After the Knicks’ 137-98 demolition of the Philadelphia 76ers Monday night at Madison Square Garden in game one of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals pairing, the Knicks entered game two at the Garden on Wednesday night as the betting favorite to represent the East in the NBA Finals.
Sports gaming companies putting the No. 3 seed Knicks above the No. 7 seed 76ers, No. 1 seed Detroit Pistons, and No. 4 seed Cleveland Cavaliers was a designation based on their play in the opening round versus the No. 6 seed Atlanta Hawks and Monday’s beatdown of the 76ers. The Knicks dismissed the Hawks four games to two, and won games five and six by 126-97 and 140-89. Their 39-point victory over the 76ers made the Knicks the only team in NBA history to win three straight postseason games by at least 25 points.
They are peaking at the right time but must maintain it to continue advancing. The elevated performance of starting guard/forward Mikal Bridges bodes well for the Knicks prospects of getting past the 76ers and beyond. Bridges, who has not been a high-output scorer since being acquired by the Knicks from the Nets in June 2024 for a package that included five first-round picks obtained by the Nets, netted 17 versus the 76ers in game one, a reminder of his capabilities. In the regular season, Bridges was fourth on the team in scoring at 14.4 points per game. His career high was 20.1 in the 2022-23 season playing for the Phoenix Suns before being traded to the Nets in the Kevin Durant deal.
The fans’ expectations of Bridges have arguably been too lofty as they attach them to the value of five first-rounders the Knicks parted with for him, but for the team to attain their goal of winning a championship, Bridges’ role on both ends of the court is critically important. Particularly on offense, it is incumbent on Knicks’ head coach Mike Brown and point guard Jalen Brunson to get him into spots in the halfcourt where he can be most effective.
With the Knicks now running much of the offense through center Karl-Anthony Towns, Bridges seemingly is more assertive and assured. Collectively, in their three prior outings heading before last night (Wednesday), the Knicks averaged 134 points per game.
“It’s a lot of fun when you have concepts on either end of the floor and the guys are trying to embrace those concepts at the highest level and when they do it doesn’t really matter what you call or who you initiates the action because guys are trying to play the right way and these guys are pros…” said Brown after game one.
Nick Nurse, the 76ers head coach, must counter with a scheme to slow down the Knicks or it will be a short series.
“Defensively, we just seemed like we were chasing everything,” assessed Nurse. “They were obviously picking us apart. Moving a lot better.”