The New York Knicks Are Different

Seven (7) straight wins. 

It’s nothing really special when it comes to the regular season, we see that and much larger winning streaks so often. Add in it being in the playoffs and it’s not only special – it’s historic. 

Now that may sound like some ChatGBT generated context (it’s not), but how else do you describe the Knicks in two sentences? You need to find extraordinary wording for an extraordinary team. It seems like since the 2021 season the New York Knicks have had their own identity over the individual seasons.

It was Julius Randle who put the city on his back in what was the first major “Knicks are back” season, making the playoffs for the first time since 2013. Then in 2022 and even in 2023 you had a gritty team that was competitive, also add in Jalen Brunson, who has become the King of New York basketball. The Villanova season with Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart was a fan-favorite year.

It took a while to rise up from the dead, but the Knicks have done it and it has been fun to watch.

The New York Knicks have combined for a +185 points over the course of their seven consecutive wins. I don’t know what Mike Brown said after Game 3 against Atlanta, but it ignited  a sleeping giant for the Madison Square Garden squad.

As the Knicks await their ECF opponent, one thing is clear and that is this New York Knicks team is a completely different team from what we saw in last year’s conference finals.

Obviously nothing in life is guaranteed, but doesn’t it feel like a Knicks NBA Finals victory is coming up? What Mike Brown has done has been amazing. Tom Thibodeau revived a dead franchise that struggled to win 15 games, and now not even a decade later the team that Thibs built is now the team that Brown has shaped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iSNQp6pLLo

Bench management, bench management, bench management. That has been the biggest vocal point of New York of the past three seasons. Thibs’ bench management was…questionable. It could have and really should have been better and you can say the same thing with Mike Brown for the majority of this season as well. Mike Brown started managing the bench later on into the season and frankly due to how the Knicks have been playing in their last seven games, bench management hasn’t really been a concern. The Knicks starting five has been on point and playing the bulk of the game until the final handful of minutes when a win is sealed.

With the four-and-out sweep of the 76ers, New York has gotten several extra days of rest as they will prepare to take on the winner of the Cavs-Pistons series, which currently has Cleveland leading the series 3-2. The Cavaliers have a chance to clinch tonight with a win, setting up a Knicks-v-Cavs Eastern Conference Finals.

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