The Knicks‘ dominant playoff run continued on Monday, as they blew out the Cavaliers by 37 points to complete another 4-0 sweep. New York has now advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, with the league announcing the full schedule for the final series (via Twitter).
Game 1 against either San Antonio or Oklahoma City will tip off at 8:30 ET on Wednesday, June 3. All of the games will be air on ABC.
Jalen Brunson was the unanimous choice as Most Valuable Player of the Eastern Conference finals, per the NBA (Twitter links). The Knicks’ captain and star point guard received the Larry Bird trophy for claiming the award, which was voted on by nine media members.
Brunson averaged 25.5 points, 7.8 assists and 3.3 rebounds in 39.5 minutes per game during the four-game series.
While there was plenty of drama in Game 1 in the conference final matchup with Cleveland, the Knicks thoroughly outplayed the Cavs in the other three contests, winning easily on each occasion. New York defeated Atlanta in the first round of round of the playoffs and swept Philadelphia in round two.
The Knicks actually lost two of their first three playoff games this spring, but that’s a distant memory at this point. They have now reeled off 11 consecutive victories, tied for the third-longest postseason streak in league history (Twitter link). New York has outscored its opponents by 262 points over that span, the best point differential over 11 games — regular season or playoffs — in NBA history, tweets Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
New York’s +19.4 average point differential this postseason is the largest for any team entering the NBA Finals in league history, according to Keerthika Uthayakumar (Twitter link). The 2017 Warriors previously held the record at +16.3.
The Knicks will be vying for their third NBA championship and first since 1973. This will be their ninth trip to the NBA Finals.
The Western Conference final matchup between the Thunder and Spurs is still ongoing, with the series currently tied 2-2. Game 5 is set for Tuesday in Oklahoma City. Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell had been ruled out, while Jalen Williams is questionable to play due to a hamstring injury.
Let go Knicks!!! Bring on whoever. These finals are going to be amazing.
the Danhausen run continues
Pretty easy call. In fact, the Knicks were even better than what some of us thought.
We knew Detroit and Cleveland were not quite ready for the finals. Watch out for the Pistons next year though.
I’m thinking the Knicks can take this next series to six games at least. Some might be surprised at that but not me.
They’re poised have enough veteran leadership and they have the defense. Plus, some say, the west will be banged up from going at each other in the real finals.
Who’s the next Cavs coach?
Will Knicks fans arrogance despite never having seen their team win a title, cost them via basketball karma? We shall see!
Win/lose it definitely won’t have anything to do with the Knicks’ fans
Gonna be funny to see how far he moves the goalposts if they win. Will probably come up with another excuse or say some dumb stuff about how he watched his team win and that no one else ever has. He’s in complete denial that the Knicks are a good team.
Knicks absolutely blew them off the court today.
After watching yet another elimination game Harden dud, the Cavs are nuts if there’s truth to the rumor they will re-sign him to a multi-year deal after he (likely) declines his player option.
If he does test free agency, book him a one way flight outta Cleveland and block his phone number.
Harden has to be studied in a lab.
Not really. That is him. In OKC he was best suited coming off the bench. His scoring ability was unmatched. But he has never played defense and ruined every team he went to. Everyone knows who he is.
the Harden curse continues. Cavs have some tough roster moves to make this team is not built for the playoffs. Knicks easily handled them once they figured out Cavs can’t play defense. They need a big time defender and get rid of harden.
From the 4th qtr of game 1 on until the sweep was complete. That was about as non-competitive a ECF in nba history. That was hard to watch unless a NYK fan.
If the SPURS make the Finals, then Sochan is guaranteed a ring right (?)