The best teams in the NBA typically operate on two parallel tracks. There's the obvious, externally driven pursuit of a championship, which comes down to beating the team in front of you. And then there's the quieter pursuit of a team finding its best self—figuring out exactly how it needs to play and who needs to occupy what roles.
Not all champions achieve that harmony. It's possible to talent your way to a title without ever truly gelling as a unit. When you get both—the elite talent and the collective unity—you achieve a sort of basketball Nirvana.
Think of the 2014 San Antonio Spurs and their ball-movement hurricane, or the 2011 Dallas Mavericks digging deep enough to out-tough the Miami Heat superteam. Those teams became immortal.
Towns' Transformation Sparks Knicks' Rise
We have a long way to go—seven victories to be exact, four of which would need to come against a heavily favored opponent. But with each passing game, it's starting to feel more and more like the New York Knicks can be that sort of team.
The ball started rolling after Game 3 of New York's first-round series against Atlanta. Karl-Anthony Towns spent the year expressing frustration with his role. Everything clicked into place in Game 4.
Mike Brown started using Towns effectively as a point center, operating as a passing hub behind the arc, and the whole offense soared. With Towns playing the best defense of his career and the whole team locked in beside him, New York won its next seven games by 185 combined points.
These were the 2014 Spurs-esque performances—though admittedly against lesser opponents. They were the games that made you feel as though the Knicks were playing a different sport than their opponent.
Historic Comeback in Game 1
That wasn't Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Knicks, coming off a nine-day break that was longer than the 2026 All-Star break, were flat for three and a half quarters. They trailed by 22 points with roughly seven minutes left on the clock.
But the Knicks never took their foot off the gas. They knew not to, because one year ago, they were on the other side of a game very much like this one.
They led the Pacers by 14 with 2:51 remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of last year's Eastern Conference Finals. We know how that game went—an avalanche of Aaron Nesmith 3s. A lazy Knicks offense leading to turnovers and ugly misses. Missed free throws. Tyrese Haliburton's miraculous, above-the-backboard bounce at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
One of the ugliest chokes in franchise history. Though the series would last five more games, that game was the death of the old Knicks—the defeat that cost Tom Thibodeau his job.
Coaching Changes Made the Difference
He built the culture that got them there, but couldn't adapt enough to get them across the finish line. The adjustment he refused to make is the one that swung this game for the Knicks.
Josh Hart offered to come off the bench before Game 6 of New York's second-round series against Boston a season ago. Thibodeau declined despite mountains of on-off data suggesting he should make the change.
New York lost Games 1 and 2 against Indiana largely because of the minutes their starters lost. He subbed Hart out in Game 3, but for backup center Mitchell Robinson. Despite having an all-time shooting center in Towns, Thibodeau refused to lean into five-out lineups that the numbers screamed would be unstoppable.
Cleveland didn't guard Hart all night. He man