Knicks motivated to finish the job in Game 6 vs. 76ers

PHILADELPHIA — It was 11 years ago, almost to the day, that the Knicks found themselves in the opening round of the playoffs and on the verge of closing out the Boston Celtics. But in the fourth quarter of Game 3, there was a bump, seemingly minor at the time. J.R. Smith threw an elbow at Boston’s Jason Terry, got suspended for Game 4 and the Knicks lost that one and then another when they confidently wore black to the arena, respect for believing they were about to hold a funeral for the Celtics. Mike Woodson, the Knicks coach at the time, said, “Nobody said it was going to be easy, but now it’s a series.”

The Knicks would recover and win Game 6 to finish the series, but the added wear and tear on their veteran roster would make the path tougher and they faded out in the next round against the Indiana Pacers. And it’s a lesson, besides the cheering from courtside, that players from that team like Carmelo Anthony could tell the current Knicks squad.

It’s a lesson that they insist they know already, one that coach Tom Thibodeau has ingrained in the squad throughout the season — a sense that they won’t, as they refer to it, “Play with their food.” In the regular season, the Knicks were 29-4 against teams below .500, second only to Boston’s 30 wins against teams with a losing record. While it may not be a losing record they are dealing with now, the process remains the same.

“Yeah, obviously when you have an opportunity to do something like that, you gotta take advantage of it,” Jalen Brunson said. “Clearly we didn't do that, but for us, it's all about how can you respond in this situation tonight? You can be upset about it . . . but what are you gonna do to make sure that now you're ready for the next one? So you can't sit around and just be [ticked] off about what happened. You gotta actually do something about it and just let it go.”

The Knicks had a chance to put the Philadelphia 76ers away in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden Tuesday, leading by six points with less than 30 seconds to go when it all fell apart. So when they took the floor Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center, they still held a 3-2 series advantage with a potential Game 7 back on their home court.

“That's always the mindset. Whenever you have the opportunity to beat a team, you wanna do that," Josh Hart said. "So we had a huge opportunity last game, it is what it is. And now we have another opportunity to battle a tough team in a tough environment.”

The Game 5 loss wasn’t just a physically exhausting battle, an overtime game in which Hart never sat for a second, Brunson played 51 minutes and OG Anunoby played 50, but also a mentally draining game — watching the game slip away from them with a series of miscues.

But this isn’t the 2013 team, one that an extra game and extended minutes would rob them of their legs. And they insist, it won’t rob them of their heart. In the loss, lessons are learned.

“I think it’s easy to learn when you do something wrong,” Hart said. “I think it’s harder to learn when you’re doing something right. So obviously we just had a gut-wrenching loss, so it’s easier to be locked in and it’s easier to learn from those mistakes when you’re getting wins and you could have a little bit of slippage but you’re still winning games. And then when that slippage catches up to you, you lose several in a row. So for me, probably a little of both but it’s always learn after a loss.

“I think what this team is really focused on is being prepared when the ball tips. At the end of the day, like I said, last game it was a gut-wrenching loss for us, but when that ball goes up at 9 or 9:06, whenever, 9:12, whenever that ball goes up, that game is wiped away and there's nothing we can do about it. The only thing we can do is face adversity head on and just play our game.”

“We’re resilient,” Brunson said. “No matter what the outside people say, positive or negative, we know what we’ve got to do. We’re going to stick together and that’s not going to change with us. I like that that’s how we think.”

Asked if he knew that already before this series even started. Brunson smiled and nodded, “Yeah.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.