Knicks' postseason run a huge thrill ride for fans and players
INDIANAPOLIS — It’s understandable if at the watch parties and street celebrations through this postseason run, Knicks fans feel as if the room is spinning.
Perhaps it’s a side effect of maybe too many drinks or whatever gets fans to climb lamp posts and billboards.
But for the sober fans and even the Knicks themselves, the run through the playoffs alternately has been something to celebrate and something that causes stomachs to churn like a wild roller coaster ride.
A scroll through the timeline of any fan’s social media account will show better luck next year or fire the coach and disband the team around the time of the second quarter Sunday night, posts that were replaced by exuberant celebrations a few hours later. But really, shouldn’t everyone be used to this by now?
The Knicks became the first team in 27 years to stage comebacks from at least 20 points down in three games in one postseason run when they overcome the Indiana Pacers’ huge lead to pull out a 106-100 win in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals Sunday night.
Maybe it’s understandable that fans would acclimate to that, but combine it with the Knicks’ historic collapse in Game 1 — when they became the first team in 1,415 postseason games to squander a lead of at nine points in the final minute — and the ride is hard to handle.
If it is any consolation, it’s that way for the team, too. Asked after the game what this series has been like, Jalen Brunson simply said, “Unpredictable.” After a film session Monday morning, he hadn’t changed his opinion.
“It’s competition. It’s the playoffs,” Brunson said. “And in order to go through and do something special, you have to go through a lot of adversity, a lot of questioning mentally and internally if we’re going to do this. So it can make or break teams when you’re going through things like that. And I think obviously what we did [Sunday] night definitely helps us. We saw we were on the brink of it looking pretty dark for us. And the way we responded, I think it brings us closer together.”
The Knicks started the season talking about needing to learn the new roster, finding ways to fit Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges into the lineup in the most efficient and useful way. After 82 regular-season games, 15 more playoff games and the highest-stress scenarios, they are still learning.
“I don’t know,” OG Anunoby said. “I think we’re just resilient. We don’t want to be down 20, but something happens and we know it’s a game of runs. So I guess we just lock in and go on a run of our own.”
“I feel like internally we think we can do it,” Brunson said. “But when we’re actually going through it and we do it at a time like this, like I said, it brings us closer together.”
There still are historic obstacles in the Knicks’ way. No team in NBA history has lost the first two games of the conference finals at home and come back to win the series. Down 20 in the second quarter (and 15 late in the third quarter) on Sunday and facing the possibility of a 3-0 hole — which no team in NBA history has ever come back from — it certainly didn’t look promising.
But they pulled that game out and now just need a win Tuesday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to regain the home-court advantage. Yet that seems less important than you might think, given that the Knicks are 6-1 on the road and 3-5 at home this postseason.
“It’s definitely an ongoing process,” Brunson said. “Obviously, the longer you’re with your teammates, the more you understand them. And the way I’ve been able to kind of connect with these guys on a daily basis definitely helps. It takes time. It takes time for team chemistry and bonding, and I feel like when we’re able to push each other out of our comfort zones, that’s when we take another step.”
Notes & quotes: Aaron Nesmith, who has been a defensive presence hounding Brunson, suffered a sprained right ankle Sunday. He returned to the game but is listed as questionable for Game 4 . . . Towns and Josh Hart both seemed to have a knee issue late Sunday, but asked about it after the game, Tom Thibodeau said, “I don’t know if you’re aware, but our medical team was voted best in the league. They are tough-minded. At this time of the year, the mental toughness is probably more important than the physical toughness. And both of those guys are mentally tough, which I think is huge.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
