The Knicks come into Tuesday’s game against the Pelicans on a six-game win streak as they continue their push for the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
However, five of those six victories came against some of the worst teams in the league, and the sixth was against the 10th-seed Warriors. If New York is to claim the runner-up spot in the conference, they need to be ready for things to get more difficult, Stefan Bondy writes for the New York Post.
With the Thunder, Rockets, and resurgent Hornets on the horizon, Bondy says this stretch of games could impact whether or not the team has home-court advantage in a first-round Game 7.
One of the annual questions facing the Knicks’ playoff hopes is whether the bench can provide relief for the starters when it matters.
While coach Mike Brown uses his bench more than former coach Tom Thibodeau did, the Knicks still ranked just 27th in total bench minutes heading into Sunday’s win against the Wizards, James L. Edwards III notes for The Athletic.
Edwards notes that the load management plan the team has had Mitchell Robinson on seems to have helped him stay healthy this season, while top reserve Miles McBride will have to hit the ground running once he returns from injury to get his rhythm back in time to be impactful in the postseason.
One benefit of the team’s improved depth is the different amount of mix-and-matching Brown can do depending on what a particular series calls for, Edwards writes, though he ends by predicting that the ultimate playoff rotation will end up looking almost identical to last season’s.
We have more Knicks notes:
- Mikal Bridges‘ offensive struggles in recent games have drawn a lot of attention and even prompted questions about his spot in the starting lineup, but teammate Josh Hart believes that Bridges is in a difficult situation given his role in the offense, according to Bondy. “Last year, he didn’t have many plays called for him. This year, he probably has even less plays called for him,” Hart said. “So obviously there’s a mental hurdle he needs to get through and that’s something where some of us can help him. I think he gets some of that unfair flak just because he’s doing what’s asked of him. And if we were to sit there and say, go shoot 15 shots a game, he would be efficient and he could do it. But that’s not what’s been asked of him.” Brown gave his own vote of confidence, saying, “He works at it very hard. And he cares at a high level. Usually when you have that combination from a veteran guy that’s produced the way he’s produced in the NBA, it tends to lead to good results, eventually.”
- Jordan Clarkson‘s inconsistent minutes with the Knicks could have led to a destructive situation, Bondy writes in a separate piece, especially as the 33-year-old began turning to social media to respond to critics in February. Instead, the scoring guard kept his head down and worked. That professionalism and positive attitude paid off, as guards like Mikal Bridges and Landry Shamet started struggling offensively. Over the last two weeks, Bondy writes that Clarkson has been the Knicks’ most reliable shooting guard. Starting when he scored 27 points against his former Jazz teammates on March 11, he has averaged 12.7 points on .545/.438/1.000 shooting splits in 22 minutes per game. He was even named Defensive Player of the Game twice in that stretch. “When he’s doing that he’s playing with that fire and that passion he has, there’s not many players in the NBA coming off the bench you feel better about,” said teammate Karl-Anthony Towns.
- Second-year guard Tyler Kolek had a basketball day for the ages on Sunday, scoring 42 points on 9-of-14 from three for the Westchester Knicks before being recalled to the parent team and scoring 11 points on 3-of-3 from deep in the fourth quarter of the win over the Wizards. “We have a lot of guys on this team that are very high character, very good work ethic and he’s one of them,” Jalen Brunson said, per Jared Schwartz of the Post. “That’s just who he is.“