Knicks show they're a blue-collar bunch in Game 1 win
The Knicks' Jalen Brunson works against the Cavaliers' Darius Garland during the first half of Game 1 in a first-round NBA playoff series on Saturday in Cleveland. Credit: AP/Nick Cammett
CLEVELAND
There was a time when the Knicks would enter a playoff game dressed in black sneakers and black socks, eschewing the latest sneaker color ways for an old-school throwback, a show of solidarity for themselves and a show of toughness for the opponent.
With Pat Riley at the helm, the players would even shave their heads — although that was one level too far for some, such as Patrick Ewing and John Starks.
And it might be too much for the latest incarnation of the Knicks’ postseason squads. On Saturday, as the Knicks debuted at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Josh Hart came into the interview room with a T-shirt adorned with an image of Jalen Brunson on the cover of Slam magazine and placed a large box of candy on the table in front of him.
But don’t let the visual fool you. What the Knicks showed with their Game 1 victory over the Cavaliers, a 101-97 slog through the mud, was that the lineage from Riley though Jeff Van Gundy to Tom Thibodeau, from Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley and even through the 2013 Knicks — who earned the only playoff series victory in two decades for the franchise — is a straight line.
The NBA is a league of stars. It was back then when Riley came from the Showtime Lakers and set up a blue-collar Knicks team to compete with the likes of Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon, and it is now.
The Knicks are no different, longing for stars but relying on a work ethic imbued by Thibodeau.
They’d certainly like to have the stars, having spent much of the summer chasing after a trade for Donovan Mitchell until the Jazz finally broke their hearts and sent him to Cleveland. It’s been an annual tradition for the franchise. Knicks management promises to season-ticket holders or whispers to media members about how they are going to get the next star, whether it be Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving or Kawhi Leonard or Mitchell or whichever next one might shake loose. And when they hold their assets and don’t get a big prize, it is with an eye toward the next pursuit.
You can debate whether the Knicks have their stars in place. Brunson has made a huge difference in his first season in New York and someday may get the recognition he slowly has earned, but he wasn’t even an All-Star this season (which seems ridiculous). Julius Randle is the only player on the team to earn All-Star or All-NBA honors.
And maybe they will be in on that chase again with the assets they have accumulated. But for now, they have beaten expectations by winning 47 games in the regular season and by stealing home-court advantage in this series, and they did it the old-school way.
“To be honest with you, our only game plan today was just win,” Brunson said. “Whatever it took, whatever is needed. That’s it.”
You can point to Randle outhustling the Cavs for an offensive rebound with less than 10 seconds left to secure the ball and the win or Hart giving up seven inches to Evan Mobley and still getting 10 rebounds, five offensive.
Or when less than a minute after the Cavs took their first lead of the second half on a play in which Hart injured his ankle, he drained a three-pointer with the shot clock running down to put the Knicks back in front. Or look at any number of baskets from Brunson down the stretch, matching Mitchell point for point.
“We need everyone,” Thibodeau said. “So everyone has to be willing to sacrifice and put everything they have into it and just find a way to win.”
But mostly you can point to the Knicks just doing the dirty work, outrebounding and outworking the Cavs and delivering the first punch.
The season turned when Thibodeau benched — and then the team moved out — players who didn’t fit this mold and replaced them with second-year wing Quentin Grimes and Hart, a trade-deadline steal.
Hart would fit neatly into the 1990s Knicks. Grimes didn’t flinch when Mitchell tried to rattle him at the foul line in the final seconds.
“The physicality was definitely a difference for us,” Cleveland’s Darius Garland said. “A lot of us haven’t played in it. It was a good learning experience. Now we just go back, watch the film and see how we change everything. Just try to hit first. I think they kind of just took us out of everything because they hit first and we just didn’t hit back. I think we laid down a little bit, and I think that was the game.
“The refs let us play a lot. So we hit first and see the refs react instead of being punched in the face and just laying down to it. I think that’s the mentality we have to have is go punch first and see what the refs do, see if they blow the whistle or not. We just set the tone for the game with it.”
The Cavs insisted it was a lesson learned and that they will bring the fight to the Knicks in Game 2 on Tuesday night. Maybe. And you can expect the Knicks will be ready, even if it’s with a box of Mike and Ike candy and a comical T-shirt rather than a shaved head and black shoes.
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.
