Eleven straight wins. Pure dominance. For the first time since 1999, the New York Knicks will be playing basketball in June. They are heading to the NBA Finals. Wow.
On Monday night, the Knicks put together another blowout win in a closeout game to sweep the Cleveland Cavaliers. They beat the Cavaliers 130-93; a 37-point demolition. Once again, like it has been all postseason, it was a total team effort. No player for the Knicks scored 20 points or higher, but six Knicks scored in double figures.
The winner of the Eastern Conference Finals MVP was none other than Knicks captain Jalen Brunson. In the four-game sweep, Brunson was spectacular. He averaged 25.5 points and 7.8 assists per game. He will be most remembered in this series for his epic Game 1 performance, where he pulled the Knicks back into the game by himself. In that Game 1, he scored 38 points and led the Knicks back from a 22-point deficit with 7:40 left in regulation to win.
Leon Rose, the president of the Knicks, signed Brunson in the 2022 offseason to a four-year, $104 million contract. Rose made the bet that the then 25-year-old Brunson would become a superstar and the face of the franchise for the Knicks. It is safe to say that bet has paid off big time.
Rose has turned the Knicks franchise around ever since he was hired as president of basketball operations in 2020. He built this Knicks juggernaut in an unconventional way. The whole starting rotation was acquired either via free agency (Brunson) or trade (Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart). That is unheard of in today’s NBA.
Most championship contenders are led by players drafted high in the draft by that respective team. No
player in the Knicks’ starting five was drafted by the Knicks. The only two major contributors who were drafted by the Knicks are bench players Mitchell Robinson (who was not drafted by Rose) and Miles McBride. If the Knicks can finish the job and win the NBA Finals, Rose has an argument for being the best executive in the sport.
The Knicks are set to face either the Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, depending on the outcome of their Western Conference battle. Right now, the series is tied 2-2, and the Knicks want this series to go as long as possible. The Knicks will enter the NBA Finals with nine days of rest since the Finals do not begin until Wednesday, June 3. The series between the Thunder and Spurs is highly competitive and physical, so the more these teams beat each other up and the longer this series goes, the more the advantage sways to the Knicks.
The Knicks are truly in the midst of a historic run. Their +271-point differential in 14 games this postseason is the highest ever entering the NBA Finals and the highest in a 14-game stretch in NBA playoff history.
The job is not finished yet, though. They still need four more wins to capture their first NBA championship since 1973, but man, what a run it has been thus far.
