CLEVELAND – A month ago, Clyde Frazier was sitting in a back hallway of State Farm Arena chatting with a reporter. In a few hours, the Knicks would take the floor for a win-or-die Game 4 against Atlanta. Naturally, the conversation with Frazier turned to the Knicks’ struggles with the Hawks.
What was wrong with the offense? Should Mike Brown change the starting lineup? How do they slow down CJ McCollum?
Before parting ways, Frazier offered one last thought on the Knicks.
“They have a lot of pride in there,” he said, “A lot of pride. Let’s see what happens.”
Fast forward four weeks and Frazier is on the court in Cleveland, celebrating the Knicks’ Eastern Conference title.
“They’re on a roll,” Frazier said after New York’s dominant Game 4 win.
Obviously, Frazier was right about the pride in the Knick locker room. New York is undefeated since the Hall of Famer shared his thoughts on that Sunday in Atlanta.
And Frazier thinks the best may be yet to come for New York.
“The last 11 games, the way they’re getting up and down the court, everyone is moving and grooving,” Frazier said late Monday night.
“Every game they seem to get better and better (with) movement, defense. I think the pace is what’s really changed,” Frazier said. “They can go on runs now, 10 or 15 points, and just blow the game right open. And they weren’t doing that during the regular season.”
Yes, Frazier sees similarities between his title-winning teams and these Knicks.
“Once we got healthy, we had that good continuity going,” Frazier said of the 1973 champs. “They have 10 guys that are thriving, so it doesn’t seem to matter who (Brown) puts in the game, they come through with what they need.”
It was only fitting that Frazier and Patrick Ewing – two franchise icons – presented the Eastern Conference MVP trophy to Jalen Brunson.
Frazier’s message to Brunson was brief:
“I just told the maestro to keep doing it. He’s very level-headed, always wants to do team-oriented things. He’s very focused,” Frazier said.
A few feet away, John Starks was taking in the scene.
“That’s legacy there. Those two guys was pillars of this organization for so many years,” Starks said of Ewing and Frazier. “To be able to see them hand out the trophy, it means a lot.”
Just like the rest of the fan base, Starks, Ewing and other Knicks alumni have been living and dying with every possession this spring.
“Just a special moment,” Starks said of Monday’s celebration. “I’m happy for those guys because they did it together.”
Starks knows the New York market as well as anyone. He knows the scrutiny that comes with it. No better place to win. No tougher place to lose. He believes this Knick team has the right temperament to handle it all.
“I think (Knick president) Leon (Rose) and (Knicks Executive Vice President William Wesley) did a great job of putting together like-minded individuals. And that’s what it takes – guys who are not gonna get too high and get too low,” Starks said. “And they cheer for one another and they like one another. So that’s what it takes….Because things can get tough and you got to know who’s in the same boat as you. You don’t want to see guys jumping ship. These guys don’t jump. If the boat’s going to go down, they’re going to go down together.”
Right now, the boat isn’t going down. It’s floating, just like every other Knicks fan who’s watched this run.
MUTED CELEBRATION
Before the media arrived in the Knicks’ locker room, I asked a member of the organization if there was any champagne celebration. “Did you forget that Jalen Brunson is on this team?” they said.
I don’t know if it was a directive from Brunson, but the Knicks’ celebration was muted on Monday night. There were a few people sipping beers. But it was mostly business as usual.
“The celebrations were minimal. We really wanna get back to work,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We know what happened last time we had the long layoff, so we already talked after the game right away about preparing, getting to practice, back to the work. That’s what’s made us special and it’s what’s gonna give us a chance to win the next series.”
The Knicks had a nine-day layoff between the second round and the conference finals. They struggled to shoot for much of Game 1. They trailed by 22 in the fourth quarter before Brunson led their comeback.
“We’ll do a better job this time around of just preparing for that kind of situation to happen,” Towns said. “I think obviously the coaches have done an amazing job getting us ready for Game 1, but obviously we didn’t go out there and shoot well. I think I looked up at one point and we were at four percent from three.
“So, we just gotta figure out a way to get those game-like reps. I think the coaching staff heard us loud and clear. We wanna get back to work and keep the rhythm and also maybe change up the philosophy of how we have those scrimmages… that we didn’t do last time. So I think we’ll be better prepared, but at the end of the day, it’s all about execution, desperation. We gotta bring it Game 1.”
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