The more you watch the Knicks play in these playoffs, the more one word comes to mind: balance. This isn’t a team that can rely solely on Jalen Brunson, although they would certainly love to have him in a crunch time. But it probably wouldn’t have gone far enough for Brunson to take over in the fourth if it weren’t for a concerted effort by New York’s pitching staff Wednesday night. And now, here are the Knicks, three wins away from the franchise’s first championship since 1973, after a 105-95 victory over the Spurs in Game 1 of the Finals.
It marks New York’s 12th straight victory, dating back to their Game 4 victory over the Hawks in the first round. They haven’t lost a game in nearly six weeks. Over an 11-game winning streak before the start of these Finals, New York has outscored its opponents by 262 points, or an average of 23.8 points per game. That’s the best stretch of basketball in recorded playoff history.
But be honest, you were wondering how legit the streak was. You knew the Knicks were good, we all did, but they were that good? How much of that dominance can be attributed to the Eastern Conference championship? Even Draymond Green laughed at the idea of the Knicks accomplishing anything remarkable by making the finals.
“You should get out of the East,” Green joked on his podcast. “It’s in the f—ing East. Of course you have to get out of the East.”
That was not true, however. The Knicks were +2200 to win the East before the playoffs started. No champion in the last 40 years, which is as far back as we can track this type of thing, has entered the postseason with a long chance of competing. So, no, the Knicks weren’t there which is appropriate to overcome anything.
And then, even when they won the East in the most impressive way in history, sweeping the 76ers and the Cavaliers after the Hawks ended their three-game winning streak by a combined 96 points, people were ready to write off the entire run with the Spurs’ one-game victory in Game 1. See, I told you they couldn’t keep up with the big boys!
Well, so much for that. The Knicks didn’t play very well in Game 1 and rallied from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter to win by double digits. On the street. When we face Victor Wembanyama, this unstoppable force from another planet, he is actually made to look like an honest person because of the defense of the Knicks, which, if you don’t pay attention, is a unit that registered in the top five in the two-plus months of the season and allowed only 102.9 points in 100 possessions in the playoffs.
Josh Hart helps the Knicks steal Game 1 of the NBA Finals with a performance that only he could muster
Sam Quinn
Adding this one win to their postseason ledger shouldn’t change the perception of how good this Knicks team is, but it does. Accept it. One win over the Spurs proves more to most people than the 11-game winning streak that preceded it. And now you can’t help but marvel at what the Knicks are doing, because dominance is suddenly guaranteed.
Counting Wednesday night, the Knicks have now won 12 straight playoff games with an NBA record 272 points. That streak included seven straight double-digit road wins, another record for any single-season streak, and eight straight wins by at least 10 total points.
Even counting the two losses against Atlanta, their plus-281 point differential is also the last in history through the first 15 games of the postseason. Next are the 2017 Warriors at plus-242, the 1996 Bulls at plus-210 and the 1987 Lakers at plus-206. Those three teams went on to win the title.
Will the Knicks do the same? It certainly looks a lot better than it did before the series started, when the Rangers had them as a decided underdog, but it’s far from over. You’d probably be surprised to learn that road teams that take Game 1 of the Finals go on to win the series 42% of the time. It has happened 19 times, and the team that lost in the first 11 times won back.
So there is still plenty of hope for Spurs fans. But if they didn’t realize what kind of opponent they were up against, they do now. Once again, the Knicks haven’t played their best game and still have pulled off the biggest second-half comeback in a Finals game since 1970, and the second-biggest Game 1 comeback in a playoff era, dating back to 1997.
The Knicks entered the game shooting 40% from 3, the highest in the postseason, but they made 11 of 36 (31%) on Wednesday. Brunson missed 13 of his first 18 shots. The Spurs delivered what felt like a major blow by ending the first half with a quick 5-0 run to take a seven-point halftime lead, and eventually turned that into a 20-3 run heading into the third quarter.
But the Knicks just kept playing defense, forcing the Spurs to go 2-for-19 from 3 in the second half en route to their lowest point total in the postseason. The Knicks continued to win offensive boards which resulted in them scoring 22 points in the second half. They continued to take care of the ball with just one turnover in the second half. All of this kept them fighting until the postseason offense that you knew would eventually happen.
Brunson will get plenty of headlines for scoring 13 of 30 points on 5-of-9 shooting in the fourth quarter, and rightfully so. The Knicks were the best fourth quarter team in the league by a country mile this season, and he was a big reason why.
In the last four games, Brunson’s 143 points are 59 more than the next guy (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander). In these playoffs, he’s No. 1 in the fourth quarter with an absurd 59/61/93 split. To say the guy is clutch would be an understatement. It doesn’t matter if you have a good game. When it’s time to win, you have Michael Jordan gear.
On Wednesday, Brunson made one of his first eight three-pointers. But when it came time for the biggest shot of the game and the Knicks down by one with less than two minutes to play, you’d bet the house on this thing.
And this fake pump, the rainbow pass by Devin Vassell that made every win was sick.
But it wasn’t just Brunson. And, balance is the voice of this game. The Knicks, with great intent, have put together a roster full of guys who can do a lot. They can all shoot, pass, dunk and defend. Even with all the criticism Brunson took on defense, in Game 1, the Spurs shot just 1 of 14 when he was the primary defender, according to ESPN statistics. Matchup data can be muddy, but that’s wild statistics.
It speaks to the lack of weakness in a well-rounded team. Consider that throughout the season, the Knicks did not register in the top 10 in field goal attempts from inside the restricted area, from the center, or from 3. That means they get points all over.
You will have a very hard time defending against a team that can beat you anywhere and anyone. Look at the Game 1 box score and you’ll see Brunson with 30, Karl-Anthony Towns (who was excellent on both ends in this game) with 18, OG Anunoby (who hit two big 3s in the fourth quarter) with 17, Landry Shamet with 13, and Mikal Bridges, Miles McBride and Jose Al-varado 21 more.
Currently, the guy who scored the fewest goals was arguably the best player. We’re talking about Josh Hart, of course, who joined Larry Bird (1986) as the second player in history to record at least 15 rebounds, six assists and four steals in a playoff game. The man is 6-foot-5 and not only did he outplay the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama, but he is now the youngest player since Elgin Baylor in 1970 to record 15 rebounds in a playoff game.
Going into this series, one of the biggest questions was whether or not Hart could make it 3 years while Wemby left him to serve as a roving paint protector. Wemby didn’t spend that much time on him in Game 1, and Hart made one of his five shots.
It didn’t matter. It speaks to every aspect of winning basketball that the guy who scored three points led the game with a plus-22 point differential in 27 minutes. Do the math, and you’ll see that the Knicks were shut out 17 times while Hart was on the bench. What a player this guy is. And what a team the Knicks are.
You might not have believed it after 11 consecutive wins. But he certainly did after 12.
