We’ve already found out plenty about Jalen Brunson and the Knicks, you know we have. We’ve found out how tough they are, how much of a punch they can take. Everybody knows how Brunson looked like the best player still playing anywhere before he hurt his foot, and how Josh Hart has somehow turned into their Scottie Pippen. And it’s fairly well documented how these Knicks have gotten this far with a rotation about as tight as the spin on a good breaking ball. We certainly been reminded, game to game, just how much pro basketball still matters in New York, in a way it hasn’t mattered in a very long time.
All that.
Now we at least begin to find out on this Sunday afternoon in Indy, another big Knicks-Pacers Sunday afternoon out of the past, if this is finally a Knicks team good enough to do something it actually has not done since the spring of 2000:
Make it past the second round.
We find out if the Knicks can finally make it past the conference semis, can validate its No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, can make it to the NBA’s Final Four; can give itself a chance to make it back to the Finals for the first time since 1999. You want to know why what the Knicks have been doing lately feels as big and loud as it does? Because of how much Knicks fans want this. Because they feel as if they’ve got a real chance now, after so many years since Patrick Ewing when they didn’t.
Everybody knows about the injuries, first to Julius Randle long before the playoffs began, then to OG Anunoby (the elbow injury, not the hamstring from the other night), then to Bojan Bogdanovic, now to Brunson’s foot. And Mitchell Robinson, again. Everybody has seen how they’ve played through it all and nearly stole Game 3 on Friday night in Indy even with Brunson clearly not himself, all the way until Andrew Nembhard made a 3-pointer near the end from the land of Caitlin Clark.
This was a night when the Pacers fought to the end the way the Knicks have been fighting to the end, in what has felt like a last-two-minutes April and May for them. Now the Knicks have been hit again, just as it seemed as if they were about to go ahead three games to none, and gotten knocked down. We see on Sunday how they get back up. And if they are different from all the other teams since Jeff Van Gundy was still coaching and they made their last conference final in 2000.
The Knicks couldn’t get past the Heat in the second round last season when Randle was the one with a bad leg and they ended up losing in six; when Brunson couldn’t carry them, as valiantly as he played in the end, to Game 7. They couldn’t get out of the second round in May of ’13, couldn’t get to Game 7 against the Pacers that time because in the most important moment of Game 6 Roy Hibbert was waiting for Carmelo Anthony at the rim after Carmelo came down the right baseline thinking he was going to throw one down. And down went the Knicks again. We will find out, probably early in Game 4, is if they have gotten up limping, the way Brunson limped to the finish on Friday night, even if he did make the 3-pointer that tied the game at 106.
“We’ve got to do better,” Thibodeau said when it was over. “Every game we play, you look at it the same way. Whether you win or lose, you look at the things we have to fix. And we have to fix them quick.”
No one is sure how Brunson is going to recover from whatever is wrong with his right foot. Anunoby is not expected to play Game 4 and, at this point, you wonder when the Knicks are going to see him again. Still they really do keep coming. Mike Breen joked on Friday night that he had “breaking news” when Hart finally went to the bench for a breather, in the midst of a game when he had 18 more rebounds. So, Hart “only” played 43 minutes instead of his usual 48. Donte DiVincenzo played 44 and had 35 points. Even Brunson was out there for 38 minutes.
It’s what they do now, what’s expected of them, who they are. They absolutely have been the easiest Knicks team to root for since ’99, when they came from that No. 8 seed and knocked off the Heat in the first round and didn’t lose a series until the Spurs got them in the Finals.
They’ve done so many good things and occasionally great things just in the first nine games of the playoffs. But they need to get two more games. When they did make it back to the Eastern Conference finals against the Pacers, even with Ewing on his last legs, you never would have thought that the famous ceiling at the Garden was about to fall on them the way it would. But it did. They finally had a moment in 2012-13 with Mike Woodson as the coach, when they won 54 games and finished in first place in the Atlantic Division. But then came more losing seasons after that, until Leon Rose took over the basketball operation and Thibodeau became the coach and the ‘Nova Knicks came to town.
The Knicks as a group have been going to town lately. But they’re still not out of the second round. Haven’t been for a long time. Maybe this time.
BIG APPLE SPORTS ARE BOOMING, GIANTS NAB A TRUE OFFENSIVE STAR & MAJOR TALKING POINTS …
What if?
What if the Yankees play like this all year?
What if Aaron does come all the way back?
What if the Knicks and Rangers both keep it going?
I’ll tell you what:
It would only make this one of the best times in the history of New York City sports.
This is from my sportswriter big brother, the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan, the best pro basketball writer of them all:
“Every referee, at every level, should be asked one question, pass-fail quiz. The question: ‘Why am I here?’ The answer: ‘To adjudicate the smooth flow of the game, not to prove you know every comma in the rule book. And you must apply common sense. The last minute of play is far different than the first minute of play.”
Reports of the postseason death of the Denver Nuggets … well, you know the rest.
Malik Nabers is four months away from the first time he officially lines up for the Giants, and he’s already the best offensive player they have.
He has the chance to be the player they hoped Odell Beckham Jr. would be.
And for more than what now feels like about five minutes.
And one less-than-luxury cruise with some of his teammates.
Sorry.
Still too soon?
Man, those contracts the Mets gave Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander look amazingly dumb — and dumber — in retrospect, right?
This past week is the first time since last June, when Aaron Judge has really and truly looked like Aaron Judge.
I said this before the season and will say it now, even though Yankee fans are seeing with their own eyes just how good Juan Soto is:
The only chance the Yankees have to be great again is if Judge is great again.
Doesn’t mean 62-home-runs great.
But he’s got to go back to being exactly what he was over the past few days, which means the most dangerous and most compelling at-bat in baseball.
One more time:
Jalen Brunson is the best free agent signing in New York sports since Reggie.
Our Reggie, not theirs.
Until Rick Carlisle started complaining, I didn’t even know we got 79 whistles in a whole game.
I would love to see Rory McIlroy finally win another major at the PGA at Valhalla this coming week.
Or for Jordan Spieth to look like Jordan Spieth again.
Or Scottie Scheffler to keep playing Tiger golf, if Scheffler isn’t still on baby watch in Texas.
But you know who I’d really love to see win the 2024 PGA?
Cameron Young, the kid from Sleepy Hollow.
Speaking of Tiger, by the way?
We may get a sense at Valhalla if he’s anything more than a ceremonial legend golfer now.
I know I’m late getting to the party, so don’t you judge me, but I am loving me some “Hacks” right now.
We’re all charter members of the Jalen Brunson Fan Club these days, but by Thursday morning I was starting to think he’d caught his foot in a bear trap.
Every time what my pal Frankie Isola call the Minutes Police come after Tom Thibodeau, I find myself asking this question:
How is load management working out for Kawhi Leonard?
Here’s one more question for the Minutes Police:
Who’s Thibs supposed to be giving extra minutes to — John Starks?
If LeBron and Kevin Durant ever end up on the same team, just think how fast the number of fired coaches would decrease.
Winning the Presidents’ Trophy doesn’t seem to be holding the Rangers back these days, does it?
The only thing we all ever wanted was for Jimmy Dolan to be happy.
Where did the Suns find Mat Ishbia — Owners R Us?
Robert F. Kennedy says a worm ate part of his brain, but also says that won’t prevent him from being president.
President of what?
Next Spike and Reggie Miller will be doing a buddy movie together.
If Stormy Daniels spends more time in town, one of the baseball teams is going to ask her to throw out the first pitch.
