PHILADELPHIA – A few notes from Game 4 of the Knicks’ sweep of the Sixers:
AWAKENED IN ATLANTA
The seeds for the Knicks’ demolition in Philadelphia were planted about three weeks ago.
The Knicks, in Miles McBride’s words, got “punched in the mouth” by the Hawks in Game 3 of their first-round series.
Instead of wilting, New York considered it a wake-up call.
Yes, the Knicks changed their offense after that loss on April 23 — that’s been well-documented.
But the offense isn’t the only thing that changed.
“I feel like our mindset shifted,” McBride told SNY. “We know we’re the better team (but) we can’t just come out there and expect to win, because they’re talented too. So I feel like our mindset just shifted totally to ‘take the game’ instead of (waiting for) them to give us the game.”
McBride certainly had a “take the game” approach on Sunday.
He made four three-pointers in an 81-second span to give the Knicks an early 14-point lead.
New York never looked back, building a 24-point lead at halftime and going up by as many as 44 in the second half.
They beat Philadelphia by 30 to extend their playoff win streak to seven games, winning each of those by an average of 26.4 points.
Given the circumstances, has any Knick team in the last 50 years played a better seven-game stretch?
Don’t think so.
Now New York will enter the Eastern Conference Finals as the prohibitive favorite.
“I think the more we’ve played together as a team, the more we’ve grown. And we’ve continued to get better,” Jalen Brunson said. “It’s a chemistry thing. It’s a feel thing. It’s how things get better. Things get better over time.”
Things are getting better at the right time for Brunson and the Knicks.
A SLOW BUILD
The Knicks underwhelmed for long stretches of the regular season. Fans and media questioned their legitimacy again and again. But that sentiment never effected the team, Brunson says.
“It was a rollercoaster for sure,” he said. “I think outside the Knicks organization, things looked worse than what they were. From the outside looking in. But inside the building, we were working every single day to be the best team we can be. That’s all we were focusing on.
“There were times when there were positives and negatives, ups and downs. But that’s what our goals were. And that’s still our goal. Be the best we can be. Continue to learn. Continue to get better. The journey shows you who you are.”
So far, the journey has shown that the Knicks are a resilient, talented team.
Now, they can take a short rest and get ready for the next round of the playoffs.
The conference final will start on either Sunday or Monday. Game 4 of Cavs-Pistons is Monday night.
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