GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The New York Knicks have assembled an impressive postseason campaign, but they must capture one additional series to cement their legacy among basketball’s elite squads.
Should they secure four more victories — and do so efficiently — the Knicks would earn recognition alongside legendary championship teams like the Lakers featuring Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, or the Stephen Curry-Kevin Durant Warriors dynasty.
However, should they lose to Oklahoma City or San Antonio in the NBA Finals, they face the possibility of being viewed as a squad that dominated inferior Eastern Conference competition but couldn’t deliver when the stakes reached their peak.
The team resumed training Thursday following their first practice since completing a sweep of Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals, pledging to maintain their focus regardless of external commentary about their performance or their opponents’ quality.
“When there’s negative things being said about you, it’s important to ignore them. When there’s positive things about you it’s easy to be able to read them to make you feel good, but you can’t do one and not the other,” Jalen Brunson said. “So just block out as best you can.”
New York has compiled a 12-2 postseason record, averaging a 19.4-point victory margin while extending their current winning streak to 11 games. This streak matches the third-longest consecutive wins within a single playoff campaign.
The 2001 Lakers achieved the same 11-game streak during their 15-1 championship season, falling just short of Golden State’s historic 16-1 performance in 2017. O’Neal, who earned MVP honors during that Lakers title run and currently works as an ESPN analyst, has endorsed this Knicks team.
“They are so good I owe the whole state and all five boroughs of New York an apology,” he said during an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show.”
“They are really good. They have it. It reminds me of that Detroit team that beat us my last year there (in 2004). They just got a bunch of guys that are just together.”
Critics would highlight how circumstances aligned to create a path to the NBA Finals that made the Knicks appear dominant without facing elite competition.
Beginning with the regular season’s final day, when Atlanta chose to rest key players and lost the opportunity to claim the No. 5 seed. Rather than meeting Toronto or Orlando — stronger defensive clubs that could have secured the No. 6 position and potentially worn them down physically — the Knicks instead faced the Hawks, a team emphasizing skill over physicality.
New York captured the series’ final three contests to win in six games, discovering their favorable circumstances were only starting.
Boston surrendered a 3-1 series advantage to Philadelphia, meaning instead of beginning on the road versus the second-seeded Celtics, the Knicks faced the No. 7 76ers, who arrived in New York with minimal rest and appeared exhausted from the opening tip. New York dominated them 137-98 in Game 1, Joel Embiid was unable to compete in Game 2 due to soreness, and the series concluded quickly.
Cleveland’s victory over Detroit in the Eastern Conference semifinals provided the Knicks home-court advantage against another weary opponent. Rather than confronting the top-seeded Pistons, who had defeated them decisively in all three regular season encounters, the Knicks hosted the No. 4 Cavaliers — a team coming off consecutive seven-game series with the same limited rest period as the 76ers.
Cleveland acknowledged their exhaustion nearly as much as New York’s skill level in post-series comments, with James Harden unable to determine if the Knicks were truly superior.
“Obviously they dominated us 4-0 but I don’t know if I can necessarily answer that question just because genuinely I do feel like we are the better team, but series-wise it didn’t show it,” he said.
The Knicks will maintain a rest advantage entering the finals, though not as pronounced as before. They must begin on the road against a team expected to be favored. Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, referencing her earlier statements about the 6-foot-2 Brunson that a team couldn’t capture a championship behind a smaller player, stated the “two best teams are probably in the West, but I’m up for being proven wrong.”
The championship series will provide the definitive verdict.
“Lot of questions, lot of talk about how great we are, how great we’ve been. All that doesn’t matter,” guard Mikal Bridges said. “We’ve just got to worry about being ourselves and stay locked in and go win.”
