Very few basketball fans expected the New York Knicks to get past the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. As it turns out, though, the Celtics now have plenty of time to catch a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, and it’s the Knicks who are getting ready to open up play against the Indiana Pacers. Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals tips off tonight.
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The Knicks lost all four games to the Celtics in the regular season, but they showed incredible resiliency in overcoming multiple double-digit deficits in the series. New York won both games in Boston to jump out to a 2-0 lead, and the defending champs were never able to really recover.
Even though the Knicks seemingly had all the pressure in the world on them when they hosted Game 6 at Madison Square Garden, they left no doubt about who the better team was, blowing the Celtics off the court and out of the postseason entirely with a 119-81 win.
In the latest episode of the Roommates Show podcast, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, each of whom played major roles in the upset victory, spoke about the mentality that allowed them to perform their best in such a crucial spot.
“Everyone thinks the pressure’s on us,” Brunson said. “There’s no pressure. We’re prepared. We’re ready to go. We’re not afraid to fail. There is no pressure in this type of situation … If we fail, alright, dust our shoulders off and go on to the next one.”
The Knicks surely must have heard the noise from everyone in basketball media saying that after dropping Game 5, they had to win Game 6, but as Brunson said, they really did perform like there was no pressure at all.
Brunson praised Karl-Anthony Towns for gearing things up early in Game 6. “He set the tone, he got us going and he brought the energy from the start. And we needed that.”
Jalen also spoke about the important roles the rest of the roster played, from Mitchell Robinson overcoming his free throw-shooting woes to make positive contributions all series long to Mikal Bridges’ game-sealing defensive plays and clutch scoring in the fourth quarter.
“We needed that big time,” Brunson said of Bridges’ play. “The way he stepped up, damn, we’d be playing Game 7 right now [without it].”
The Knicks’ next opponent hasn’t had an easy trek through the playoffs either.
Knicks vs. Pacers is a battle of two teams that have overcome the odds
Getting past the Celtics is the most consequential thing the Knicks have done in well over two decades, but there’s still work to be done to get back to their first NBA Finals since 2000.
Just like the Knicks, the Pacers have overcome the doubters this postseason, first by taking out Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in five games, then by annihilating the top-seeded Cavs in Round 2.
Tyrese Haliburton was named the most overrated player in the NBA in a player poll conducted by The Athletic that was published shortly after the playoffs began. With multiple game-winners since then, he’s made those results look ridiculous, as he’s guided Indiana to its second consecutive Eastern Conference Finals.
He’s also had plenty of help from a roster that has sometimes gone 10-deep. Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner and Ryan Nembhard have all been game-changers, but the bench has been a major contributor too. That stands in sharp contrast with the Knicks, who love to play their starters huge minutes.
This series is going to be a war, especially after the Pacers knocked an injury-depleted Knicks team out in seven games last year. The Knicks won two out of three matchups in the regular season this year, but as we just saw, you can throw those results out the window.
Unlike last round, the Knicks have home-court advantage and are the favorites to win the series. Those expectations will create a different kind of pressure from what they faced against the Celtics, but if they keep playing with the mentality that Brunson described, they’ll have a great chance to advance again.
