Steve Popper: Knicks' core players have matured and are aiming to meet and exceed expectations

When the Knicks had finished off the Boston Celtics last season to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in a quarter century, it was a relief, the hard work and survival bringing them to this point with New York City already starting the celebration.

There were parties outside of Madison Square Garden and there were street signs scattered throughout the city honoring the players. A parade was the only thing missing to make you believe that the Knicks had already won an elusive title.

But now they are back to the same place, minus the street signs, and are a different team in every way.

Actually, not every way. Many of the players remain the same from last year’s team. The starting five remains intact. Some of the key bench pieces have returned. But the Knicks are still different. They are a team playing its best, but also matured and no longer content to reach this level.

“That’s what we expect to do,” Deuce McBride said. “I feel like this group is special. We can’t take it for granted. It’s something special to do. Obviously, this fan base has been wanting this, but we have to stay locked in. Getting to the Eastern Conference finals isn’t the final goal.”

While insisting that the closeout game is the hardest game of the postseason, the Knicks have made a mockery of that notion. They have destroyed the opposition by a combined 81 points in the two closeout opportunities to get this far, displaying a seriousness in approach and taking nothing for granted.

Now the Knicks find themselves with at least a week to ready for the next round. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons were just playing Game 4 of their series in the opposite side of the playoff bracket Monday night.

“I think it’s really great to see our team in this mindset,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “The feeling that we’ve got a lot more work to do. To see us not really relaxing, looking at these next days as days to realign ourselves and get ready for the next challenge.

“I think it speaks volumes about this team where we’re at mentally. We understand collectively that the job’s not done and we have to get our bodies freshened up so we can get ready for the next series.”

When the Knicks reached this point last season it all fell apart in the first game back on the floor. Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton bounced in a shot that stole a victory, starting a disappointing series that ended in six games. Shortly after that final loss in Indiana the team fired Tom Thibodeau, who’d brought them that far. Mike Brown entered with expectations and pressure perhaps unmatched in franchise history.

After all, if Thibodeau, who had brought the franchise from dysfunction to contender, was expendable, the baseline for Brown would seem to be getting at least as deep into the playoffs. That has been accomplished and it’s happened in style. The team turned from a scary three-game start when they trailed Atlanta two games to one in the opening round to seven straight wins that have been rewriting the Knicks’ record book.

The Knicks’ seven-game postseason streak surpasses the 1998-99 team that won six in a row on the way to the Finals. They hadn’t swept a playoff series since 2000 when they beat Toronto. They have done it with an average point differential of 19.4 through two rounds of the playoffs, the largest margin by any team since the NBA went to 16 playoff teams. And during the seven-game streak the Knicks have outscored their opponents by 26.4 points per game.

This accomplishment could be interpreted in two ways. The Knicks are playing better than any team in the game right now and maybe better than any incarnation of the roster in franchise history. Or they’ve done it by lucking into subpar opponents in Atlanta and Philadelphia. While those two aren’t the level of competition the Knicks faced last season in Detroit and Boston through the first two rounds, it’s hard to argue that both things aren’t true because the Knicks are playing at a high level, showing versatility on both ends of the floor and the ability to win in a number of ways.

The offense has run up historic numbers, but the defense might be even better, triggering the offense. It was hard to imagine this after Game 3 against Atlanta and maybe at any point in the season.

“It was a roller coaster, for sure,” Brunson said of the path back to this point. “I think outside the Knicks organization, things looked worse than what they were . . . 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.”

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.