One Away...
...and then four more.
Good morning.
It’s 3am as I sit down to write this, so apologies in advance for the abbreviated newsletter you’re about to read. My intention is to send out a follow up edition (with Stars of the Game) before 1pm, after I inevitably wake up at 7 because I’m so wired from last night.
Knicks 121, Cavs 108
We have reached the point of absurdity.
And even that sounds a bit silly.
Was beating the Hawks by 51 points not absurd? Was sweeping the Sixers following their biggest series win in a generation not absurd? Was coming back from 22 down in the final eight minutes of Game 1 not absurd?
“Absurd” is a noun that requires context. In 2019, a three-game winning streak for this franchise felt absurd. That was seven years ago. That we have gone from there to here in so short a span of time is absurd in and of itself.
It is absurd that they keep turning these wins into laughers. When last night was a three-point game with eight minutes to go in the third quarter and the road arena was rocking, you’d have sworn the proceedings would go down to the wire.
Instead, 12 minutes of game time later, with enough runway left for a potential comeback, Cleveland’s will had been so thoroughly broken that they allowed the best player on the Knicks to waltz down the lane for an uncontested layup:
That is absurd.
It is absurd that Cleveland never once led in this game with their season essentially on the line. It is absurd that the Knicks have now won 10 of their 11 playoff games by double digits. It is absurd that New York’s offense over this winning streak is statistically superior to the greatest NBA offense of all time.
But most absurd of all is the fact that when you zoom in on each of the component parts of this stretch, what we’re witnessing isn’t really that absurd at all.
The selflessness isn’t absurd when you think about how much these guys support each other, like KAT stanning for OG’s All-Defense 1st Team snub after the game. The preparedness isn’t absurd when you look at their coach, and how he used the first 82 as a testing ground for the moment the real games began. The execution isn’t absurd when you have, in Jalen Brunson’s words, a locker room full of guys who are “very psychotic about their work.” The mindset isn’t absurd when you consider how much adversity they’ve already overcome. The camaraderie isn’t absurd when you hear Landry Shamet describe it with this level of passion.
And then there’s the individual players, who are merely playing up to their capabilities. They just happen to all be doing so at the same time. That might seem absurd to some, but look a little closer. No one is having an out-of-body experience. Even Mikal Bridges, who hasn’t missed a shot in a month, is generating - and making - the sorts of looks that have long been his specialty.
If anything, there is more meat on the bone. Karl-Anthony Towns is averaging five fewer points per game than last postseason. Jalen Brunson has made two 3-pointers in this series. Mitchell Robinson, the driving force behind their win in 2023, has yet to make an outsized impact.
None of that matters though, because everyone is pulling their weight in exactly the way they need to if the goal is to win a championship.
And if it wasn’t clear already, it should be by now: that goal is very much within reach.
Go travel back in time to 2019 and try finding a Knicks fan who tells you that isn’t absurd.
One more win against the Cavs, and we can begin having that conversation in earnest.
One more win against the Cavs, and they will officially be on destiny’s doorstep.
One more win against the Cavs, and they’ll be able to smell what it is they’ve been working so hard to achieve.
One more win against the Cavs. They know it won’t be easy, but they will be ready to seize that chance. Like they do every night, they will play Game 4 like it is their last.
That’s what makes them special more than anything else. It isn’t luck because there’s no such thing as luck on this stage. Luck is merely the intersection of preparation and opportunity. They fully appreciate the opportunity before them, and they’ve prepared for it their entire lives.
Now we, the fans, get to enjoy the spoils of their hard work.
Did I ever think it would happen to us, in this way, on this stage, with these stakes?
Absurd doesn’t begin to describe it.
🏀
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
My wife said something last night that made me pause, “ I thought that these games would be more fun to watch, more enjoyable. However, each new game seems to bring more anxiety. I’m getting more and more nervous as they advance.” She just told this to a guy who paced through last nights game until the the final 1:48 mark of the fourth when I briefly sat down until the Hart “ flagrant “ got me pacing again till there was 30 seconds left. There’s no question I’m absurdly euphoric now. There’s no question I too am a jangled ball of nerves watching these games. One more, than the finals. I guess the nerves are just the cost of doing business to us fans.
I had to turn to a song from 1973 to describe my current feelings. Was Paul Simon writing about the Knicks championship team of 1973?
“When something goes right, it’s apt to confuse me, it’s likely to lose me cause it’s such an unusual sight. I can’t get used to something so right. Something so right.”