So the Knicks went from appearing to be a run-of-the-mill team to being extremely dominant in the East. They entered the tournament in 3rd place and few people would have given them good odds to be in the Final part of this Championship because in order to get there they would need to get past two teams that up until this point looked as though they were much better. Those teams were the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics. Both of these teams had quite a good regular season and were placed as favorites to make it to the conference final exactly for the reason.
Then, when the Knicks appeared to have a great deal of trouble simply getting past the Atlanta Hawks, most pundits simply wrote them off. But there was something else going on in the East that as things carried on became more and more apparent.
This is a pretty momentous occasion for the NY Knicks as they have not been to a final since 1999. There is some cause for celebration but when you step back and look at the bigger picture, it just looks more and more like they are going to get completely worked over in the final.
The Cleveland Cavaliers didn't even seem to be trying to stay in this 4th game in the series where the Knicks just kind of walked to a 37 point victory and a 4-0 sweep of a conference final. Prior to this the Cleveland Cavaliers found themselves in a similar situation but on the other end of it when the Pistons just sort of gave up and didn't want to play anymore. This maybe gave Cleveland fans a reason to think that maybe they were the real force in the East. That all got squashed when they squandered a 22 point lead in game 1. The Knicks never looked back from that point and swept the series.
The issue that I have with the East in general is that it kind of appears as though most of the teams kind of realized that they don't stand a chance in the final and some of them just appeared to not even bother to try.
In New York's final game in the first round, Atlanta kind of gave up in the 1st quarter as the Knicks went on to win by the 4th largest margin in all of NBA history. The Celtics looked like they similarly just kind of gave up and the 76ers advanced only to get completely demolished by the Knicks, then when the Knicks ended up having to face Cleveland exactly the same thing happened again.
Fans are a bit disenfranchised by the series in the East because other than some come from behind victories, the teams and their players seem to be behaving like petulant children who refuse to try anymore because they are in a fussy mood. The Pistons need a dramatic overhaul in management and perhaps players, and the Cavs have an aging James Harden who seems to spend about as much time complaining and fussing with refs as he does actually playing basketball.
The Knicks aren't really the best team in the East so much as they were the only team that didn't have a temper tantrum and just refuse to play.
I sincerely hope that this renewed vigor on the part of the Knicks results in a somewhat competitive Final but I wouldn't hold my breath about that. Both San Antonio and Oklahoma City look vastly superior to any team in the East including the Knicks. New York has lost at least 50% more games than either the Spurs or the Thunder and at this point they have to really be keeping their fingers crossed that the series in the West manages to go to 7 games and results in whoever their eventual opponent is in being really tired or perhaps mildly injured. I'm not hoping for that of course, but in my mind that is really the only thing that could give them a chance in hell.
When we look at all betting odds there aren't many people that give the Knicks a realistic chance of winning with the average percentage chance of victory sitting around 15%. I feel as though a lot of this optimism is driven by wealthy New York fans who are willing to bet big money on a nearly +500 underdog and it is more wishful thinking than them really believing that it is possible.
But there is one thing I will definitely attribute to this sport that doesn't seem so evident in other games: The momentum of a team carries over to future series and how the Knicks perform in game 1 of the final is going to have a lasting impression on the rest of the games. If they can make a strong showing, even if it is eventually in vain for a loss, they can keep this close enough to make it entertaining.
Even though I think it is very possible, I really don't want to see blowout games in the final.
This is all just my opinion mixed with stats of course, I am just not holding my breath that New York running through a ra her weak East is any sort of sign of being competitive in the final vs San Antonio or OKC.