Steve Popper: Knicks fans are going nuts, but the team itself is avoiding any NBA Finals talk
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson shoots against Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen during the first half of Game 3 in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday in Cleveland. Credit: AP/Sue Ogrocki
CLEVELAND — There is a temptation around the fans of this Knicks team to look too far ahead, to fast-forward past Monday night’s Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, celebrate that and dream of the NBA title that has eluded the entire lives of much of the fan base.
It exists in the Garden crowd, in the streets around Madison Square Garden, in every grainy clip of 1970 and 1973 dusted off and replayed one more time.
Ten straight playoff wins will do that to a city. So will the possibility — still whispered carefully, as if saying it too loudly might ruin it — that the Knicks are inching toward something New York hasn’t seen in decades. But if you listen to the Knicks themselves, the striking thing is not how much they talk about history, it’s how aggressively they avoid it.
“When I took the job, I thought about it,” Mike Brown said when asked what winning a title would mean to New York. “But going through this process, one of the things that I’m trying really hard to do and trying really hard to make sure our team does from the top down is to stay present.”
That has become the mantra of this postseason run: Stay present. Don’t skip steps. Don’t start measuring parade routes. Because 53 years of waiting — accompanied by disappointments on the court and in the rosters that could fill a therapist’s schedule — can humble a team and a fan base.
So the Knicks will take the court Monday night the same way they have through this month-long stretch that grows wilder and more impressive every game, convincing themselves that they are the underdogs, that they are the team in need of desperation, even as they find themselves on the brink of doing something that would make them a part of that franchise history forever.
They already have accomplished much of that, reaching the conference semifinals in Jalen Brunson's first two seasons with the team and advancing to the conference finals the past two seasons. The captain is the centerpiece of what the Knicks do on the court and maybe off the court, too, which explains why they embrace these moments without believing any of the talk that occurs outside of their locker room.
Brunson’s father, Rick, was at the far end of the bench during the run to the 1999 NBA Finals, the last time the franchise got that far, and with his father now on the bench as an assistant coach, the son reacts to these moments as if he were fighting for a roster spot the way his father did.
“It doesn’t really cross my mind at all right now,” Brunson said of where the Knicks can place themselves. “Just really focused on tomorrow. I’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, honestly.”
Even now, one win from the NBA Finals, the Knicks still have critics or doubters, pointing to the path they have had through the Eastern Conference. But that does a disservice to just how well the Knicks have played, how dominant their wins have been.
Only four teams in NBA history have won more than the 10 straight playoff games the Knicks have captured. Each win is greeted by a note that the team has posted the largest point differential for that number of consecutive games; the 225 right now is the largest for 10 games.
That includes wins by 29 and 51 points in the final two games against the Hawks, followed by 39 and 30 points in the first and fourth games against the 76ers. The victories over the Cavaliers haven't been as one-sided, but the Knicks did come back from a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit with a 44-11 run in their Game 1 overtime victory.
Only one of the wins was by single digits and the two losses that preceded this stretch were by one point, with the Knicks having the ball and a chance to win it in the final seconds.
They have done it in throwback fashion, not relying only on Brunson’s scoring ability but playing as a complete team, the way those teams that hang in the rafters of the Garden inspired books and memories and stories told down through generations.
“We don’t wanna get ahead of ourselves, because as soon as we start getting ahead of ourselves, that’s when disaster always occurs, it seems,” Brown said. “And so for us, starting with me, making sure everybody in the organization on down understands it’s about the next game. And really, it’s about the next possession. And I try to block out everything else as best I can and not think about ‘what ifs,’ because I know for me, it would distract me 100% at this time of the year.”
The Knicks still have more to do, another game to win to finish this series, before they even begin to think about the intimidating nature of the potential opponents on the other side. Brown is balancing all of this, wanting his team to enjoy and embrace the moment — maybe not in the way that the fans back in New York are — while focusing on what remains in front of them.
“The guys have played good basketball, and they deserve the right for me to make sure that I recognize it and that they’re able to take a breath and enjoy for a few moments what they did do,” Brown said. “But again, I’ll try to read the room, and so every once in a while, I may tell them, ‘Hey, you guys were great. Great, great, great, great, but be ready for this, because this can happen.’
"So I’ll try to let them go a little bit but bring them back to earth every once in a while with a statement, something that could happen or did happen. And we kinda go from there, but everybody is human. Everybody needs an opportunity to enjoy this roller-coaster ride as it’s unfolding. But the same breath, it’s my job to try to make sure I lead the charge in bringing them back down to earth sooner than later.”
“I mean they’re probably excited,” Brunson said of the fans back home. “Rightfully so, but we have a job to do, and we have things that we need to focus on. That’s on them being them, but we have to be locked in to do what we do.”
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.
