One to Go

The Knicks look to close out the Sixers at MSG.

Good morning! What’s at stake tonight? Just the chance for the Knicks to advance to the second round for just the third time since 2000. I’m sure they’ll cherish the opportunity as much as we’ll all be excited to watch it.

Game Night

TONIGHT: Sixers at Knicks, 7:00 pm, TNT

Injury Report: For the Knicks, Bojan Bogdanovic is OUT with what the Knicks are calling a left foot contusion. Mitchell Robinson is questionable, while Jalen Brunson and Jericho Sims are probable. For the Sixers, Joel Embiid keeps the same questionable designation he’s had all series.

Halftime: We’re a go. Here’s the link.

What to watch for: I’ll get into this a little more below, but will this game follow the same script as this series has for the most part, with Philly running out in front and New York fighting their way back? There have been issues on both ends of the court, but the offense has been particularly brutal:

• 1st quarter offensive rating: 95.7 (12th of 16 teams)

• 2nd quarter offensive rating: 135.2 (3rd of 16 teams)

• 3rd quarter offensive rating: 120.0 (4th of 16 teams)

• 4th quarter offensive rating: 117.8 (7th of 16 teams)

Clean that up, and there’s a great chance this thing doesn’t head back to South Jersey.

One of One

Before we get to a review of the spectacular fourth quarter, let’s take another moment to pay homage to an achievement not previously seen in the 77-year history of this franchise:

I tweeted this yesterday, but it’s worth re-upping for anyone who may have missed it: Jalen Brunson just became the ninth player ever to attempts at least 116 field goals over a four-game stretch in the playoffs. The other eight: Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Far more MVP’s than not (and I’d expect Luka to get one soon).

That list shows why it’s a compliment, not a detriment, to discuss Brunson’s usage in this series. New York’s role players have done yeoman’s work in more ways than one, but any “easy” shots the Knicks are getting (to the extent anyone is getting any easy shots in this series) have come because of the attention Brunson generates.

And then there’s the individual production, which has reached unheard of levels. According to Jared Weiss, Brunson became the first player in NBA postseason history to score at least 45 points and dish 10 assists in a game his team failed to crack 100 points. Per Stat Mamba, Brunson is also the first player to record at least 85 points and 20 dimes over any 2-game span in the playoffs.

And finally this: Brunson now owns four of the top 20 scoring games in Knicks playoff history. That’s tied with Willis Reed for second most, and trails only Bernard King, who has seven. Melo has three, while Ewing and Frazier have two each.

Ewing played 135 playoff games in a New York uniform. Frazier had 93, Reed 78, Melo 21 and King 18. Sunday was Brunson’s 15th playoff game as a Knick.

We ain’t seen nothing yet.

Tenacious D

Sorry to be the old geezer on his lawn chair, but amidst the sparkling vibes, let’s briefly acknowledge that the series isn’t over yet.

Need anyone be reminded of why I start today off with this particular PSA, ask any Knicks fan around my age or older what they remember from the spring of 1997. That’s when the Heat overcame a 3-1 deficit (with a healthy assist from David Stern, granted) to move on to the East Finals against MJ and the Bulls.

The difference there, of course, was that the Knicks didn’t have home court advantage. As a result, Patrick Ewing’s Game 6 suspension coincided with New York’s lone remaining game in MSG.

Now, the Knicks are the higher seeded team, which makes a Sixers comeback even more unlikely than it already was. 95.4 percent of teams up 3-1 have eventually advanced, but of the 13 teams to ever come back from that deficit, only two did so without home court advantage: the 1995 Houston Rockets, who did so against the Phoenix Suns in the second round, and the 2016 Cavs over Golden State in the NBA Finals¹.

So while the job isn’t quite done yet, New York should be proud of the position they’ve put themselves in, and us fans proud of them.

To that end, while the fourth quarter is the one we’ll all remember decades from now, the Knicks took this commanding lead because of a tone that was set right out of the gate, with two coaching adjustments that paid dividends all night long: