Just six and a half weeks ago on April 23rd, the New York Knicks appeared to be in serious trouble. Following back-to-back single-point defeats to the Atlanta Hawks, they found themselves down 2-1 in their Eastern Conference opening round matchup.
Warning signs were evident throughout the organization.
Fan sentiment in New York had reached rock bottom.
Questions about Mike Brown’s job security as head coach dominated conversations.
“Stuff’s going to happen,” Brown, the Knicks coach in his first year, said that night in Atlanta. “Plenty of teams have been down 1-2. I even think Oklahoma City was down 1-2 last year and they ended up winning it. I’m not saying we’re going to win it or anything like that, but the reality of it is it’s seven games and you take one game at a time.”
Since that moment, the Knicks have competed in 13 contests. Their record: victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory and victory. Taking it one contest at a time, securing one triumph at a time, and potentially, capturing one title at a time. The Knicks have returned to New York holding a 2-0 advantage over San Antonio in the NBA Finals, continuing to benefit from their remarkable 13-game championship run.
Such a streak has occurred just once previously in NBA playoff history when considering only single-season winning runs. Golden State captured 15 consecutive games during their march to the 2017 championship.
The connection between those Warriors and the current Knicks? That connection is Brown. He served as an assistant coach on that Golden State team and compiled a perfect 12-0 record as interim head coach during the playoffs while Steve Kerr was absent due to back problems.
“You’ve got to have good players,” Brown said. “I’m not that smart. You’ve got to have good players that carry you.”
Brown’s official playoff record stands at an impressive 64-42 as a head coach.
Including those 12 contests with the Warriors in his record — which, according to NBA regulations and precedent, doesn’t occur because Kerr remained head coach despite not being present on the sideline for those games — would boost Brown’s playoff success rate to .644. That figure would rank third-best in NBA history among coaches with a minimum of 100 playoff contests, trailing only Phil Jackson and Kerr.
Regardless, Brown must now be regarded as the master of playoff winning streaks.
An examination of this remarkable run by New York:
— The Knicks have outscored Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland and San Antonio during these 13 contests by 273 points, representing the largest 13-game margin in NBA playoff history. Prior to this run, the greatest 13-game playoff point-differential margin was 225, achieved by those Warriors — the squad that Brown guided on an interim basis — in 2017.
— Eleven of the Knicks’ victories in this streak came by double-digit margins. The two exceptions: Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Philadelphia (a six-point victory) and Game 2 of the NBA Finals against San Antonio (a one-point victory). Six other wins featured final margins between 10 and 16 points, while the remaining five were complete routs — the Knicks capturing those by 29, 30, 37, 39 and 51 points.
— The Knicks have held leads of 40 or more points in four separate contests during the streak, including a 61-point advantage at Atlanta in the series-clinching game of that East first-round matchup.
— The Knicks have encountered double-digit deficits in only four of the contests, with two of those occurring in the first two games of these NBA Finals against the Spurs. They fell behind by 14 in Game 1 and by as much as 12 in Game 2.
— They also trailed Philadelphia by 12 in Game 3 of the East semifinals and Cleveland by 22 in Game 1 of the East final.
— New York stands at 8-0 away from home during this winning streak, with the final margin in those contests — even including a one-point game from Friday — averaging an impressive 21.5 points.
— The only squad in Knicks history with a longer road winning streak, whether in regular season or playoffs, was the 1969-70 team that once captured 12 consecutive games away from home. That squad proceeded to win New York’s first NBA championship.
