Mr. Clutch Comes Through Again.

In what looked more like a bi-polar convention at a psychiatric ward than an NBA playoff game, the New York Knicks were on the verge of a loss that would've meant a seventh and deciding game at Madison Square Garden Saturday afternoon. The Detroit Pistons had erased a twelve-point, fourth quarter deficit and were leading 112-105 with 2:35 left.

That's when Jalen Brunson - aka, Mr. Clutch - stepped up and said, "I don't think so." The Captain scored eight of his team's final eleven points, including a three pointer that hit nothing but net with 4.3 seconds on the clock that will go down as one of the most iconic shots in NBA playoff history, to propel the Knicks to a 116-113 win. He would finish the game with 40 points and seven assists.

We're running out of superlatives to describe Brunson and what he means to this team. Just look at some of these stats:

• He's tied for second with Giannis Antekokoumpo, Dwayne Wade and Charles Barkley for the most 40 point road playoff games with two. Michael Jordan - the greatest basketball player of all time -had four during his career.
• He opened this postseason with four straight 30 point games. The last player to do that was Jordan in 1998.
• In the series against the Pistons, Brunson scored 66 fourth-quarter points in just 55 minutes. Over his career as a Knick, he's averaged just under a point per minute in the fourth quarter of the playoffs. 
• In the three games at Detroit, Brunson scored 23 clutch-time points; the Pistons as a team scored 24.
• As a Knick, Brunson has averaged 31.5 points per game in the playoffs. His regular season average is 26.4.
• Brunson has more 30 point playoff games (14) than Magic Johnson (12), and Johnson appeared in 190 playoff games while Brunson has only appeared in 55.

Some have compared Brunson to another Knick great: Walt Frazier. Respectfully, while Frazier does have two rings to show for his tenure in New York, I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that when his career is over, his jersey will be hanging in the rafters. If the measure of a player's stature is how many times he comes through when it counts, then Brunson has earned every accolade he's received.

Case in point, the Pistons series. Going in, the so-called "experts" thought Cade Cunningham would be the best player on the court. Well, guess what? Jalen Brunson owned him, and it wasn't even close.

Detractors can mock his size all they want; they can continue to diminish his accomplishments on the court; or qualify them, as Candace Parker did last season on TNT. To his fans, he will forever be known as Mr. Clutch: the man who, night in and night out, dons a cape and delivers his teammates from the evil clutches of the loss column.

The man is legit, he's elite, and he's the reason the New York Knicks are headed to Boston to play the Celtics in the second round.

Critics be damned. 

Thibs' Terrible "Coach's Decision."

With 2:57 left in the fourth quarter, it was obvious both Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart were hurt and needed to come out of the game. Tom Thibodeau called a timeout to put in Deuce McBride and Cam Payne. At the time the score was 97-95 Pistons. 

One minute later, the score was 101-95. Both Brunson and Hart were now at the scorers table waiting to check back in. Thibodeau had one timeout left but elected not to use it. Over the next minute and a half, the Knicks had three possessions and made exactly one basket: a fadeaway by Mikal Bridges with 50.1 seconds left to bring the Knicks within four.

Finally with 27.1 seconds left, Thibs called his last timeout and put Brunson and Bridges back in the game. By that point, the sore was 103-97. Bridges made a three to make it 103-100, but Dennis Schroder made one of two free throws for the Pistons to make it 104-100. OG Aununoby, then hit a three-pointer to make it 104-103, but Cade Cunningham made two free throws to ice the victory for his team and send the series back to Detroit for a game six. 

When asked at the post-game presser why he waited so long to burn his last timeout, Thibodeau simply replied it was a "coach's decision." If that's true, it was one of the worst in his tenure as head coach of the Knicks.

To be fair, Thibs wasn't the only culprit last night. The Knicks as a team shot 59.3 percent from the free throw line, and Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns collectively went 9-30 from the field. If Brunson and KAT had each gotten just one extra bucket, or if the Knicks had made just four more free throws, this series is probably over. But that didn't happen, and while coaches aren't responsible for how well their players execute, they are responsible for putting them in the best position to win.

This is not the first time Thibodeau's decision-making has been questioned. Earlier this season, his refusal to foul Jayson Tatum with less than 10 seconds to go in the fourth quarter and the Knicks up by three resulted in Tatum sinking a three-pointer to force overtime, where the Celtics eventually won. In last season's playoffs, the Knicks were 10 seconds away from wrapping up their series against the Sixers in five. Once again, Thibs refused to foul and Tyrese Maxey tied the score, allowing Philly to win it in OT.

Now it's entirely possible that had Thibs called his timeout earlier it wouldn't have made any difference. The way Brunson was hobbling on the court, who knows how effective he would've been? But that's beside the point. Rule number one in sports is you always go down with your best players on the court, field, rink, or whatever. 

Bottom line, Thibs needs to own this decision; a decision that gave a Pistons team that was trailing 3-1 in the series life. We know from history what can happen when you let your opponent off the mat. If Brunson continues to be hobbled by that ankle, the Knicks could very well find themselves out of the playoffs sooner than they expected. And if that happens, I can assure you James Dolan will not be a happy camper. 

Just ask Peter Laviolette. 

Knicks Need To Close It Out

The good news for the New York Knicks is that they're up 3-1 on the Detroit Pistons. The bad news for the Knicks is that they could easily be down 3-1. 

In game one, the Knicks came from behind in the fourth quarter to win 123-112. In game two, the Pistons held off a Knicks rally to win 100-94. In game three, the Knicks had a 13 point lead at halftime and held on to win 118-116. And in game four, the Knicks were trailing by 11 with 8:35 to go in the fourth quarter and came back to win 94-93.

As you can see, every game has been hotly contested; a total of eight points separates the two teams. The Knicks have not been so much dominant in this series as they've been resilient. Their two best players - Karl-Anthiony Towns and Jalen Brunson - have been better than the Pistons two best players - Cade Cunningham and Tim Hardaway Jr. Brunson, in particular, has been almost otherworldly, averaging 33.3 points per game in the series, and 13.3 points in the fourth quarter, the most by any player in the NBA since 1997.

The Pistons can complain all they want about the no-call by Josh Hart against Hardaway Jr with 8 seconds to go in game four, the fact is they've gotten most of the no-calls in this series, including one by Tobias Harris against Hart under the basket three seconds before Hardaway's three point attempt. You live by the no-call, you die by the no-call, I say.

That being said, it would behoove the Knicks to close out this series tomorrow night at the Garden. No way they want to go back to Detroit for a game six. The Pistons, having lost two games in their building, would almost certainly force a game seven. And once you get to a game seven, it's anyone's series.

There's another reason for the Knicks to want to wrap up this series in five. The style of basketball the Pistons employ can be very taxing on opponents. I wrote about their size advantage in my preview. And with the Knicks not having much of a bench, sooner or later, it's going to take its toll on the starters. 

Brunson, in particular, could certainly use the rest. He twisted the same ankle he sprained a month ago in the third quarter of game four and had to leave to get it re-taped. He came back in the fourth quarter and managed to score 15 points. But make no mistake about it, the longer this series goes on, the more stress that ankle will get. If the Knicks hope to do anything against the Boston Celtics in the next round, they will need their captain as close to 100 percent as possible. 

Bottom line: the Knicks control their own destiny. The last thing they want to do is play with fire. 

Knicks Playoff Preview (Round One)

The 2025 NBA postseason is upon us, and for the second year in a row, the New York Knicks have won at least 50 games. But that's where the similarity ends.

There's no debating that the 2024-25 Knicks are more talented than the 2023-24 Knicks. The offseason trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns have vastly improved their offense. Last season, they were 19th in the league in scoring, averaging 112.8 points per game; this season, they're 9th, averaging 115.8 ppg.

However, their success on the scoresheet has come at the expense of their defense. Last season, they allowed the second fewest points per game with 108.2; this season, they've allowed the 9th fewest points with 111.7.

But it's not just the defensive slippage that is a concern. For most of this season, the Knicks have struggled to find their identity. Last season, their tenaciousness on both ends of the court made them one of the most exciting teams in the NBA to watch. They made their opponents sweat for every bucket they made. Too often this season, opponents have been left wide open to make their shots. New York's perimeter defense is among the worst in the league.

And then there's the bench, or lack thereof. To acquire Towns, Leon Rose was forced to give up Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. Randle was a starter, so that was a wash, but DiVo was a valuable cog in Tom Thibodeau's rotation last season. Losing him hurt. When you factor in that Mitchell Robinson didn't return until March, that meant that the starters were forced to play more minutes than they should have. 

How significant was this? The Knicks had three players in the top five in minutes played this season: Josh Hart (37.6), Bridges (37.0) and OG Anunoby (36.6). To put that in perspective, the Denver Nuggets had two in the top 10 and the Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves each had one a piece. The Oklahoma City Thunder, the best team in the NBA, didn't have a single player in the top 25 in minutes played, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (34.2) is the presumptive MVP of the league.

What that means is that Thibs' starters enter the playoffs with a lot of mileage on their sneakers. And they're going up against a first-round opponent in the Detroit Pistons that is younger, bigger and considerably deeper, with a chip on its shoulder the size of the Grand Canyon. On paper, the Knicks are the better team; but playoff series aren't won on paper, they're won on the court.

I won't mince words here. There's a lot riding on this series. The Knicks entered the season with high expectations and they have struggled mightily against teams with winning records. During the regular season, they went 1-3 against Detroit and a combined 0-10 against OKC, Cleveland and Boston. After failing to get past the second round the last two postseasons, a first-round exit will not be well received by James Dolan, who is already in a foul mood over the way the Rangers imploded this season. I'm not saying Thibodeau's job is in jeopardy, but let's just say that while losing to the Celtics in five would be disappointing - but not totally unexpected - losing to the Pistons under any conditions would be an unmitigated disaster.

So how do the Knicks prevent that from happening? I believe the best way to counter the Pistons size advantage is for Thibs to start both KAT and Robinson together in the front court. Doing so allows OG to switch back to small forward, where he is far more effective. It also means Hart comes off the bench along with Landry Shamet, who, let's face it, is a more reliable shooter than Deuce McBride. Thibs also has to play Precious Achiuwa more than just a few minutes. Achiuwa isn't much of a scorer, however his size and rebounding will be essential in this series.

But for the Knicks to advance, Mikal Bridges has to produce, and by produce I mean score more than 6-10 points per game. Rose gave up five first round draft picks to the Nets to acquire what he and everyone else thought would be the third option on this team. There have been times this season when he has been virtually invisible. That cannot happen in this series. The Pistons will almost certainly attempt to double team Jalen Brunson and Towns. The only way to make them pay is for Bridges to put the ball in the hoop. Taking six shots like he did against the Lakers earlier in the season is unacceptable.

The pressure is all on the Knicks and deservedly so. The Pistons are playing with house money. After being one of the worst teams in the NBA the last five seasons, nobody expects them to win. Even ESPN - the network that loves bashing the orange and blue as much as possible - has New York prevailing. But I expect a long and grueling series. Knicks in seven.

Here's how I expect the rest of the first round matchups to go.

Eastern Conference:

Cleveland over Miami or Atlanta in four: The Cavs should romp regardless of who they play. 

Boston over Orlando in five: The Magic boast the best defense in the league. It won't be enough against the Celtics.

Indiana over Milwaukee in six: The Pacers have superior depth and that should be enough.

Western Conference:

Oklahoma City over Dallas or Memphis in five: AD would make things interesting, but the Thunder will prove to be too much.

Houston over Golden State in seven: The Warriors will have the two best players in this series; the Rockets will have the size and bench strength to prevail. 

LA Lakers over Minnesota in six: LeBron and Luka against Ant-Man. Should make for an excellent series. 

LA Clippers over Denver in six: For the first time in four years Kawhi Leonard is fully healthy going into the playoffs. 

If the Knicks advance, I'll preview the second round. If not, my prediction is OKC to win it all.