yahoo - 5/22/2026 5:08:27 AM - GMT (+2 )
Remember that moment nearly a month ago when the New York Knicks were down 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the NBA playoffs? When Mikal Bridges couldn’t make a shot, when Jalen Brunson was going to tank the draft stock of every small guard from here to eternity, when Mike Brown’s rotations were taking years off Ben Stiller’s life?
It’s safe to say those questions have been replaced by a new one: Are the Knicks ever going to lose again?
As both sets of conference finals shift to the lower-seeded team’s home court, an interesting dynamic is developing. When you watch the Oklahoma City Thunder slug it out with the San Antonio Spurs — a 1-1 series that seems destined to go the distance — it feels like both teams are playing a higher level of basketball than anything we’re watching in the Eastern Conference.
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But at the same time, the physical and mental toll of that series is already manifesting in injuries to De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper for the Spurs and a hamstring that is making it difficult for the Thunder’s Jalen Williams to stay on the court. Regardless of which team emerges from the West, it is likely to be such a fierce battle that the winner enters the NBA Finals at significantly less than the peak of its powers.
Meanwhile, the Knicks are pretty much just … cruising through the East. Yeah, this series could still shift in the Cavs’ direction when they return home to Cleveland, but we should probably trust our eyes at this point.
Though New Yorkers have every reason to be paranoid given that their franchise hasn’t made the Finals since 1999, the Knicks made easy work of the Hawks after that initial scare, broke the spirit of the Philadelphia 76ers in an embarrassing sweep and have made things pretty simple so far against the Cavs because they’re just the better team.
Though it took a crazy fourth-quarter comeback for New York to pull out Game 1 in overtime, its slow start looked a lot more like a product of rust after being off for nine days. Coming back Thursday in a rock-solid 109-93 victory in Game 2 seemed like far more of a statement about the gap between these two teams and the likelihood of the Knicks taking care of business in a similar fashion to what they did in the first two rounds.
Honestly, it would be hard to draw up a more favorable setup for New York to win its first championship since 1973. Unless something unexpected or extremely unlucky happens over the next several days, the Knicks will be in the Finals while expending minimal energy over the first three rounds and playing their best basketball of the entire season, waiting in the wings while OKC and San Antonio rain body blows down on each other for perhaps the next nine days.
When you frame it that way, it’s not a stretch to suggest the Knicks and their fans should consider it a disappointment if they aren’t parading the Larry O’Brien Trophy down Broadway in mid-June. If not now, under circumstances that couldn’t be more favorable if James Dolan drew them up himself, then when?
I know, I know — it’s the Knicks. History has made it hard to buy all the way in. Even after this regular season, when the Knicks finished well behind Detroit and Boston in the standings, not a lot of people were talking about them as real championship contenders. Sure, maybe they could get through the East if everything went perfectly, but could they really threaten the Thunder (or whoever knocked them off)?
The first three games of the Atlanta series only heightened the tension. Bridges’ offensive struggles brought the decision to trade all those first-round draft picks into question. Brunson was getting cooked on the defensive end by CJ McCollum. The decision to fire Tom Thibodeau and hand the coaching reins to Brown was suddenly up for relitigation after Quin Snyder outmaneuvered him to put the Hawks briefly in the driver’s seat.
But since then, the only thing that needs to be relitigated is whether the Hawks were maybe better than we gave them credit for. In the nine games New York has played since falling behind 2-1, nobody has managed to beat them and it wouldn’t be a huge shock at this point if they went ahead and wrapped this thing up in Cleveland on Memorial Day. The Knicks have been that dominant for a few weeks now.
Obviously this stuff is all precarious in the playoffs. Narratives can change on a dime. Bad luck can alter history. There was a moment in the third quarter when Josh Hart, whose shooting created some separation in this game, came up hobbling after trying to make a play in transition. Everyone is a sprained ankle to the wrong player away from losing their chance to win a title.
But that’s also why the Knicks’ efficiency thus far has put them in position to pull off the inconceivable.
All things being equal, they are not a better team than Oklahoma City and may not be as good as the Spurs. But there’s a real chance they’ll be fresher, healthier and playing better than either opponent heading into the Finals. If the playoffs turn into a war of attrition, the Knicks are way ahead of the game.
If you project the next three or four years, it’s hard to imagine they’ll ever have another chance like this. Oklahoma City isn’t going anywhere. San Antonio is only going to get older, stronger and more experienced. Other contenders are going to emerge in the East and make life much more difficult for the Knicks than what they’ve experienced in these playoffs.
It’s easy to feel shaky about this iteration of the Knicks because of Brunson’s defense or Karl-Anthony Towns shrinking in playoffs past or the possibility that Bridges is going to disappear entirely when it matters. But those feel like stereotypes from a different time. With the roll these Knicks are on — and the bruises to come on the other side of the bracket — New York fans not only have every right to start dreaming about the mountaintop, they should start to think about expecting it.
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