Knicks 119, Celtics 81: You can exhale
Turns out Kristaps Porziņģis did help the Knicks hit new heights
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was the New York Knicks’ first conference finals team in 25 years, but after a 119-81 Celtics shellacking to win their semifinal series 4-2, that’s where they find themselves.
Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns are the headliners. Miles McBride and Mitchell Robinson, New York’s two-man bench combo, represent the greatest success of the old regime and arguably the greatest of the current. Tom Thibodeau is the Teflon Don of NBA coaches, beating the allegations both when it matters most and seems the unlikeliest. It’s uncanny.
Game 6 is the new Game 7 for these Knicks; their last three series wins all went six. They laid it all on the line last night, top to bottom. No one on Boston looked comfortable or confident, two characteristics of defending champions. Jaylen Brown did his best and that best saw him commit seven turnovers and benched with six fouls most of the second half. Was this an intentional choke job? A part of me would find that easier to believe than what I witnessed. But New York’s night was symphonic and symbolic of what’s to come either this season or next. For now it’s this one, with a conference finals against last year’s grim reapers, the Indiana Pacers.
Notes
I don’t have the emotions to form thoughts that’d invoke the words needed to describe any of this. The last time the Knicks made it this far I was three years old. How do I process this fast-approaching, unknown territory? I’ll let you know if I figure it out.
Brunson had a masterful performance, emblematic of New York’s early energy. He only needed 23 points to put Boston down as many as 41. Whatever becomes of this team, whether you choose to accept it or not; it starts and ends with Brunson. That’s why he’s the captain.
Bridges had a hell of a series: 14.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.3 steals and two game-saving stops. Those five first-round picks? I’d trade them all again. Plus he only played 29 minutes! He only played fewer once this postseason, in Game 1 of this series when Cam Payne briefly left the mortal plane. That feels like 29 years ago.
Towns is probably my greatest concern moving forward. Game 5 was the first time I gave the Knicks moving on from him some thought, pondering whether or not the trade was rushed. Game 6 was a nice bounce back for him, but it still featured all of the same areas of concern that’s kept him in the crosshairs for fans this season. He needs a big series against the Pacers. Or maybe I need him to have a big series. That’s the same thing, right?
New York is 6-0 this postseason when Anunoby scores 20-plus points and 2-4 when he doesn’t. His approach to these series has become formulaic, for better or worse. Anunoby sandwiched both series with 20-piece nights and snuck another into a big mid-series win. Against the Pistons it was Game 3, against the Cs Game 4. There’s a likeable kind of consistency there. Even more affable when you factor in the defensive assignments he’s drawing in these series. Brown and Jayson Tatum were 15-of-40 with 11 turnovers when guarded by Anunoby. Special players. Not so special performances. Thank you, OG.
Speaking of special defense, Mitch stamped this series more emphatically than any Knick: 4.7 points, 8 rebounds (3.8 offensive), a steal per game and what has to be some kind of record +46 for the series. What other seven-footer is doing this?
Brown and Tatum shot 4-for-17 (23%) with six turnovers against mighty Mitch. Everything about this series win started with defense – arguably his.
McBride’s bounceback game was a sight to see: 10 points, two stocks and some of the best defense of his damn life. New York needs Deuce next round — this Deuce. Please show up, kid.
Friday’s series win and perpetuation of the Knicks’ season is a testament to the agonizing and tortuous loyalty of their fans. For so many years New York missed on coaches, draft picks, and free agents. A trip down memory lane reveals most of those false messiahs aren’t even in the league anymore. Jeff Hornacek is a coaching consultant. Frank Ntilikina and Damyean Dotson meet up at European cafés to watch the NBA playoffs. Joakim Noah is still spending money New York gave him nine years ago. Ditto Enes Kanter and Allonzo Trier. (Ed. note: Ironically, David Fizdale remains employed as an assistant with the Suns; Phoenix has replaced the Knicks as the blue-and-orange franchise with a joke for an owner who listens to Isiah Thomas)
I’ll remember the pre-Brunson era as a set of hallowed halls in a once-prestigious neighborhood home. Echoes of “What if?” followed everywhere we went. We suffered sleepless night after sleepless night as fans, trying to figure out how to solve the Knicks, not knowing that at their core they needed saving above all else. That kind of call for help was always going to have to be picked up outside the house. Leon Rose answered, Thibodeau chuckled in the background, and two years later they passed the phone to Brunson. Three years later they’re all celebrated as men who brought water to the desert. 25 years is a long time. Let’s not do that again. Oh, and fuck the Pacers. Knicks in 5.