NEW YORK \u2014 \u201cObviously, we want to take the next step. We want to be better than we were last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the gauntlet Jalen Brunson threw down at the Knicks\u2019 media day session in September \u2014 the challenge facing an organization that had seen its most successful season in decades run aground amid a hail of injuries in the seventh game of the second round<\/a> and entered the offseason searching for the roster-management answer that would propel New York to the NBA\u2019s final four for the first time in a quarter-century.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, you\u2019re never content,\u201d head coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters huddled into a conference room at the Knicks\u2019 training facility in Tarrytown, New York. \u201cYou always want to try to improve, and when opportunities present themselves, and you feel like it can improve the team, you want to try to take advantage of that.\u201d<\/p>\n This was the summer Leon Rose saw opportunities and sought to take advantage. The Knicks\u2019 president pushed a slew of the team-building assets he\u2019d been steadily stockpiling since taking over the franchise in March 2020 to the middle of the table. Good NBA players, a half-decade\u2019s worth of draft capital, hundreds of millions of dollars in salary cap space: Rose put them all on the line, making several massive wagers that he hoped would improve the Knicks\u2019 chances of winning multiple postseason series, and increase their odds of being the last team standing.<\/p>\n Just a week and a half ago, those bets seemed kind of dicey, with a middling-for-months Knicks team that struggled to dispatch the precocious Pistons about to square off with a defending-champion Celtics side that had dominated New York during the regular season. Now, though, the Knicks enter Wednesday\u2019s Game 5 with a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000 \u2014 and it\u2019s because those big bets are paying off.<\/p>\n All season long, Mikal Bridges wore the price tag around his neck like a millstone. Five first-round picks?<\/a> For a guy averaging 17.6 points per game? Every time he struggled with his shot, every time he looked more like a nice complementary piece than a force multiplier worth mortgaging your draft future for, and every time the Knicks looked like less than both the sum of their parts and the fulfillment of fans\u2019 elevated expectations, Bridges bore the brunt of the blame.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The numbers don\u2019t look dramatically better in the postseason: 15.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game on 45\/29\/86 shooting splits. Watch the Knicks\u2019 last five games, though \u2014 the closeout win in Detroit, and three wins in four tries against Boston \u2014 and Bridges\u2019 impact becomes crystal clear.<\/p>\n Bridges has played his best defense of the season over this stretch, working with OG Anunoby to close the book on Cade Cunningham last round and toggling from Derrick White to Jaylen Brown to Jayson Tatum in this one, and coming up with massive, game-sealing plays to help the Knicks finish the road sweep that put them within arm\u2019s reach of the upset. He came through with timely hoops in Boston: a corner 3-pointer to give New York a six-point lead in overtime of Game 1 and 14 fourth-quarter points to fuel the comeback in Game 2. He was brilliant in the second half of Game 4, playing every second of the final 24 minutes and going 7 of 8 inside the arc, repeatedly getting to his spots to drop in feathery midrange leaners over the outstretched fingertips of White, Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0121is and Luke Kornet.<\/p>\n Elite point-of-attack defense, turnover generation, secondary pick-and-roll ball-handling, an excellent midrange game, another shot creator to run the offense through when Brunson\u2019s off the floor: This is what the Knicks traded all those picks to get. And this time of year, it\u2019s worth its weight in gold.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cWatching him, I mean \u2026 I\u2019ve seen him since 2015,\u201d Brunson said after Game 4. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve seen the way his work ethic has grown each year, and then seeing everything he does, how psychotic he is with his work \u2026 it all pays off.\u201d<\/p>\n Also paying off: the decision to re-up Anunoby<\/a>, committing more than a quarter of the salary cap<\/a> to a player who\u2019d never averaged more than 17.1 points per game \u2026 but whose elite defensive work and corner 3-point shooting made him a perfect running buddy for Brunson on a team in need of stops, shooting and size on the perimeter.<\/p>\n For a few tense moments, it seemed as though a grim bit of history might be repeating itself for New York. Anunoby \u2014 who left Game 2 of the Knicks\u2019 second-round matchup against the Pacers last May with a strained left hamstring that cost him most of the rest of the series \u2014 began favoring that same left hamstring again<\/a> late in the first quarter of Game 4, left the bench<\/a> to head back to the locker room and returned with a large wrap around his left leg<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Anunoby reentered the game midway through the second, though \u2014 he said after the game the hamstring \u201cjust felt weird a little bit, but I\u2019m fine\u201d \u2014 and came up huge in the second half, finishing with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and what was tantamount to the game-sealer: a pick-six dunk off a Bridges steal on the play where Tatum went down<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cToughness. Timely plays. Flying all over the place. That was a huge steal that he made for us,\u201d Thibodeau said after Game 4. \u201cBut he\u2019s so disruptive. It\u2019s not only \u2014 and look, when you\u2019re guarding a guy like Tatum, there\u2019s a lot of stuff that he has to navigate through, and there\u2019s times you defend him well and he\u2019s still gonna make [the shot]. But to do it over and over and not get deterred and to keep fighting, and then to make those plays that he made in the fourth quarter, says a lot about him.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The last few games also say a lot about Karl-Anthony Towns, the All-NBA centerpiece of the eve-of-training-camp blockbuster<\/a> trade that represented Rose\u2019s last big seize-the-opportunity swing for this season.<\/p>\n Imported to provide a five-out, floor-spacing easy button to supercharge New York\u2019s offense, the Knicks have struggled for months to generate high-volume, high-value 3-point attempts for Towns<\/a> \u2014 one reason why what was one of the league\u2019s best offenses in the first half<\/a> of the season dropped back to the middle of the pack<\/a> in the second half. Towns has attempted just 10 long balls in four games against Boston, making only one \u2026 but he has continued to make his presence felt, going to work on the interior and on the glass to cause problems for Boston\u2019s frontcourt.<\/p>\n Towns is averaging 19.8 points and 14 rebounds per game against Boston; according to Justin Kubatko of Statitudes<\/a>, he\u2019s the first Knick to string together three straight 20-point, 10-rebound playoff games since Patrick Ewing did it in 1996. The Celtics have continued to target him defensively on switches<\/a>, and he\u2019s sometimes prone to providing as much spaciness on that end of the court<\/a> as he does space on the offensive side. But he\u2019s also held<\/a> up<\/a> well<\/a> at times<\/a> and hasn\u2019t let the hunting or his lack of easy 3-point looks deter him from doing the engine-room work inside.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cHe definitely stepped up to the challenge,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cAs teammates, guys in the gap, guys in the help, just giving him confidence to press up and continue to play knowing that we have his back.<\/p>\n \u201cBy \u2018we,\u2019 I mean Mikal, Josh [Hart] and OG \u2026 and an occasional charge from me.\u201d<\/p>\n Towns has also begun developing chemistry with center Mitchell Robinson. Thibodeau couldn\u2019t test-drive the two-big look for most of the season, with Robinson sidelined through the All-Star break recovering from offseason ankle surgery. It\u2019s proven effective in the postseason, though: New York has outscored Boston by 18 points in 38 two-big minutes<\/a>, grabbing 39% of available offensive rebounds<\/a> (a rate that would\u2019ve led the league during the regular season<\/a>) and limiting the C\u2019s to just 35.6% shooting<\/a>.<\/p>\n Towns even set Robinson up on a high-low feed in the fourth quarter, the first assist hookup between the pair this season \u2026 albeit after an unsuccessful initial attempt earlier in the game:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing against him, you understand what he brings to a team,\u201d Towns said of Robinson, who has pulled down 14 offensive rebounds in 66 minutes over the last three games. \u201cAnd when you\u2019re playing as his teammate, you can see even more the magnitude, the impact he has in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n You don\u2019t necessarily need to be Brunson\u2019s teammate to see the magnitude of his impact. It doesn\u2019t hurt, though.<\/p>\n “Honestly, do we all expect anything less?” Towns said when asked about a performance that saw the Knicks captain break out for 39 points on 14-of-25 shooting with 12 assists against just one turnover in 40 pristine minutes. “I expect nothing less from Cap. It gets to the fourth quarter, and he\u2019s a bad, bad man when it comes to the fourth quarter and clutch points.\u201d<\/p>\n In Game 4, though, arguably the more pivotal point came early in the third, when a White 3-pointer<\/a> pushed Boston\u2019s lead to 14 points and forced a New York timeout. After that stoppage, Brunson grabbed the game with two hands. He took advantage of a breakdown in Boston\u2019s switching to drill an open stepback 3<\/a>, pushed the pace in transition to blow past a cross-matched Al Horford into the lane for a layup<\/a> and drew a three-shot foul<\/a> on Brown that was upgraded to a flagrant-1, giving New York an extra possession \u2014 on which Bridges hit one of his patented midrange fadeaways<\/a>. In just over 90 seconds, New York had whittled a 14-point deficit down to a five-point affair, with Brunson holding the knife.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cJust the way he\u2019s wired,\u201d Thibodeau said after the game. \u201cA lot of poise under pressure. His confidence I think is always super-high just because of the way he prepares and the way he works. So no moment is too big for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Brunson would go on to pour in 18 points in the third, and score or assist on 16 more in the fourth, routinely working over White \u2014 whom Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla switched onto Brunson with Jrue Holiday in foul trouble \u2014 to generate good look after good look.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easier said than done,\u201d Brunson said of the challenge of elevating his game against even an All-Defensive Team-caliber stopper. \u201cThe one thing I have to do is respect my opponent, knowing that it\u2019s not going to be easy, knowing it\u2019s going to be tough, and knowing that I could get got. But I\u2019m not going to be afraid to do so. I\u2019m going to go out there and just give it everything I got, and put myself and my team [in] the best chance to win the game. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Brunson\u2019s brilliance in making something as complicated as a hostile takeover of a playoff game seem that simple is at the heart of it all \u2014 the years of maneuvering, trades, signings and extensions<\/a>, every small decision and galactic shift that put the Knicks in position to make this run this season.<\/p>\n It works because Brunson\u2019s capable of producing in the fourth quarter like Kobe<\/a>. It works because he\u2019s putting up postseason numbers that put him in the company of Jordan, LeBron and Joki\u0107<\/a>. It works because, in his fourth postseason as a starter, he now has more 35-point, 10-dime playoff outings than anybody but LeBron, Jordan, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson<\/a>.<\/p>\n It works because he does \u2014 and because, as Thibodeau\u2019s on-court avatar, he never forgets that the work isn\u2019t done yet, scuttling the postgame celebration with New York still one win away from the next round.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n “I was actually telling everyone to get off the court,\u201d Brunson said after Game 4. \u201cI was like, \u2018It’s nothing to celebrate.\u2019 \u2026 For the longest time, whenever something is accomplished, I\u2019m looking forward to the next. It\u2019s just how I\u2019ve been, dating back to high school, college, championships \u2014 everything that I\u2019ve ever won, there\u2019s nothing in my house. Because I\u2019m just looking forward to, \u2018How can I be better?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Coming off their best half of the season \u2014 70 points on 66.7% shooting<\/a> against the NBA\u2019s No. 4 regular-season defense<\/a>, a 148.9 offensive rating<\/a> against the defending champs \u2014 the Knicks ended Game 4 looking better than they have since this team was put together. They looked like the team Rose bet they could be.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a great opportunity,\u201d Brunson said after Game 4. \u201cWe\u2019re playing a really good team, and I don\u2019t think we\u2019re playing our best basketball yet. We have a team that\u2019s fairly new this year, and we still have a long way to go to be the best that we can be.\u201d<\/p>\n One more win, and they\u2019ll have achieved that training camp goal of surpassing last season. One more win, and they\u2019ll play for a spot in the NBA Finals, with Brunson continuing to look forward to the next, in search of an ending worth celebrating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 \u201cObviously, we want to take the next step. We want to be better than we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[869,7,45,75,3798,909,46,1243,296,288,78,77,2038,563,304,2772,516,7093,4996,1260,1247,6,1136,741,114,9910,1416],"class_list":{"0":"post-32331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-al-horford","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-celtics","12":"tag-bostonceltics","13":"tag-cade-cunningham","14":"tag-celtics","15":"tag-derrick-white","16":"tag-detroit","17":"tag-jalen-brunson","18":"tag-jaylen-brown","19":"tag-jayson-tatum","20":"tag-jrue-holiday","21":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","22":"tag-knicks","23":"tag-kobe","24":"tag-lebron","25":"tag-leon-rose","26":"tag-luke-kornet","27":"tag-mikal-bridges","28":"tag-mitchell-robinson","29":"tag-nba","30":"tag-new-york","31":"tag-og-anunoby","32":"tag-pacers","33":"tag-tarrytown","34":"tag-tom-thibodeau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114506265071833181","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}