A Bakers Dozen

Admit it: When you saw Victor Wembanyama take that shot with 2 seconds left you had flashbacks of Tyrese Haliburton's game-tying shot from last year's Eastern Conference finals. Being a Knicks fan means learning how to deal with PTSD. It doesn't take much to ruin our day or night. And just so we're clear, even with Mitchell Robinson guarding him, Wemby probably makes that shot 9 out of 10 times. 

But there's something different about these Knicks. After blowing a 97-83 lead with 6:04 remaining in the fourth quarter, and trailing 104-102 with 57 seconds left, they found a way to win. Jalen Brunson, the hero of game one, once again came to the rescue. He scored the game's final three points, the last one a free throw after he stole a bad pass from Wemby and was fouled with 9.5 seconds to go. 

The Knicks have now won 13 playoff games in a row; two shy of the record set by the Golden State Warriors in 2017. They are, as Brian Windhorst said after the game, "a freakin' winning machine." I've heard of resiliency, but this is ridiculous.

Despite the final score, though, this was a game in which the Knicks pretty much dominated from the second quarter on. After trailing 34-25 at the end of the first quarter, New York took a 56-52 lead into the locker room at half time. They expanded that lead to 84-75 after three. And they were cruising to yet another double-digit road win before the Spurs went on their run.

But while Brunson may have dragged his team across the finish line, he was not the star of the game. That distinction belonged to Karl-Anthony Towns, who in these first two games, has thoroughly outplayed Wembanyama. KAT scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. As of right now, he has the inside track to be finals MVP. 

Mikal Bridges also had an impressive game. After being held to 9 points in game one, he scored 20 in game two. OG Anunoby and Landry Shamet had 17 and 13 points respectively. The only starter that did not have a good game was Josh Hart. After impressive game one, he got into early foul trouble in game two, was limited to only 18 minutes and was a minus 3.

So now the Knicks return home to Madison Square Garden up 2-0; the first time in franchise history that they've won the first two games of a finals. No team in NBA history has successfully come back to win the championship after dropping the first two games at home, and the way this Knicks team is playing, I doubt the Spurs are going to be the first team to do it.

It's not that the Spurs are a bad team; far from it. They are the best team New York has faced in these playoffs. They led the Knicks late in the fourth quarter of both games. The case could easily be made that San Antonio could be up 2-0 instead of down 0-2.

But the fact remains that they are down 0-2, and it is up to the Knicks to make sure it becomes 0-3 and not 1-2 Monday night. This is not the time to take the foot off the gas, not with a chance to close out the series in their building.

So what is the best way to insure that? 

Well, for starters, it would behoove New York to get off to a faster start. They trailed after the first quarter in games one and two. The Knicks are playing with fire if they think they can continually come from behind in this series. Sooner or later, it will catch up with them.

Next, it is all too apparent that the Spurs are targeting Brunson in this series. In the first two games, he shot a collective 19-56 from the field. The only thing that has saved the Knicks is their depth. Mike Brown simply has more players on his bench that he can turn to than Mitch Johnson. But Brunson has to realize that when he gets double teamed, he needs to give up the ball. Earlier in the playoffs, the Knicks were very successful running their offense through KAT. It's time to go back to that formula.

And speaking of KAT, he needs to continue dominating Wemby, both at the perimeter and in the post. Aside from the fourth quarter in game two, the "Alien" has looked lost in this series. Towns has to make sure it stays that way. 

Throughout this postseason, the Knicks have been a marvel to behold. Their talent, poise and maturity have led them this far. They need two more wins to secure their first title since 1973. 

This is their moment; they need to grab it. 

Leon Gets His Man

It's official: the New York Knicks finally have their head coach. After an exhaustive thirty-day process in which Leon Rose interviewed multiple candidates, and asked permission to speak with several more, the President and GM chose two-time NBA Coach of the Year Mike Brown.

Brown's credentials are impeccable. He was an assistant under Gregg Popovich, during which time the San Antonio Spurs won the title in 2003; he took the Cleveland Cavaliers to the finals in 2007 in just his second season as head coach; in 2009, he won the first of his two Coach of the Year awards when the Cavs won a franchise record 66 games; he was an assistant under Steve Kerr, during which time the Golden State Warriors won three championships, two back-to-back; and he won his second Coach of the Year award in 2023 when he guided the Sacramento Kings to their first playoff appearance in 16 seasons.

He has a regular-season record of 454-304 and a postseason record of 50-40, which includes two trips to the conference finals and one trip to the league finals. Not only is he eminently qualified to coach this team, he is a considerable improvement over the man he is replacing.

This is not a knock on Tom Thibodeau, but anyone who watched the Knicks play last season knew there was something wrong. Despite having more talent, they looked disjointed at times, and often lacked the resiliency and toughness that had come to define past teams. Some of that is the players fault, but ultimately it's the coach's responsibility to make things work. Thibs' reluctance to hold his players accountable and his stubbornness when it came to making adjustments proved to be his undoing. The Indiana series was the final nail in the coffin, as far as Rose was concerned.

It is highly unlikely Brown will make the same mistakes. Indeed, all indications are that he is the polar opposite of Thibs. He has a history of getting his players - all of them - involved. In the 2022-23 season, the Kings not only had the number one rated offense in the NBA, they had six players score in double digits. He's coached such notables as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kyrie Irving. If he can deal with those personalities, he should have no problems with Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.

So now that Rose has his man, what next? Well for starters, Brown will have a deeper and more productive bench than Thibs did. That's because in addition to looking for a head coach, Rose was busy signing Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele. The former is a guard who can play either the one or the two and averaged 16.2 points and 3.7 assists per game last season for the Utah Jazz; the latter is a center / forward who averaged 11 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last season for the Philadelphia 76ers. Rose was able to get both and still stay $2.2 million under the second apron. Last season, the Knick bench averaged a paltry 15.8 points per game. Clarkson and Yabusele all by themselves can put up 27 per game.

As for those LeBron rumors, you can forget them. If Rose didn't want Kevin Durant, what makes any body think he would agree to take on a 40 year-old, soon-to-be retired Hall of Famer? Besides, once he opted in to his contract with the Lakers, it pretty much put the kibosh on him going anywhere. With the apron system now a reality in the NBA, high-priced contracts are almost impossible to move.

So what are the expectations? Given that Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Halliburton will both be out next season with torn Achilles, the Eastern Conference is wide open and there for the taking. I'm sure Brown knows, and has been told, that anything less than a finals appearance will not be acceptable, especially for an owner whose franchise hasn't won a title since 1973. The natives aren't just restless, they're downright ugly.

Parallels have been drawn to the Yankees of the mid-1990s. After George Steinbrenner fired Buck Showalter in 1995 and replaced him with Joe Torre, a lot of people thought he was crazy. Buck was a proven manager, while Torre had never won a thing. But Torre proved to be the right manager at the right time, and in '96, the Yanks went on to win their first World Series championship since 1978. While it's a little premature to predict whether history will repeat itself, it's worth noting that we are hearing a lot of same second guessing coming from both Knicks fans and beat reporters alike.

Could lightning strike again? Only time will tell.

Knicks Playoff Preview (Round Three)

With the Boston Celtics being dethroned, there will be a new NBA champion for the seventh year in a row. And if their fans have anything to say about it, that champion will be the New York Knicks.

For the first time in 25 years, New York finds itself in the Eastern Conference Finals. And their opponent is a familiar one. The Indiana Pacers have faced the Knicks three times in the conference finals, with the Knicks winning in 1994 and 1999, and the Pacers winning in 2000.

But it was their last meeting in the second round of last year's playoffs that is front and center now. The Knicks had beaten the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round and were seconds away from potentially taking a 3-0 lead on the Pacers when Andrew Nembhard hit a three pointer with 16 seconds left in the fourth quarter to give Indiana the win.

The loss was significant for New York. OG Anunoby suffered a groin injury in the closing minutes of game two and was unavailable the rest of the series; Mitchell Robinson sustained an ankle injury against the Sixers and appeared in only one game against the Pacers; Josh Hart would later pull an abdominal muscle in game six and was ineffective in game seven; Jalen Brunson broke his left hand in game seven and played only 29 minutes; and Julius Randle - their second-best player - had gone down with a dislocated right shoulder in January and was lost for the remainder of the season. The Pacers would eventually go on to win the series in seven against a Knicks team that looked more like a MASH unit than an NBA roster.

This time around, the Knicks are not only healthy, they're better. Just compare the starting five from last year's series to this year's:

2024: Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein.

2025: Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Hart, Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns.

Bridges and KAT are vast improvements over DiVo and I-Hart respectively; and while this year's roster isn't as deep as last year's, we all know that, barring injuries, Tom Thibodeau typically goes with a seven-man rotation. That means that Deuce McBride and Mitchell Robison will get the bulk of the minutes coming off the bench. Squawk if you want, but this is how Thibs rolls. 

In each of their first two playoff rounds, the Knicks had to overcome challenges in order to win. In round one, they had to contend with a Detroit Pistons team that was nasty and physical. In round two, they had to contend with a Boston Celtics team that could shoot the ball like no one else's business. In this round, they will have to contend with an Indiana Pacers team that from January 1 had the third best record in the NBA and plays in fifth gear pretty much from the opening tip-off to the final buzzer.

There's no getting around it: Indiana will try to dictate the pace, no pun intended. It will be incumbent upon the Knicks to not let that happen. If this series becomes a track meet, the Knicks will lose; if it becomes more of a half-court series, the Knicks will win. Here are the keys:

KAT needs to dominate in the paint. With all due respect to Myles Turner, KAT is the better center; he must play like it. That means no disappearing acts and staying out of early foul trouble. He needs to replicate what he did against the Celtics in game six. The fact is the more involved he becomes in the Knick offense, the harder it will be for the Pacers to double team Brunson. When Towns plays up to his potential, there aren't many players in the league who can stop him.

Knicks must defend against the fast break. Few teams in the league can transition from defense to offense like the Pacers. Their speed will test the Knicks resolve. To thwart Indiana's fast-break game, New York will have to get back on defense quickly. That means no standing around to see if a shot goes in. This will take discipline on their part, but they'll have to do it in order to advance.

Brunson must continue to excel. Tyrese Haliburton is on a mission to prove to his critics that he's not overrated. But Jalen Brunson is on a mission of his own to prove to his critics that he's worthy of being called an elite player. Both statements are true. Haliburton is not overrated, but in this series, he will be the second-best point guard on the court. The fact is that what Brunson is doing in these playoffs is truly something to behold, and the only people who haven't acknowledged it are the ones who refuse to admit they were wrong about him in the first place. If Mr. Clutch continues to play as he has, the Pacers are in trouble.

Knicks have to distribute the ball. While Brunson will be the Knicks best player in this series, he can't be their only option offensively. New York is at its best when it distributes the ball; conversely, it struggles when it doesn't. It won't do any good if Brunson scores 35 points while Towns, Bridges and Anunoby collectively score 25. To win, all the kids have to play in the sandbox.

Bottom line, the Knicks are the better team; they're healthy and they have the home court. But the Pacers are hardly Swiss cheese. They knocked off the number one seed Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round and they've had the Knicks number the last three times they've met. This will be another close series, but the men in orange and blue should advance to the finals for the first time since 1999.  Knicks in six.

Western Conference Finals: 

Minnesota over Oklahoma City in seven. I know I picked the Thunder to win it all in my last preview, but frankly I like the Timberwolves in this series, and not just because KAT vs. Julius Randle would be a finals for the ages, but because OKC struggled at times against a Denver Nuggets team that was as thin as a piece of loose leaf paper. What will they do against a Timberwolves team that is bigger and just as athletic as they are? I'm guessing they won't do as well.