After going up 2-0 in their second-round series and heading to Indiana, the Knicks were riding high and having early visions of punching their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals. Two games later now with the series tied at two apiece and even more injuries sustained, New York finds itself in a position it is all too familiar with this season; their backs are inching toward the wall.
“We can talk about fresher legs, give us all the pity that we want,” Knicks star Jalen Brunson told reporters after his side was blown out by the Pacers 121-89 in Game 3 on Sunday. “Yeah, we’re shorthanded but that doesn’t matter right now. We have what we have and we need to go forward with that.”
It has been the worst-kept secret in the NBA about the Knicks rotation players being forced to play heavy minutes due to their litany of injuries, and it appears the high-intensity workload is finally starting to take its toll. While Tom Thibodeau is a coach who is notorious for burning his star players out with a heavy regular season workload, that has not been the case this season. Thibodeau has been forced to give his top rotation players more minutes out of necessity, being without 60% of his ideal starting five in Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, and OG Anunoby.
This has put an even greater strain on the healthy players. Josh Hart leads the league in playoff minutes per game amongst players who advanced to the second round, averaging over 44 minutes despite only playing 24 on Sunday. Brunson is right behind Hart, averaging nearly 41 minutes per game.
“We have what we have in that locker room,” Brunson said. “Yes, we are down guys but the people who go out there we have the utmost faith in every single one of them that goes out on that court. As a team, we need to sit together, we need to be better, and that’s just it going forward.”
The culture and identity of this Knicks team have long been established this year as a stereotypical, gritty, hard-nosed basketball team. New York has embraced this team as one of its own, shutting down 7th Avenue after every victory. So while the circumstances may seem dire for this Knicks team, they should not be counted out yet.
“We didn’t come out with the right energy,” Hart said. “This wasn’t us and now we just got to watch the film and get ready for Tuesday.”
It goes without saying that Game 5 is the biggest game of the season so far and potentially the last decade for the Knicks. With OG Anunoby’s status still unknown as he is listed as day-to-day with a hamstring injury, New York will have to dig deep once again. Although being backed into a corner is where this Knicks team seems to thrive the most. Back on their home court with the New York faithful rooting them on, this series is just getting started.
“The way we played, especially today, was not respectful to the fans and how they support us,” Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein said. “We have to really get back to playing our basketball, coming back to playing for the fans like that.”
There is no doubt the Knicks players have had one unified approach throughout the season. It has kept them together when facing the highs and lows an NBA season brings, and when backed into a corner they have gone down swinging. No one embodies this approach more than Brunson, who has led this team out of darkness before and will have to do it again on Tuesday night.
“There is no ‘we’re shorthanded,’ there is no excuse whatsoever. There is no excuse. If we lose, we lose.”
