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The top-seeded Pistons — one year removed from being eliminated by the Knicks — need to win a third consecutive elimination game to advance to the second round for the first time in 18 years.
The Cavaliers — who haven’t been past the second round since LeBron James left Cleveland for the second time — are on the verge of underachieving again, needing to win Game 7 against the Raptors to keep their season alive.
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And the Eastern Conference favorite was eliminated Saturday night when the 76ers completed their comeback from a 3-1 series deficit and defeated the Celtics 109-100 in Game 7 in Boston, setting up a rematch of the electric 2024 first-round matchup, when the Knicks beat Philadelphia in six games.
Jalen Brunson drives to the basket during the Knicks’ Game 6 series clinching win over the Hawks on April 30, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg
The Knicks — coming off three of their best efforts of the season, including a 140-89 beatdown of the Hawks to reach the second round for the fourth straight season — will have had three days off before Monday’s game at Madison Square Garden against the 76ers and oft-injured nemesis Joel Embiid.
They return a core that broke a 25-year conference finals drought.
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Now, there is no question of the team to beat in the East.
“I haven’t heard of it,” Jalen Brunson said Saturday, “and I don’t care.”
He is supposed to ignore what Nick Saban long described as “rat poison,” the kind of premature praise that can make a team overconfident and underprepared.
The Knicks captain is supposed to embody the cliches they have perfected — getting one percent better every day, controlling the controllables, etc. — leading a group that has made the East’s most convincing case as a contender on both ends of the court.
Jalen Brunson is pictured during his May 2 press conference for the Knicks. Robert Sabo for the NY Post
Chemistry, health and momentum are on their side.
So is history, which has seen the Knicks defeat the conference’s biggest remaining threats (Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia) in the playoffs in recent years.
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“I mean,…
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Publish date : 2026-05-03 02:56:00
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