CLEVELAND — The New York Knicks have built a habit that’s seemingly hard to follow in these playoffs, yet they do it with ease: Take over road arena, clear out road arena, advance to next round after dominant performance.
They washed, rinsed and repeated that formula to clinch the Eastern Conference with a 130-93 Game 4 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night, completing a four-game sweep and advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
They await the winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder-San Antonio Spurs series that’s currently tied at two games apiece, and will have another week off before the NBA Finals begin on June 3.
The game itself didn’t feel like much of one. The Knicks led by 20 early in the second quarter as Knicks fans were getting louder and louder at Rocket Arena. The Knicks didn’t need Jalen Brunson’s playoff heroics, but he was unanimously selected as MVP of the Eastern Conference finals anyway, posting 15 points and five assists in 31 minutes.
“The belief the organization has in me has been amazing,” Brunson said. “It’s something I don’t take for granted. It’s something not a lot of people get the opportunity to do. It’s an honor to be here, in this city with my teammates. These guys have my back.”
On the podium, Brunson was flanked by two college teammates he won national titles with at Villanova, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart. Hart was the only starter who didn’t score in double figures Monday, but his breakout Game 2 performance at Madison Square Garden paved the way for this sweep to be completed, giving the Knicks valuable rest, again, before the next round.
Most of the game felt more like a coronation than competition. Karl-Anthony Towns’ father held the game ball. Towns himself cradled the Bob Cousy Trophy, awarded to the Eastern Conference champion. It was his third straight trip to this round dating back to 2024 with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the first time he has advanced to the Finals.
Celebrities and team dignitaries filled the sidelines and floor in the final quarter. It didn’t have to feel like Madison Square Garden but the energy was evident.
“This is a team,” an exuberant Spike Lee told reporters on the floor before naming Knicks of the past — Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, Dick Barnett, among others, the last group to win a championship.
“1973 is a long time (from the last Knicks championship). We’ve been close,” the filmmaker said. “You gotta give credit to Leon Rose. Smart moves. Basketball is a city game.”
Not even those Knicks can boast they were on the type of roll these Knicks are on. In the midst of an 11-game winning streak, they’ve outscored their opponents — Atlanta, Philadelphia and Cleveland — by a total of 262 points, the best point differential across 11 games during any point in NBA history, regular season or playoffs.
That’s better than the post-Millennium gold standard, the 2017 Golden State Warriors of Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, and the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers co-headlined by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
The Warriors had a point differential of 16.5 in their first 11 wins; they eventually won 15 in a row en route to their second title of that era. The Lakers won their first 11 games by an average of 15.4 points, losing only once before completing arguably the most dominant postseason run the modern NBA has seen.
Thanks to the 3-point shot and perhaps overwhelmed competition, the Knicks have blown out their opponents by 23.8 points per game, starting with Game 4 of their first-round series against the Hawks.
“I don’t think a switch flipped, per se. I think that was the start of the habits we were building, starting to show,” Hart said. “This is a very selfless group and we were willing to sacrifice our own individual performances or stats or accolades for the betterment of the team.”
“When you have not just one or two or three, but a whole team of those kind of guys and that kind of character, it puts you in position to be successful.”
Those aforementioned teams were overwhelming favorites from the onset of the playoffs, while the Knicks are still in prove-it mode. But even coach Mike Brown — who was acting head coach for the Golden State team while Steve Kerr was dealing with severe back pain — admitted he saw the pieces coming together toward the end of the regular season.
“Down the stretch, there was always a little bit of question whether we’d be able to get over the hump,” Brown said. “With about six or seven games to go — I started to see us playing some good basketball and do things that were more selfless and more sacrificing. During the regular season you have your ups and downs. Sometimes we got through it quickly, sometimes it took us a minute to figure it out.”
“It’s a magical thing, it’s a historic thing. It’s something New York has been dying for, for a long time. I know how this team works. It’s OK for New York, the fans, us, our families, to enjoy this moment and be jubilant about this. But for us as players, the job is not done.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
Brown mentioned the return of Landry Shamet to the lineup as a turning point. The Knicks lost three in a row on the road before Shamet’s return on the fourth game on the trip, a 130-119 win in Memphis. The Knicks won the last five games in which their regulars played before sitting almost everyone in the regular-season finale.
Shamet seemingly hasn’t missed from 3-point range in the past month, shooting 64% during the 11-game streak and 92% in the conference finals. He was 4-for-4 from deep in Monday’s clincher.
“It feels amazing. It feels really good,” Shamet said. “I’m not gonna lie and act like it doesn’t. I’ll enjoy it for an hour and the next couple days.”
Towns, who dominated his matchup with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen with 19 points and 14 rebounds, wanted to bask in the moment while also knowing what’s ahead.
“It’s a magical thing, it’s a historic thing. It’s something New York has been dying for, for a long time,” Towns said. “I know how this team works. It’s OK for New York, the fans, us, our families, to enjoy this moment and be jubilant about this.”
Towns finished with the Kobe Bryant line from the 2009 NBA Finals, after the Lakers took a 2-0 lead over Orlando — the same Magic team that beat Mike Brown’s Cavaliers to get to the Finals.
“But for us as players, the job is not done.”
