By John Jastremski
I won’t beat around the bush.
I went into the Eastern Conference Semifinals with zero expectations for New York Knicks success.
After all, could you blame me?
The Celtics are reigning NBA Champions and have dominated the Knicks for the last two seasons.
Boston was 4-0 against the Knicks and three of the games were non competitive.
The oddsmakers shared my sense of pessimism for the series.
Game 1 was following the same path.
The Knicks were down 20 points in the 3rd quarter despite hideous Celtics 3 point shooting.
It looked like another lost night until it wasn’t… The Knicks responded with incredible grit, toughness and resilience.
OG Anunoby sparked the team in the 3rd quarter and got them back in the game on both ends of the floor.
Of course the captain Jalen Brunson was up to his usual late game tricks. However, in Game 1 the Knicks bailed their Captain out.
Brunson missed a layup that would’ve won the game in regulation, a missed layup that I thought for sure would doom the Knicks chances of winning Game 1.
Thankfully for Knicks fans, the much maligned Mikal Bridges came to the rescue!
Bridges’ defense on the Celtics wings was off the charts and his 5 points in overtime ended up being the difference in the game. Not bad for a guy who played over 50 minutes!
All season, the toughness of this current Knicks team has been questioned, despite the regular season success.
So far this postseason, it has been up to the challenge.
The team has handled adversity and has answered the bell in tough situations.
Will it be enough to beat the Celtics? I for one am not quite ready to go that far, but I like the feel and look of this series a lot more than I did come Monday afternoon.
Unlike the first round series against Detroit, the Knicks are not expected to win. All of the pressure falls on Boston in this series.
The Celtics may be reigning champs, but their road to a title was an easy one last year.
Let’s see if the Knicks can make it rather bumpy…
You can listen to my podcast New York, New York on The Ringer Podcast Network after every Knicks Playoff game on Spotify/Apple Podcasts. You can watch me on Honda Sports Nite following Mets postgame.
