New York – head coach Tom Thibodeau clearly explained his expectations in September. Yes, the Knicks had just won 50 games, finished with the second seeded in the East and reached the second round of the playoffs. But it was last year.
This year’s knicks should integrate new parts – need to develop new habits, to forge new obligations. You are not content to reappear at the same point that you finished last year; If you want to go to the Promised Land, you can’t skip steps.
Advertisement
“It’s a long version, and you are preparing for that, and I think you start at the end of the mind,” said Thibodeau during the Knicks Media Day. “What will it take at the end for us?”
It is tempting to say that it will take exactly what they obtained on Friday evening in a Absolute barrel of the injured and reduced Boston Celtics – A 119-81 victory who is now like The most unbalanced victory in the history of Knicks qualifiers.
A performance made up of the leader All-Nba Jalen Brunson, browning his heritage in a playoff series in New York with another Penn Station victory. A double of 21 and 12 murderer of the cities of the Karl-Anthony stars center, continuing to prove in this qualifying series that he does not need to unravel a ton of 3 points to have a major impact.
A triple -double – The first of the playoffs by a trinket from Walt “Clyde” Frazier all the way back in 1972 – for relentless Josh Hart, pushing the pace forever, ascended for disputed advice, communicating defensive assignments and executing HB plunging into transition. Twenty points and more each, eight combined at 3 points and seven combined blocks and steal wings of 3 and OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges. A solid game on the bench of Miles McBride, which rediscovered contact on its sweater against Boston, and the Mitchell Robinson center, a giant on the advice that played the best defense of the attack point of its career on the wings and the Celtic guards.
Advertisement
All this is equivalent to a recipe for the success of the playoffs, resulting in two totally dominant districts – the second and third, during which New York has outclassed Boston 66-37, transforming match 6 into a garden of Laugher and Madison Square into a renaissance tent – which offered an overview of the best version of this renovated Knicks team when All its big bets bear fruit.
“I think the way you have to look at it is, whatever your ceiling, that’s what you are looking for, and you are trying to take expectations for you,” said Thibodeau after victory. “And if everyone is committed to this, the challenge is to get the best of everyone.”
It is tempting To say that, but we can’t. Not yet, at least. Because while Friday marked the end of the line for Boston – Maybe in more ways than one – It is not The end of the Thibodeau team. We do not yet know what it will take. But we will discover it.
Advertisement
New York plays on. For the first time in a quarter of a century, the Knicks will play in the final of the Eastern Conference; In addition to that, they will have a home advantage in the series, welcoming in the Pacers Indiana heated For match 1 Wednesday.
“More to do, do you know?” Said bridges. “We are not finished. And that’s what it is. We went out tonight, we played hard, managed Biz. But the season is not over. We have much more to do.”
When the Knicks reviewed the film 5 film, which they saw them disgust them. Insanted efforts, an absent communication, assignments raised the shoulders rather than putting back – an abdication of fully insufficient responsibility for the challenges of a closing and improper game of a team with championship dreams. When they review the film 6 film, they will see a team with reasons to believe that it can make these dreams a reality: a team with four players who can go there 20 or more; A team with physicality and athletics to dominate the boards, win the possession game and have important edges in the points of the painting, fast break points and reversal points; A team that can exceed you in the half-terrain and outdo you in transition.
“I have the impression that we played 48 minutes this evening,” said Brunson, evoking the Platonic ideal of full excellence, including Thibodeau Cire so often Rhapsodic – the kind of outing in which the coach said to journalists before the match, “you must give maximum effort, but you must also have a maximum concentration.”
Jalen Brunson had the garden fly on Friday evening during match 6. (AP photo / Frank Franklin II)
(Associated Press)
The Knicks did this Friday, seeming to be cleaner in their defensive change early to induce several breaches of Celtics and make a concerted effort to repel the Boston ball, with cities and bridges that go downhill for Layups in the first and a half minute. Friday, New York led thread, which is accompanied by a team of Celtics who had traveled them in match 5 with a 3 -point dam, but which could not have tracked in MSG either – especially in the second quarter which saw them score only 17 points in 25 possessions with as many reversals as the basters (six).
Advertisement
With All-Nba leading Light Jayson Tatum for the series, Jaylen Brown sought to assume the offensive burden and was the only two-digit Celtic for a large part of the competition. Brown fought against the pressure of New York’s ball, committing six of the 11 Boston reversals in the first half; He also had a hard time being disciplined defensively and ended up the fours with 2:50 to do … in the third quarter.
At that time, the Knicks led by 33. A minute later, after two francs in Brunson and a pair of Anunoby 3, they had extended the advantage to 41; This led the Celtics head coach, Joe Mazzulla, to shake the white flag, pulling the starters Derrick White, Jrue Holiday and Al Horford and rolling with reserves for the last 13 minutes and 49 seconds.
Thibodeau, not surprisingly, kept his runners during the first minutes of the fourth quarter. No jump. Not when you are so close.
“The goal is still to win a championship,” he said after the match. “We have eight victories. You need 16 years. And everyone becomes more and more difficult, so you have to continue fighting. And you have to understand how important it is. “
The Knicks path here has not always been particularly pretty. They escaped offensively for months. They barely survived a six -game slugfest against Detroit. They regularly put themselves behind the 8 ball against Boston, with their level of offensive execution and defensive precision vacillating savagely From the game to another, and sometimes from possession to possession. Before Friday, they had won only a match in two -digit playoffs.
Advertisement
And yet: they obtained These eight victories. Things don’t always have to be pretty to be beautiful.
“When you are in these situations, especially in the playoffs, you must – you know, we talk about it, that New York Grit, this relentless belief that we will never lose,” said Towns. “When you want to deepen the playoffs, you must have it, and we have shown this series. And I think it was really special for us.… This team has a huge belief in each other, and we think that each time we get on the field, we have a chance to win. ”
Knicks TO DO have a chance. They will have their hands full of a team of pacers who was One of the best in the NBA for months nowA uptempo collection of Knockdown shooters and physical defenders with which Thibodeau and Co. are intimately familiar, after Indiana has finished the New York season This time last year. But the Knicks are still alive, guaranteed to be one of the last four standing teams – one of the only teams still capable of putting themselves within the reach of the Arm of the Trophy of the Larry O’Brien championship.
If pacers can believe, and wolves can believe, and whoever survives the battle of heavy goods vehicles between thunder and nuggets can believe … So why not the Knicks?
Advertisement
“We think we can do something special,” said Towns.
The operation of this sentence, however, is not the adjective. It is the second verb. Everything the Knicks want, they will have to win; As Thibodeau has liked to say it for a long time, magic is in the work. And while we are entering the end of May, the work of the Knicks is just beginning.
“This is how you react to the challenge that is in front of you,” said Thibodeau. “We cannot take it. Obviously, it is a big victory, and we are advancing, and you are looking at this, but you also understand that you have to prepare for the next series. We know that Indiana is a great team, and we will have to be ready.”
Advertisement
Winning by 38 Friday only guarantees in New York that nothing on Wednesday. THE path They did it, however – with an offensive variety, with an excellent defense, with their curve game plan meeting, with all the disparate parts that finally resemble more than the sum of their parts – offers fans of Knicks a raison d’être excited by the prospect of what could come afterwards. To learn what it will take at the end. And the possibility that after decades of futility, this time the end will mark a new bold and brilliant start.
“The way we contributed and communicated there is certainly one of our best performance,” said Brunson. “But I always have the impression that we have a long way to go. This confidence we have in each other and everything, being right where we are … We will continue to be dissatisfied.”