Will Knicks end drought?
Even in defeat, Jalen Brunson and the Knicks put on an entertaining show these last few days.
The question now is whether the banged-up team can really be a factor in the postseason title chase — because it’s been a while.
The Knicks have not made the conference finals since 2000, one of the longest droughts in the NBA. They did win their first-round playoff series last year, but they’ll need to take another step before Madison Square Garden can host the kinds of massive postseason scenes that were common there a quarter-century ago.
Sunday night was a preview of what that could look like as the Knicks fought the Thunder to the wire. Brunson’s layup put the Knicks up with 4.1 seconds left, only for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to answer from the corner for the Thunder, giving them a 113-112 win.
Two days earlier, Brunson scored 61 points in a 130-126 overtime road loss to the Spurs. He’s become a fan favorite after joining the Knicks before last season. And while the Knicks play good defense under coach Tom Thibodeau, watching them is by no means a slog. They scored 145 points in a road win against the Raptors on Wednesday night.
A performance like that makes the Knicks look like contenders, but their health is a major concern. Julius Randle (dislocated right shoulder) hasn’t played since late January. OG Anunoby (right elbow injury) hasn’t played in over two weeks — the Knicks are 15-2 in games he’s appeared in since they acquired him from the Raptors.
Mitchell Robinson returned from a 3 ½-month absence for the game against the Raptors last week, but he did not play against the Thunder because of a sprained left ankle.
“We always feel that if we defend and we rebound and we keep our turnovers down, no matter where we are, no matter who we have, if we do those three things it’ll put us in position to win,” Thibodeau said.
If the season ended now, the Knicks would have home-court advantage for the first round against a Magic team that hasn’t won any postseason series since 2010. But then the second round would probably be against a Celtics team that entered Tuesday night’s games 11 games ahead of the rest of the conference. That matchup would be a test of Thibodeau’s ability to scheme a way to slow down one of the league’s highest-scoring teams.
Only a couple of current teams have gone longer without reaching the conference finals than the Knicks. Washington hasn’t been since 1979, and Charlotte has never made it. New Orleans hasn’t advanced that far, either, although that team’s entire existence in Louisiana is actually younger than the Knicks’ drought.
For the Knicks, last season’s elimination in Game 6 of the second round equaled the furthest they’ve advanced since that 2000 season. They’ve been up against it lately with so many players hurt, but that hasn’t affected them too much in the standings.
“We understood when we had injuries to Julius and OG and Mitchell, you’re not going to replace those guys individually, but we can do it collectively as a team,” Thibodeau said.