Knicks aren't buying into history with Cavaliers on ropes
Thirteen times it has happened in NBA history, and that represents more than enough for the Knicks to fully understand that their first-round playoff series is “not even close to being over,” as Jalen Brunson put it following Sunday’s Game 4 victory over the Cavaliers.
Don’t be dumb, or dumber.
This is not the proverbial one-in-a-million “so you’re saying there’s a chance” comparison of cinematic lore.
The Knicks carry a well-deserved 3-1 advantage into Game 5 in Cleveland on Wednesday night, but they hardly were patting themselves on the back or looking ahead to a date with the winner of the Bucks-Heat series in the second round.
“We’re 3-1, it’s a best-of-seven series. We got [to win] another game,” said Josh Hart, who made a massive two-way impact in his first career playoff start in place of injured shooting guard Quentin Grimes. “That’s a tough opponent, and we saw in Game 2, when we don’t bring it, how good they can be.”
Indeed, Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and the Cavs punched back with a strong response in Game 2 in Cleveland after the more physical Knicks had swiped the series opener.
Garland endured a horrendous Game 3 (4-for-21) at Madison Square Garden and Mitchell admitted he “played like s–t” in an 11-point effort in Game 4, which the Knicks notably closed out with slumping leading scorer Julius Randle benched for the entire fourth quarter.
Jalen Brunson and the Knicks are keenly aware they need one more win to get past the Cavs. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
“We’re going into their home now, so they’re going to be ready,” added Hart, who primarily guarded Mitchell in Grimes’ absence in Game 4. “Obviously, the crowd’s going to be crazy. The atmosphere is going to be wild. But we just have to focus on getting better as a team, attention to detail and focus on the task at hand.”
In NBA history, teams leading 3-1 in a best-of-seven series had won 257 times in 270 instances entering this year.
Most recently, the Nuggets pulled off the come-from-behind feat in each of the first two rounds of the 2020 playoffs against the Jazz and the Clippers.
The Knicks blew a 3-1 lead to the Heat in the second round in 1997, while LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and the Cavs overcame such a deficit against the Warriors in the NBA Finals in 2016.
“It’s just like any game,” backup center Isaiah Hartenstein said after contributing eight rebounds, two steals and two key second-half blocked shots in Sunday’s victory. “I was telling the guys before, we still have one more game to go. And I think even if it’s 3-1, I’ve seen a lot of teams come back from that. So you have to approach it the same way. Take it game by game.”
The Knicks have not won a playoff series since the Mike Woodson-coached and Carmelo Anthony-led squad downed the Celtics in 2013 and before that not since a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2000.
“Don’t think about closing it out. Don’t think about closing it out at all,” Brunson said. “Just think of it like we’re going into a hostile environment. They’re going to play desperate, and we just have to be able to bring it.”
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Isaiah Hartenstein came up big in the Game 4 win. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
The additions of Brunson, Hartenstein and Hart in the past year have helped vault the Knicks to the precipice of another advancement.
Brunson added that he’s not surprised by the impact that Hart — his former NCAA championship teammate at Villanova — is making at both ends in this series.
“No, he’s been a person that has adapted to every situation that he’s been a part of, and he’s made it work,” Brunson said. “He understands what’s needed of him and what he needs to do out there, and he does it.
“That’s how he’s been. That’s how he’s been raised. He’s always been raised to be that type of guy. He’s that guy on and off the floor. There’s not enough good things I can say about him.”
Source: New York Post
