Thirteen times it has happened in NBA history, and that represents good enough for the Knicks to totally understand that their first-round playoff series is “not even near being over,” as Jalen Brunson put it following Sunday’s Game 4 victory over the Cavaliers.
Don’t be dumb, or dumber.
This will not be the proverbial one-in-a-million “so that you’re saying there’s a likelihood” comparison of cinematic lore.
The Knicks carry a well-deserved 3-1 advantage into Game 5 in Cleveland on Wednesday night, but they hardly were patting themselves on the back or looking forward to a date with the winner of the Bucks-Heat series within the second round.
“We’re 3-1, it’s a best-of-seven series. We got [to win] one other game,” said Josh Hart, who made a large two-way impact in his first profession playoff start instead of injured shooting guard Quentin Grimes. “That’s a tricky opponent, and we saw in Game 2, after we don’t bring it, how good they might be.”
Indeed, Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and the Cavs punched back with a robust response in Game 2 in Cleveland after the more physical Knicks had swiped the series opener.
Garland endured a horrendous Game 3 (4-for-21) at Madison Square Garden and Mitchell admitted he “played like s–t” in an 11-point effort in Game 4, which the Knicks notably closed out with slumping leading scorer Julius Randle benched for your complete fourth quarter.
“We’re going into their home now, so that they’re going to be ready,” added Hart, who primarily guarded Mitchell in Grimes’ absence in Game 4. “Obviously, the gang’s going to be crazy. The atmosphere goes to be wild. But we just should give attention to recuperating as a team, attention to detail and give attention to the duty at hand.”
In NBA history, teams leading 3-1 in a best-of-seven series had won 257 times in 270 instances entering this 12 months.
Most recently, the Nuggets pulled off the come-from-behind feat in each of the primary two rounds of the 2020 playoffs against the Jazz and the Clippers.
The Knicks blew a 3-1 result in the Heat within the second round in 1997, while LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and the Cavs overcame such a deficit against the Warriors within the NBA Finals in 2016.
“It’s just like several game,” backup center Isaiah Hartenstein said after contributing eight rebounds, two steals and two key second-half blocked shots in Sunday’s victory. “I used to be telling the fellows before, we still have yet one more game to go. And I feel even when it’s 3-1, I’ve seen loads of teams come back from that. So you have got to approach it the identical way. Take it game by game.”
The Knicks haven’t won a playoff series because the Mike Woodson-coached and Carmelo Anthony-led squad downed the Celtics in 2013 and before that not since a visit to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2000.
“Don’t take into consideration closing it out. Don’t take into consideration closing it out in any respect,” Brunson said. “Just consider it like we’re going right into a hostile environment. They’re going to play desperate, and we just should have the option to bring it.”
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The additions of Brunson, Hartenstein and Hart previously 12 months have helped vault the Knicks to the precipice of one other advancement.
Brunson added that he’s not surprised by the impact that Hart — his former NCAA championship teammate at Villanova — is making at each ends on this series.
“No, he’s been a person who has adapted to each situation that he’s been an element of, and he’s made it work,” Brunson said. “He understands what’s needed of him and what he must do on the market, and he does it.
“That’s how he’s been. That’s how he’s been raised. He’s at all times been raised to be that kind of guy. He’s that guy on and off the ground. There’s not enough good things I can say about him.”
