As Only They (and He) Could
Behind their savior, the Knicks won a game and a series that could have only ended like this.
Game 6: Knicks 116, Pistons 113
Hello friends.
What a night.
Or should I say, a morning.
It’s nearly 3am as I sit down to put that game, this series and that moment into words. Leave it to the KFS faithful all over the world to keep me live-streaming more than four hours after Jalen Brunson added the latest signature moment to a resume that might as well be Knicks fan fiction at this point.
As such, I’m going to save the comprehensive breakdown of Game 6 and the Knicks / Pistons series for another newsletter coming your way soon, with a Celtics series preview coming out shortly after that.
For today though, I just want to relive the journey…
4:00 EST: Hey girls…daddy has no intention of stressing out about this game for the next three and a half hours and mommy is working late…who wants to go see Thunderbolts?
7:10: What a delightful time at the movies.
Oh…what’s that? There’s a basketball game tonight? I vanquished the NBA from my memory banks after Game 5.
What is a Knickerbocker, exactly?
7:49: ohhhhhhh….the Knickerbockers. Why didn’t you say so! I remember them…the team with the superstar point guard who just made two mid-rangers that looked positively automatic. I think Jalen is pissed off about having had the worst shooting game of his playoff career at home in a closeout scenario, and means business tonight.
7:51: KAT actually got a possession with Duren matched up with him and immediately drove to the hoop for a bucket! Can this actually be happening?
7:53: That’s 11 straight for New York. They’re up 20-8 and look like a team who finally got tired of hearing that Detroit has their number. This is the team we’ve been waiting for. I don’t even care that it took the most disjointed, rudderless playoff performance of the Thibs era to wake them up. Keep the foot on the gas, go up by 20 before the end of the quarter, and all is forgiven.
8:05: 37-23. It’s not a 20-point lead, but Jalen Brunson is responsible for 15 points and four assists that led to 10 more Knick points, so he essentially generated more offense than the entire Pistons team. There’s been a couple of miscues, but overall the team very clearly came out with a serious effort tonight. This is definitely sustainable.
8:15: Ummm….whyyyyy exactly are we trying to feed the ball to Mitchell Robinson in the post like he’s Nikola Jokic, especially when this same plan worked so very well the last game?
8:21: Is there such a thing as a game-changing momentum swing in the second quarter? Wide open looks for OG and Mikal both missed and now Beasley comes down and hits his third three of the period to make it 49-43. That felt huge.
8:25: When did my basketball team forget how to take care of the ball? And play transition defense? And do literally any of what they were doing in the first quarter?
8:26: 49 all. These are not serious people.
8:29: Hey, six straight points…maybe we can go into halftime with a double digit lead after all!
8:35: OG steps out of bounds with two seconds left and Malik Beasley hits a three right before time expires. Knicks down two. I wonder if there’s another showing of Thunderbolts at Cobble Hill Cinema tonight?
8:50: Oh good, it’s the third quarter. What could possibly go wrong?
8:53: IT WAS THE LAYUP LINE ALL ALONG.
Mikal, you genius.
8:58: Are…are they…are they actually playing smart basketball again? Did Josh Hart just hit a corner three without hesitation? Did Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns just run a - gasp - pick and roll that led to a Brunson triple? Is the ball actually moving around and hitting cutters like we’re back in November?
(Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets voice): Why can't I root for a normal basketball team? Just a regular basketball team, one that doesn't go nuts on me!
9:10: 😳
Evan Fournier could never.
WE ARE SO BACK.
9:22: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me 578 times, I must be a Knicks fan.
But boy oh boy…after how that third quarter just ended, I think I believe this is actually going to happen. First Bridges tips out the carom on a missed Deuce three to give New York another possession, and then ends up back with the ball for an above-the-break triple to put them up 11. Beasley got two free throws to go after that, but then we get the best Josh Hart put-back of the entire series to go back up double digits.
They have a positive 15.3 net rating in fourth quarters of this series. The Pistons have pissed away one lead after another. Now all New York has to do is not get outscored by more than 10 in the next 12 minutes.
I know they keep finding new hiding spots for their baffling, maddening inconsistency, but I think we’ve turned over just about every rock there is.
They got this one.
9:26: Phew. We got Brunson two and a half minutes of rest and somehow increased the lead by one. Detroit looks tight. There’s no way they have a comeback in them.
9:31: 4-0 Pistons run, lead down to seven. Probably need a bucket here. Smart timeout by Thibs to draw something good up.
9:34: Did Deuce McBride…just…bypass a shot at the rim to pull it back out and then dribble the ball off his foot out of bounds?
Two free throws for Duren, lead down to five. This isn’t happening.
9:36: Timmy just made a three to tie it. Oh my God this is happening.
9:39: …
9:41: …
9:43: (searches under kitchen sink for some bleach)
9:45: …
9:47: Fuck it…I’m calling it.
Time of death, 9:47 pm.
I just watched Jalen Brunson brick a floater, Josh Hart throw the ball of Timmy’s head, Hart get blocked on a dunk, JB miss a bunny and fail to convert a wide open three. The Pistons aren’t even putting pressure on and we can’t get out of our own wa-
Oh my God is it seriously a 20-2 run right now. You cannot be for real. Why did I waste a single second on the f%@$#! team, let alone 87 games on them.
To hell with everything…I’m texting Andrew to see if someone else can do the Game 7 postgame. I’m so over this team that I need a new word for over1.
9:49: Oh good…a coach’s challenge. Bickerstaff is probably going to get this Brunson and-one overturned. I wonder if Thibs will start cleaning out his office at halftime of Game 7?
9:50: Nice defensive stand…I’m not buying it.
9:51: Hah…
How…
How did he not fall down???
Whatever…insane bucket but I’m still not buying it.
9:52: Sure, now KAT makes a defensive stand and gets a huge steal. I swear to God, if they tie this game…
9:53: Didn’t even get a shot off. I’m so mad I got even seven percent hopeful.
9:54: Mikal, baby, I’ve always loved you, don’t believe the rumors.
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon…one stop, do you have one stop in you…
9:54: OH MY GOD THEY ACTUALLY GOT THE STOP.
There’s no way this is going to happen though…
9:55:
9:57: SHIMMY THAT, M—————-R!!!!!!!
10:00: I can’t believe that just happened.
Like, I cannot believe that just happened.
With all the ups and downs, fits and starts, celebrations and setbacks, and everything in between, they actually survived a seven-game series.
For weeks, if not months, I’ve been secretly dreading being the team that nobody wants to be after the first round of the NBA playoffs - the team with super high expectations but who underachieves so spectacularly that the entire organization is under fire and no one and nothing is safe.
I was convinced it would be us. So many signs pointed in that unfortunate direction.
And all along, there was one sign that pointed the opposite way.
That sign wears No. 11.
Was this victory all about Jalen Brunson, 40-burger with a game winner on top and all? Of course not. Mikal Bridges finally had his capital-M Moment, while OG Anunoby finished off the most subtly spectacular series of his career. Other had big contributions in big spots, without which the Knicks don’t win this game, let alone the series.
It all factors in, and it’s all part of the analysis.
But what Jalen Brunson did with five seconds left goes beyond analysis. Hell, it goes beyond sports.
It’s a reminder that some people are worth believing in, no matter how dire the circumstances may seem. Brunson is the reason why we as Knick fans should never give up on this group. He’s too good, cares too much, and is build too perfectly for these moments.
Thanks to him, the Knicks avoided disaster, and now get to look forward to their greatest challenge yet.
We’ll worry about Boston soon enough.
Today, we salute the Captain.
One of one, in every way possible.
🏀
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
IYKYK.
So many things can be said about that series, both good and bad - and all of them are deserved. So many great things can be said about Brunson - and all of them are deserved. So I’m going to go a different route.
One of the quiet developments in what was a very, very loud series was Mikal. Yes, his POA defense isnt top top tier, and his handle isn’t strong, but the rest of the game was there. If he figures out the 3pt shot and continues to do everything else at the level that we just saw, he's pretty close to the player we thought we would be getting. The player that we saw in the Pistons series is a player that is a part of the solution. I don’t know what the solution is, but I am a lot more confident in that he is in the equation, and I hope he cements this against Boston.
How did the entire league pass on Jalen Brunson in the 2018 draft? How did the Knicks acquire Jalen for just about nothing? Was it pay back for King’s knee? Was it payback for the 2002 deal of Amare for McDyess who promptly blew out his knee? Was it pay back for drafting Ntilikina? I could go on. Unfortunately.
But all I know is He is a Knick. And we get to watch one of the most clutch playoff performers of the modern era. And please Mr. Rose, find him a Scottie or a Jaylen Brown or a Shaq. Just one more guy so it’s not Jalen vs The World!