The New York Knicks are one of the most fun stories in the NBA. Jalen Brunson has turned himself into one of the best point guards in the NBA, Josh Hart has all the sudden become a legit number 2 option and the Knicks just keep winning. Knick fans believe in this team but my question is, what should they believe this team can accomplish?
The first round presented a real challenge for the Knicks. Entering that series, the 76ers had won 9 straight games and looked like they could make some noise in the playoffs. Yet, the Knicks continued to find ways to win. Game 1 off of 3 Hart three pointers in the 4th quarter, game 2 off of a mind numbing mistake by the Sixers, and games 4 and 6 off of Jalen Brunson masterpieces. They were the better team, even without Julius Randle. This is the best offensive rebounding team in the playoffs at 13.4 offensive rebounds per game and grabbing 37.4% of their misses. Brunson is simply incredible, averaging 35.6 points, 8.1 assists, and 4.4 rebounds on shooting splits of .46/.32/.81, he has arguably been the best player in these playoffs. This is a really good basketball team with one of the elite point guards in the league and the Pacers have no answer for it.
These first 2 games of the Pacers/Knicks series have been defined by one thing, offense. In their game 2 win, the Knicks scored 140.7 points per 100 possessions, Cleaning the Glass had that ranked in the 99th percentile. In other words, the Pacers have no answers for the Knicks offense. However, the Pacers had no answers for anyone’s offense this season. They ranked 24th in the NBA in defensive rating, with a 117.6 defensive rating and that has not changed in the playoffs, they are 15th in defensive rating in the playoffs, with a 120.6 defensive rating through 8 playoff games. No team has struggled scoring against the Pacers defense and the Knicks have been no different. However, if there is one thing the Knicks have struggled to do, it is keep their guys healthy and on the court.
Of course, I know that the Knicks haven’t struggled to keep guys healthy, they’ve just had bad injury luck. That does not change the fact that the Knicks’ players are going down like flies, though. This is a basketball team that has lost 4 guys to injury and 3 for the season. Julius Randle has been out since January, Bojan Bogdanovic (traded for to help replace Randle) was lost for the season during the series against Philadelphia, Mitchell Robinson was ruled out 6 to 8 weeks after game 1 of the Pacers series, and OG Anunoby suffered a hamstring injury during game 2 (there has been no update at the time of this writing). Josh Hart is already playing 48 minutes a game as he played every second of both games 1 and 2, I am just not sure where Tom Thibodeau goes next. They needed to dust off Precious Achiuwa, who played in just 2 of the 6 first round games, for 28 minutes in the game 2 win on Wednesday. They are running out of bodies and even with all those bodies beating the Boston Celtics 4 of 7 times is going to be a tall task.
As Jaylen Brown said after the Celtics 120-95 game 1 win over the Cavaliers, “it’s gonna be tough for a team to beat us four times.” In the playoffs, the Celtics have been dominant, save game 2 of the Heat series where Miami set an all-time playoff record for threes made in a game. The Celtics are +103 in the playoffs over 6 games and have a net rating of 18.9, both representing the best amongst teams in the playoffs. Four of their 5 wins have come by at least 20 points or more and the win that wasn’t a 20 point blow out was a 14 point win. This is not just a playoff thing either, the Celtics have an NBA record nineteen 25 point wins on the season and were +35 in 5 games against the Knicks this season. Derrick White is having a breakout postseason, Jaylen Brown is the leading scorer, Jayson Tatum would be the best player in a potential series, and they expect to get Kristaps Porzingis back at some point during the playoffs. The Celtics are loaded and have been the most dominant team in the NBA this season, and while I am not saying the Knicks can’t beat the Celtics, I’m just saying Boston would be heavily favored in a potential series.
My question is not should we believe in the Knicks, my question is what are we believing New York can accomplish? They should absolutely beat the Pacers, with or without Anunoby, and we should believe they can get to the Eastern Conference Finals. However, should we believe in them to reach the Finals? I am skeptical. To win the championship? Those teams out West are loaded. The Knicks are a really good basketball team and a fun story (no matter how annoying the fanbase can get) but I think we need to pump the brakes on the expectations some have set for them.
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