the talent level is close enough, the team with the best player usually wins. That should give the Knicks the advantage. But I’ll echo what everyone else is saying and also go with the trajectory of both teams. I get that every series is a new series but the Cavaliers have played four more games, needed seven games to beat a solid, but mediocre Raptors team, and a Pistons team who’s second best offensive player was…. Tobias Harris? Meanwhile, the Knicks are rested, are more prepared, and have been playing the best basketball of the season, and overall look as focused as they ever have.
