In the words of Don Henley, everything can shift dramatically in just a New York minute.
Just a couple of weeks back, the New York Knicks were trailing the Atlanta Hawks 2-1, teetering on the brink of a first-round playoff disaster. Fans were calling for the dismissal of Mike Brown and demanding Mikal Bridges be benched, if not released. Jalen Brunson was being outperformed by CJ McCollum, and Karl-Anthony Towns seemed to vanish in the final quarters. The tension in New York was palpable.
Fast forward to Friday evening, and the Knicks have strung together six successive victories—securing three consecutive wins to eliminate the Hawks, and now leading the Philadelphia 76ers 3-0 after a decisive 108-94 victory on the road in Game 3. The Knicks are now poised for the Eastern Conference finals, where they will likely be the favorites regardless of whether they face the Detroit Pistons or the Cleveland Cavaliers, who struggle to match the Knicks’ offensive prowess and physical intensity.
The victory on Friday was anything but ordinary. Missing OG Anunoby, the Knicks faced a Sixers team fighting for its postseason survival. Joel Embiid made his return, and Paul George scored 15 points in the first quarter. With the home crowd energized, it seemed initially like the Sixers might make a comeback to keep the series competitive.
However, the Knicks had different plans. They executed a professional win by maintaining their strategy. They tightened their defense and tapped into their bench, with significant contributions from Landry Shamet, Mitchell Robinson, and Jordan Clarkson, who has surprisingly become a defensive asset. Bridges delivered a standout performance, while Brunson—on his way to becoming perhaps the greatest Knicks player—dominated the game, scoring 18 of his 33 points in the second half.
The Knicks have always shown the potential of a true contender at their best. Yet, consistency has often eluded them, with past playoff appearances revealing their flaws at the most inopportune moments. This team, however, appears to be different. There’s a remarkable synergy developing between their offense and defense, promising something genuinely special.
There’s a rock-solid identity here. Everyone is locked into their role. Towns has 46 assists over this six-game run, and his playmaking has unlocked a whole new dimension for a New York offense that now doesn’t have to be so Brunson-centric. Josh Hart is the juice. Anunoby is a top-shelf two-way playoff player, and can now take the time he needs to fully rest his strained hamstring with this series unofficially wrapped up.
Meanwhile, Bridges has turned his postseason, and perhaps even the perception of his entire Knicks tenure, completely around. After posting a bagel in Game 3 against the Hawks, he’s averaging 20.5 points on 68% shooting over the past four games. He had 24 in the closeout game vs. Atlanta. He had 23 on Friday. He’s made seven of his last 13 3-pointers.
Bridges, like everyone in a Knicks uniform right now, is also defending his ass off. George didn’t score a single point after his 15-point first quarter. Tyrese Maxey was only able to attempt 12 shots as New York was hard doubling and fighting over screens (serious shout out to Bridges and Shamet) to stay attached as the bigs moved their feet to keep him from turning the corner. It was a carryover from Game 2, when the Knicks held Maxey to seven second-half points with more turnovers than field goals.
You start going down the list of championship traits, and suddenly the Knicks are checking every box:
- Offense: The Knicks have been an elite offense all year, finishing the regular season with the No. 4 rating and they’re No. 2 so far in the playoffs at 122.3 points per 100 possessions. They are leading the playoffs in paint points and rank second in 3-point shooting percentage. They have every element that you need to dominate offensively in the playoffs: the star creator in Brunson, the multi-faceted big in Towns, shooters everywhere (best true-shooting percentage in the playoffs so far), offensive rebounding (which we’ll get to), transition speed (second in fast-break points so far in the playoffs), the works.
- Defense: Quietly, the Knicks boasted the league’s second-best defensive rating from Jan. 21 forward. They have been stifling in the playoffs, where they have held their opponent under 100 points in five of their nine games so far. They’re pressuring the ball, playing physical as hell, rotating on a string and protecting the paint as they’ve surrendered just 41.3 points per game so far in the postseason. That would’ve qualified as the league’s second-best mark in the regular season.
- Rebounding: The Knicks clean up on the glass. They gave up the fewest second-chance points in the regular season at 13.1 per game, and they have dropped that number to 11.6 in the playoffs (also No. 1). Meanwhile, they are scoring 17.7 second-chance points per game on their end, second only to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs, and their 54.4 overall rebounding percentage is the best mark in the playoffs so far.
- Crunch-time killers: The Knicks outscored their opponents by 238 points in the fourth quarter during the regular season. The next-closest team was Cleveland at plus-162. With Brunson captaining the offense, and the defense locked in, you do not want to be in a close game against the Knicks down the stretch.
- Postseason dominance: The Knicks have lost two games so far in the playoffs, each by a single point. They have outscored opponents by an average of 18.2 points per game and their plus-18.8 net rating is No. 1 so far in the postseason.
Keep in mind, these are just the general measurables. When you talk about a team having something “special” brewing, it’s just as much about the less quantifiable stuff. The vibes are off the charts. The energy, the buy-in, the physicality, the flat-out toughness. This team is playing like it knows how good it is, not like the one that, over the last few years, has been trying to find out.
We have to be careful not to get too carried away, as they haven’t been faced with an elite opponent yet, and frankly, they won’t be the rest of the way through the East (Detroit is good but not great; Cleveland is nothing special).
The road to the Finals has never been clearer in the Brunson era, and the Knicks look primed to take advantage.
