It wasn’t easy, but the New York Knicks got past the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Jalen Brunson’s 40-point effort in Game 6, which he capped with a game-winning three with 5.1 seconds left, proved to be the difference as the Knicks advanced to the Eastern Conference semis for the third year in a row, a feat they hadn’t accomplished since 2000. Despite the success, noted Knicks fan and NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith has some doubts.
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Breaking through to the conference finals will be tough, as the Knicks are now set to take on the defending champion Boston Celtics. Favored to win the East, the C’s were tested at times by the Orlando Magic in their first-round series but still managed to advance with a gentleman’s sweep.
The Knicks won 51 games in the regular season, but they had trouble with the top teams in both conferences, and they were especially rough against the Celtics, going winless in four games against their northeastern neighbors. Smith doesn’t see this series going well for his team, though he hopes they prove him wrong.
“I’ma be proud of the Knicks if they push this to six,” Stephen A. said on First Take this morning. “So since I got them losing in five, as much as I’m rooting for them and I’m praying that they make me out a liar, if I’m being objective, I got them losing this in five games, which means they’re closer to a sweep than a seven-game series.”
Stephen A. makes his living by trying to win debates, but this is one that he’ll happily take the L on if he has to. “Boy do I hope I’m wrong,” he said for perhaps the first time in history, “but I’ve seen no evidence from the Knicks to tell me otherwise.”
The Knicks need a heroic effort from Brunson to take down the Celtics
Stephen A. went through nearly every player in Tom Thibodeau’s rotation to show what would need to happen for the Knicks to have a shot. At the end of the day, Jalen Brunson will need to do something historic for the Knicks to advance to their first conference finals in their last four chances.
Brunson scored 30 or more in five of six games against the Pistons last round, and even then, the Knicks didn’t make it by much. Against Boston this year, he averaged 26.8 points per game, a tick above his regular season average of 26.0.
Brunson’s efforts weren’t nearly enough, as Boston swept the regular season series by an average margin of more than 16 points per game. Jalen himself was a -53 in those games.
The Knicks’ leader recently spoke to the media about the challenge at hand, and though he said that he felt like the team made strides in making the fourth matchup close, he doesn’t think it’s helpful to look backwards.
“You can’t really focus on the past and think it’s gonna be the same,” Brunson said. “We can’t have that mindset at all. We gotta be different. We gotta be ready to go. We gotta go out there and compete from the jump.”
Besides needing a Herculean effort from Brunson, the Knicks need to find a way to slow the Celtics down from the three-point line. Boston led the NBA with 17.4 threes made per game, but they blew past that number to make 21 per game against the Knicks. If they’re able to shoot it like that again, Stephen A.’s prediction and worst fear could come true.
