Knicks Notes: Series Sweep, Hart, Towns, McBride, Brunson

The Knicks didn’t get to celebrate in front of their home crowd after finishing off a sweep of the Sixers Sunday afternoon, but it kind of felt that way, writes Vincent Goodwill of ESPN. Plenty of New York fans made the trip to Xfinity Mobile Arena to enjoy their team’s latest dominant performance, a 144-114 win that ran the Knicks’ winning streak to seven games and put them in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Guard Josh Hart, who played at Villanova, couldn’t resist taking a playful swipe at his former home city.

“I used to think Philly was a sports town. I don’t know if it is anymore,” he said. “Everybody was begging for Philly [fans] not to sell their tickets. It never felt like a road game.”

In fairness to Philadelphia fans, they were probably dispirited by the one-sided nature of the matchup. New York controlled the series right from the start and had Sunday’s game virtually wrapped up by halftime. The Knicks tied an NBA record by making 18 three-pointers in the first half and held a 24-point lead at intermission.

Goodwill notes that New York has outscored its opponents by 19.4 points per game through the first two rounds, which is the largest differential for any team entering the conference finals since the playoffs were expanded 42 years ago. The Knicks have been looking unbeatable lately, but players aren’t taking anything for granted.

“Our team, the first year with each other, beating Boston last year we were very excited,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “This year, we’re locked into the moment, and there’s a lot more work to do. So, it’s great to see our guys kind of hungry for the next challenge.”

There’s more on the Knicks:

• Towns continued to flash his playmaking skills with nine assists in 16 minutes during the first half, observes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. He finished with 10, but only had to play four minutes in the second half because the game was out of reach. The Knicks’ offense has been energized since Brown decided to turn Towns into more of a passer midway through the first-round series. “Shout out to our team,” Towns said. “We found a way to, in a way, stabilize our season and do what was needed to adjust to Atlanta. And [we] found ourselves in a better position. It’s a shout-out to the coaching staff for realizing adjustments that needed to be made and also [a] shout-out to me personally that they trusted me.”
• Miles McBride, who hit seven three-pointers on Sunday while starting in place of the injured OG Anunoby, said the Knicks adopted a more aggressive attitude after falling behind Atlanta in Round 1, per Ian Begley of SNY.tv. “I feel like our mindset shifted,” McBride said. “We know we’re the better team (but) we can’t just come out there and expect to win, because they’re talented too. So I feel like our mindset just shifted totally to ‘take the game’ instead of (waiting for) them to give us the game.”
• The organization spent years chasing stars before landing Jalen Brunson in the summer of 2022, notes James L. Edwards of The Athletic. The undersized guard didn’t look like a franchise player when he was signed away from Dallas, but he has affected the team as much as anyone else could have. “What’s the dude’s name on Snoopy? Linus? He’s got a blanket,” coach Mike Brown said. “I’m Linus, and Jalen is my blanket. He helps me relax throughout the course of a game. That’s what great players do. They keep you poised, they make the game easier for everybody else and they help you get through a stretch.”