Knicks hold their breath, and hope to get back to Garden
New York Knicks guard RJ Barrett (9) drives on Miami Heat guard Kyle Lowry (7) in 2nd quarter during Game Five of the Eastern Conference Semifinal Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on May 10, 2023 in Manhattan. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
MIAMI — There is an old story from Pat Riley’s days coaching the Miami Heat, describing how he walked into a team meeting before a playoff game and rather than begin plotting out some strategy on a whiteboard or launching into some soliloquy to his gathered troops, he dunked his head into a bucket of ice water and remained there as long as he could. Finally, he emerged and simply said, “To the last breath.”
Riley now watches these games as team president from a few rows back, mostly hard to read as he displays no emotions other than his lips curling slightly into a smile when something happens like Cody Zeller shoving Julius Randle to the floor and the teams gathering to confront each other. But the message remains the same with the Knicks and Heat taking the court Friday night with a belief that they would go to the last breath.
For the Heat, it was a hope to make up for the chance to send the Knicks home in Game 5 that they’d wasted. For the Knicks it was an actual last gasp, facing elimination with a loss and just hoping for a Game 6 win and a chance to get back to Madison Square Garden for a Game 7.
While they were hoping to keep the season going, it’s worth looking back at how far they’d come to reach this point. It wasn’t just the victory Wednesday at the Garden, the first step to try to overcome a three games to one deficit. But it would be hard to find anyone who expected the Knicks to still be playing now in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The expectations outside of their locker room, even with the addition of Jalen Brunson were low — oddsmakers putting the line at 38 wins before the season began. It seemed almost comical when RJ Barrett countered those predictions with one of his own. He remembered two seasons ago when the Knicks were the No. 4 seed and in the playoffs before losing in the first round and believed that a return would come.
“There is definitely extra motivation,” Barrett said at the start of training camp. “Getting to taste what the playoffs is like and then falling short there, to not end up where we wanted to last year, I think this year we are coming with even more experience. Even more hungry. A lot of guys that have something to prove… myself included. I got everything to prove. We are really coming with that mindset. We’re gonna shock the world.”
So the question now is, did they shock the world enough just to get this far?
Maybe the fans who collected against the oddsmakers by betting on the Knicks to return to the postseason are content, but the Knicks have not been. Even as fans at the Garden were celebrating, chanting wildly as they made their way out into the streets Wednesday night, Brunson sat a table in the bowels of the arena and calmly talked about what the Knicks had done on that night and what was still ahead.
“Great way to bounce back,” Brunson said after that game. “Way to fight. We live to see another day. We get the chance to get better, get a chance to get another one.
“Nothing really to celebrate. We obviously won, get to see another day. This is great, but we’ve got to go get one down there.”
Whenever it ended the Knicks were going to face questions — not the same ones they faced in preseason when they were coming off a lottery season, but questions anyway. And they actually may have no more clarity now than when they started.
Do they look to move Barrett again or do they believe in what he has done at 22 years old in the postseason? Is Randle still a centerpiece of any build moving forward? What to do about the extension-eligible players like Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin, neither of whom played well in the postseason?
As the Knicks prepared Friday, there were scouts working up tape on the Celtics and 76ers for a possible next round. You can be sure there were front office folks debating offseason moves. And for at least 48 more minutes, the Knicks season was continuing beyond expectations.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
