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NEW YORK — Analytics have taken kind of a beating in these 2026 NBA playoffs, thanks to Kenny Atkinson’s well-intentioned commentaries on shot quality eventually becoming the stuff of memes and Josh Hart getting Comedy Cellar laughs for recycling Villanova coach Jay Wright’s line about analytics, lampposts and drunks.
At base, though, “analytics” is just information: a way of taking a closer look at something, seeing what you turn up, and figuring out how that can help you make sense of things. What you really need is someone who can help you understand those numbers — an expert who can contextualize the data and arrive at a conclusion.
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“The statistics right now,” rap legend/podcast host/quantitative analyst Fat Joe tells me, “are saying this is the greatest New York team ever.”
Joey Crack tells me this at the Knicks’ Sunday practice on the eve of Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Finals (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC), which will be the first Finals game contested at Madison Square Garden in 27 years. He tells me this because he’s one of millions of New Yorkers swept up in the hysteria surrounding a Knicks team that currently holds a 2-0 lead over the San Antonio Spurs in the best-of-seven set, having taken the first two games of the Finals on the road in Texas. And he tells me this because, analytically speaking (shouts out to Kenny), it has the ring of truth.
You’ve likely seen the numbers by now, but they bear repeating. The Knicks have won 13 straight playoff games, the second-longest postseason winning streak in NBA history, trailing only the 2017 Golden State Warriors. They’ve won those games by a combined 273 points — the highest plus-minus in any 13-game stretch in playoff history, and just behind the 1970 Bucks (+279) for the most lopsided 13-game stretch of all time.
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Their +17.6 average margin of victory in these playoffs is the highest of any team to play at least four playoff games (shout out to the 1956 Minneapolis Lakers). They are the first team in NBA history to win three closeout playoff games by 20-plus points — and they won them all by 30-plus. They own the postseason’s No. 1 offense…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/best-knicks-team-ever-they-got-a-lot-of-work-to-do-165158758.html
Author : Dan Devine
Publish date : 2026-06-08 16:51:00
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