After yet another blowout win, the Knicks are looking like the class of the East

NEW YORK — If there was ever any concern that the New York Knicks, coming off their annihilation of the Atlanta Hawks and freshly minted as the new favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the 2026 NBA Finals, had spent the last few days getting fat and happy, Mike Brown sought to assuage them.

Yes, the Knicks won eight more games than the Philadelphia 76ers during the regular season. And yes, they finished four seeds higher than the 76ers in the Eastern playoff bracket. But before Game 1 on Monday, the Knicks head coach emphasized that the iteration of the Sixers that would be coming into Madison Square Garden — one finally featuring a healthy three-headed monster in Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George — had New York’s full, undivided attention.

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“You know, when that combination was on the floor together, they won, I think, almost 65% of their games,” Brown told reporters in his pregame news conference. “So, they were on pace to be almost a 60-win team. And if you’re on pace to be a 60-win team — I can’t remember what Boston did, but that’s better than us, you know, record-wise. And they’re completely healthy. So it’s gonna be a tough series.”

(The Sixers were actually only 11-10 in the 21 games that their Big Three played together this season. But who can begrudge a coach his preferred motivational tactic?)

It may well still be a tough series. It wasn’t a tough Game 1, though — far from it. Because this Knicks team, which shifted into a dramatically higher gear in the second half of its series against the Hawks, is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down.

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With a two-day rest advantage on a Sixers squad that was fighting for its life in Boston on Saturday night, New York looked the fresher, deeper, more balanced and significantly more offensively potent team, opening the Eastern Conference semifinals with an emphatic 137-98 beatdown to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven set.

Forty-eight hours after winning Game 7 in Boston, Philadelphia hung tight for a quarter before effectively running out of gas. The Knicks opened up a double-digit lead late in…

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Author : Dan Devine

Publish date : 2026-05-05 05:27:00

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