PHILADELPHIA — A few observations from Game 4 of New York’s sweep over Philadelphia.
**Awakened in Atlanta**
The foundation for the Knicks’ dismantling of the Sixers was laid roughly three weeks earlier. During Game 3 of their first-round series, as Miles McBride put it, the Knicks were “punched in the mouth” by the Hawks. Rather than folding, New York treated the loss as a decisive wake-up call.
Yes, the Knicks revamped their offense after that April 23 defeat — that much has been widely covered. But the shift went deeper than X’s and O’s.
“I feel like our mindset changed,” McBride told SNY. “We know we’re the better team, but we can’t just show up and expect to win because they’re talented too. So our mindset completely switched to ‘take the game’ rather than waiting for them to hand it to us.”
McBride embodied that aggressive approach Sunday. He drained four three-pointers in an 81-second stretch, pushing the Knicks to an early 14-point advantage. New York never looked back, building a 24-point halftime lead and stretching it to 44 in the second half. They finished with a 30-point victory, extending their playoff winning streak to seven games — each win coming by an average of 26.4 points.
Given the context, has any Knicks team in the past half-century played a better seven-game stretch? Probably not.
Now New York enters the Eastern Conference Finals as the clear favorite.
“I think the more we’ve played together as a team, the more we’ve grown. And we’ve kept improving,” Jalen Brunson said. “It’s about chemistry. It’s about feel. That’s how things get better — over time.”
Things are clicking at the perfect moment for Brunson and the Knicks.
**A Slow Build**
The Knicks underwhelmed for long stretches of the regular season. Fans and media repeatedly questioned their legitimacy. But that outside noise never affected the squad, according to Brunson.
“It was a rollercoaster for sure,” he said. “I think from outside the organization, things looked worse than they actually were — from the outside looking in. But inside the building, we worked every day to be the best team we could be. That was our only focus. There were positives and negatives, ups and downs, but those were our goals. And that’s still our goal: be the best we can be, keep learning, keep getting better. The journey reveals who you are.”
So far, that journey has revealed a resilient and talented Knicks team. Now they can rest briefly before preparing for the next playoff round.
The conference finals are scheduled to start Sunday or Monday. Game 4 of the Cavs-Pistons series takes place Monday night.