Friday Grab Bag
Some lingering Knicks thoughts (and stats) as we close out a restful week.
Good morning! Cavs Pistons Game 6 is tonight at 7pm in Cleveland. If the Cavs win, they’ll head to New York to face the Knicks at 3:30 on Sunday afternoon. If they lose, they’ll head to Detroit to play the Pistons at that same time, and the winner of that game will tip off the East Finals on Tuesday night.
Friday Grab Bag
No games last night but a 9:30 pm EST start for Wolves Spurs tonight.
Make it make sense, Adam Silver.
I know, I know…the TV money, and thus, the TV networks reign supreme. Still, it would have been nice to have some basketball to watch on an otherwise lovely Thursday evening. Blame the Knicks for kicking too much ass, I suppose.
I think I’m just getting antsy with no hoops to watch and no set opponent to think about. I have a feeling I’m not the only one either.
With the other eastern conference finalist still unknown, I thought today would be a good time to put out a grab bag of random thoughts that don’t fit neatly under one umbrella. First though, some recent history.
Over the last decade, 13 of the 40 conference finalists entered the NBA’s penultimate round with two or fewer playoff losses on their ledger, as the Knicks now do. I thought it might be useful to go through all 13 and see how they fared in those conference finals. Here are the results:
Conference Finalists with 2 or Fewer Playoff Losses:
2025 Indiana Pacers (8-2, won 4-2)
2025 Minnesota Timberwolves (8-2, lost 4-1)
2024 Boston Celtics (8-2, won 4-0)
2021 Phoenix Suns (8-2, won 4-2)
2020 Miami Heat (8-1, won 4-2)
2020 LA Lakers (8-2, won 4-1)
2019 Milwaukee Bucks (8-1, lost 4-2)
2018 Golden State Warriors (8-2, won 4-3)
2018 Houston Rockets (8-2, lost 4-3)
2017 Golden State Warriors (8-0, won 4-0)
2017 Cleveland Cavaliers (8-0, won 4-1)
2016 Golden State Warriors (8-2, won 4-3)
2016 Cleveland Cavaliers (8-0, won 4-2)
That’s a 10-3 record for those teams, but really, one of those losses shouldn’t count towards the total because the 2018 Rockets lost to the Warriors, who also entered the conference finals with two losses.
The other two teams who failed to break through to the Finals were the 2019 Bucks and the 2025 Timberwolves. The ‘25 Wolves notably entered the conference finals as massive underdogs to the 68-win Thunder. OKC had just been through a seven-game war with the Nuggets, while the Thunder got to pick on the flawed Lakers and Steph-less Warriors.
The only real outlier then is the 2019 Bucks, who are one of the more disappointing teams in modern NBA history. After finishing with 60 wins and the best net rating in the league that was more than two points clear of the next best team (Golden State), they steamrolled through the Pistons and Celtics in the first two rounds. Milwaukee then got off to a 2-0 start against the Raptors in the conference finals (including a 22-point Game 2 trouncing) before dropping a Game 3 heartbreaker in double overtime. They got beaten badly in Game 4, but raced out to an 18-4 lead back at home for Game 5, only for Toronto to battle back and grab a close win. The eventual champs closed things out north of the border in Game 6.
That’s it. The other 10 teams not only ended up in the NBA Finals, but eight of them needed six or fewer conference finals games to get there (with the 2018 Warriors, who faced the aforementioned 2018 Rockets, one of the two exceptions).
Long story short, New York’s track record over the last month should give us some degree of confidence that good things are in store.
Not that we won’t still all be nervous wrecks when we finally get to Game 1.
On that note, here are some other musings to close out the week…
