Inside the Knicks’ dominant run to the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals
The Knicks have been dominant this postseason, but just how dominant?
After completing their series sweep of the Sixers on Sunday, the Knicks have officially played 93 games during the 2025-26 season — including the NBA Cup final vs. the Spurs and the playoffs. They boast a 62-31 record with a 121.1 offensive rating (ORTG), 112.9 defensive rating (DRTG), and +8.2 net rating (NETRTG).
Remember the 11-game stretch starting on New Year’s Eve, where the Knicks lost nine of 11 games and looked like a lottery team? Let’s forget about it. Outside of that stretch, the Knicks have played 82 games — that’s a full NBA season. They are 60-22 in those games, posting a 122.2 ORTG, 111.8 DRTG, and +10.4 NETRTG.
Since Jan. 21, which was the first game following that horrid stretch where the Knicks finally re-found themselves, they have an NBA-best +12.6 NETRTG in 49 games.
The Knicks clobbered the Sixers in a four-game sweep in the second round. They outscored them by 24.5 points per 100 possessions, sporting a 131.8 ORTG and 107.4 DRTG. They also had a 66.2% true shooting percentage (TS%), shooting 54.5% from the field, 61.2% from inside the arc, and 44.8% from three... don’t forget that they made an NBA-record 11 threes in the first quarter of Game 4.
Speaking of that Game 4 victory in Philly, the Knicks had a 174.3 ORTG and +55.7 NETRTG through the first three quarters of the game before emptying their bench. Overall, they had a 150.0 ORTG — the highest ORTG for a playoff game in the tracking era, according to the ALL NBA Podcast. Their 25 3-point makes tied an NBA playoff record.
According to Stathead, the Knicks have a +20.3 NETRTG through their first 10 games of the 2026 playoffs. That’s the highest NETRTG by a team through the first 10 games of a single playoff run since at least 1978.
The Knicks won their series-clincher vs. the Hawks by 51 points in Atlanta. They followed that up with a 30-point win vs. the Sixers in their series-clincher in Philly, becoming the fourth team in NBA history with multiple series-clinching wins by at least 30 points in the same postseason. According to ESPN, they joined the 2025 Thunder, 2008 Celtics, and 1987 Lakers — all of whom won titles in those seasons.
The Knicks also joined the 2017 Warriors, who had just added Kevin Durant and beat the Cavs in five games in the NBA Finals, as the only teams in NBA history with four wins of at least 25 points within their first 10 games of a playoff run... and the Knicks had all four of those wins within their last five games!
Let’s bend the rules a little more before we move on. All four of those wins were by 29-plus points. No other team in NBA history had two such wins within their first 10 games of a playoff run. Again, we’ve witnessed a truly historic stretch of playoff basketball.
The offense has been moving since the Knicks began trailing in their opening round series against the Hawks. As Shax on Twitter noted, Mike Brown has heavily relied on his motion offense in the 2026 playoffs, which has empowered Karl-Anthony Towns and everyone else on that end of the floor.
According to Dan Devine of Yahoo! Sports:
“The Knicks have played that style more frequently and capably in these playoffs, averaging more passes, assists, secondary or ‘hockey’ assists, drives and catch-and-shoot 3-pointers per game in Brown’s first postseason on the bench than they did last spring under Tom Thibodeau.”
If you break it down this postseason — comparing the first three games of the series vs. the Hawks and the last seven games (all wins) — you see the play style change even more.
Like Devine had written, they’re passing way more this postseason, but it’s a more drastic shift over the last seven games... the first three games mirrored a Thibs-coached offense. The Knicks are averaging just over 28 assists per game over their last seven games, but they’re driving to the basket around the same amount they did under Thibs last year, which is shocking considering Brown loves a good ol’ drive-and-spray.
The thing that really sticks out, as our very own Shwin alluded to on Twitter on Thursday, is the fact the Knicks’ offensive possessions don’t seem to be this dragged-out process like last playoffs. The Knicks are averaging 3.37 seconds per touch over the last seven games, opposed to 3.63 seconds per touch last postseason under Thibs and 3.68 seconds per touch through the first three games of the 2026 playoffs vs. the Hawks.
The Knicks are shooting an NBA-best 51.7% from the field and NBA-best 40.8% from beyond the 3-point arc in the 2026 postseason.
OG Anunoby — who is expected to return for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals — leads the way with a 53.8% 3P% on 39 3-point attempts. Six of the eight players on the Knicks with at least 15 3-point attempts in the 2026 postseason have made at least 40% of those shots.
The only other team in NBA playoff history with six players with a 40% or higher 3P% on at least 15 3-point attempts was the 2025 Pacers, who beat the Knicks in six games in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, caused the Knicks to fire Tom Thibodeau, and lost in seven games in the NBA Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Through 10 games in the 2026 playoffs, Jalen Brunson has been playing more off ball than in past years. According to Databallr, Brunson has been on ball for just 45.2% of the time under Brown this postseason, as opposed to 48.5% of the time last postseason under Thibodeau. That’s a drastic change for a guy people look at to play hero ball.
Citing Synergy Sports, Jason Timpf of Hoops Tonight pointed out that just 56.1% of Brunson’s made shots this postseason have been when playing on ball (post ups, isolation players, and pick-and-roll plays). That’s a significant decrease compared to last year’s playoffs, when 70.7% of his made shots came when he was on ball.
According to PivotFade, 80.7% of his shot attempts were unassisted last postseason. In 10 games this postseason, just 64.3% of his shot attempts have been unassisted.
Revisiting the Knicks players touching the ball for less time compared to last season and the first three games of the 2026 playoffs, Brunson has seen a change in shot attempts by touch time.
Brunson’s alleged “role change” in this year’s playoffs has come off the back of an uptick in synergy between him and Karl-Anthony Towns. KAT had almost as many assists to Brunson last regular season (34) as this year’s regular season (32).
However, as Devine noted in his latest column, 15 of KAT’s assists this postseason have been to Brunson. He had just four assists to Brunson last postseason.
This is just another example of how KAT has completely altered the way he plays, and that’s paid dividends for everyone on the Knicks.
Over his last seven games, KAT is averaging 21.5 points, 13.1 rebounds, and 10.9 assists... per 36 minutes played. Why do I use “per 36 minutes” here? Because KAT has only played 26.3 minutes per game during that span — due to the Knicks destroying teams and a little foul trouble.
The whole point of the uptick in offensive efficiency with Towns has been using him as an offensive hub... which means empowering him more with the ball. He’s touching the ball more — and his touches are longer — and everything is flowing around him in return. Keep in mind: he’d probably have even more touches and assists if he was on the floor more, but garbage time has been coming early for the Knicks lately, leading to less minutes for KAT.
Since Brown took over as Knicks head coach, KAT has seen a steady drop in his number of drives per game. However, when he’s driving to the basket, we aren’t seeing out of control drives like we saw in the past.
On 6.2 drives per game in the 2026 playoffs, KAT is shooting 60.7% from the field, passing out of 25.8% of his drives (11.1% last postseason), assisting on 8.1% (he had zero assists last postseason on drives), only turning the ball over on 6.5%, and he’s getting fouled on a whopping 21%.
One of the reasons why Nikola Jokić has been so elite at his craft on offense is his ability to leverage his gravity not just to his advantage (148.7 points per 100 shots, per Cleaning The Glass) but by also empowering his teammates. No other player with at least 25% usage has accrued more points per shot attempt than KAT this postseason.
No other player in the 2026 playoffs has more rim assists than Towns, who is averaging 3.5 per game. When you draw extra defenders and extra attention, that allows your teammates to get more wide open looks.
It remains to be seen who the Knicks’ next opponent will be... who will be their last hurdle from achieving their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999. You could say the Hawks were a young team without much prior playoff experience, or the Sixers were so elated with and exhausted from beating the Celtics to compete... whatever excuse you want to provide yourself to keep you from getting excited... I get it!
The fact of the matter is that this Knicks team is peaking at the right time. They have obliterated their opponents for the most part over the last seven games (+28.8 NETRTG), leading in 76.2% of minutes this postseason overall through 10 games. This isn’t a new thing, as I wrote earlier: they’ve been a juggernaut of a team for 82 of the 93 games they’ve played, and especially over the last almost-four months. Hopefully that translates into the Eastern Conference Finals and beyond.
