New York Knicks to make it to the NBA Finals The basketball team will be competing in the finals for the very first time since the 1998 season, with a player that has been underrated from the get go being responsible for the team making its way to the final round of play.
Jalen Brunson was unanimously selected as the Eastern Conference Finals MVP last Monday night after the Knicks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 130-93 in Game 4 to win the series in a sweep.
This came after a spectacular series of performances that have seen the team go 11 games unbeaten throughout the playoff rounds.
Brunson scored 25.5 points and handed out 7.8 assists per game while shooting 48.7% against Cleveland.
But the award felt inevitable in the way he imposed himself on the series from the opening minutes.
His 38 point Game 1 performance ignited a comeback from a 22 point fourth quarter deficit, and set the tone for everything that followed.
The Knicks never trailed in Game 3 after he had 30 points and Cleveland looked broken.
When the Knicks acquired Brunson in 2022 as a free agent from the Mavericks, it was considered to be one of the pieces, but definitely not the central piece, for the Knicks revival.
After just four years, the 29 year old point guard is just four victories away from joining an incredibly elite list of players.
A team rebuilt around trust
This postseason run did not happen overnight either.
Following their elimination from last year, the Knicks hired coach Mike Brown, whose system emphasized more ball movement and increased facilitation by their center, Karl Anthony Towns.
This approach proved successful once the Knicks started playing through their center, and they won seven straight games before entering the playoffs.
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Coach Mike Brown stuck with forward Mikal Bridges despite struggles during the early stages of the playoffs.
He was handsomely rewarded for that trust with an average of 15.6 points and shooting 66.7% from the field over his last seven games entering the Conference Finals.
Forward OG Anunoby finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the crucial Game 3 win over Cleveland.
Six Knicks players scored double digit points in their Game 4 victory.
After the sweep, where Towns scored 19 points and added 14 boards, Karl Anthony Towns made sure to pay homage to his point guard in a very basic way.
Towns was talking about Brunson and saying, “He just works hard. That’s him. He really does believe in that. Every day, that’s what he shows all of us and we want to do the same.”
The Western Conference Finals series pitting the defending champions Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs is knotted at 2-2, and the next game will take place Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
Whoever wins the series will enjoy home floor advantage in the Finals, considering that the Thunder (64-18) and the Spurs (62-20) were ahead of New York Knicks’ record (53-29) at the end of the regular season.
With an 11 game winning streak and a full week’s rest prior to their first game on June 3, the Knicks have some thoughts on that matter as well.
The Knicks haven’t won the NBA Championship since 1973, and it’s Brunson’s job to change that long, 53 year drought.
So far this postseason, nobody in the Eastern Conference has even been close to stopping him.
