Knicks 97, 76ers 92: "You got Brunsonned and Achiuwa’d"

Would you believe it?

The Knicks played a home game on the road on Sunday, beat the Sixers, one of their players made history, and another one didn’t but was close it.

What a weekend capper, wasn’t it?

There have been countless 17-rebound performances in the history of the NBA playoffs. Bill Rusell leads the way with 151 individual games listed in there. Wilt Chamberlain is a close second with 142 of his own. Only a third man was able to pull down 17+ boards in more than 40 games as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it 41 times.

After Sunday, the 17+ Rebound Club has a new member: Josh Hart.

All Boards, No Buckets. Literally.

I know I’m burying the led today by just teasing Jalen Brunson’s historic game (no hyperbole) in the first sentence. Bear with me for a minute.

What or who embodies Thibs-Era New York Knicks Basketball more than Hart? Tell me one, just one single thing and if you convince me, you’ll be able to live rent-free in my brain forever. I’ll let you enslave me.

Hart took 7 field goals on Sunday and made none of them. The Sixers strategy to leave him open worked, once and for all.

Hart, however, was a demon on the boards. He grabbed more rebounds than any player not named Jarrett, Jonas, Bobby, Nikola, or Anthony has this postseason. Just for context, all of those men have an inch or two on Hart, at the very least, and I’m exaggerating matters in their favor.

Hart, also, dished out five deams that counted as much as anything and everything else he did on the floor. He stated three shots. He did it all through a game-high 46 minutes of playing time. He finished with five personal fouls but navigated the legality line perfectly, never falling for that sixth and final offense that would have sent him packing to the bench so he could comfortably sit and watch from there. No, sir.

“I mean, I had to do something,” Hart said. “I had five turnovers, didn’t make a shot, didn’t hit any free throws, missed two free throws late that were big. So offensively it just wasn’t there today.

“But when you have that you have to try to figure out ways to still make an impact in the game. And for me that was rebounding and pushing. Offensive rebound, trying to get extra possession. Looked athletic on a couple of blocks. So that was nice. But yeah, when you’re not making shots, you got to find other ways to impact the game.”

Double lede-burying here, gotcha.

Brunson bagged 47 points, something no other Knick in franchise history had done before in the playoffs. Cool dude Bernard, the King, dumped 46 twice in the same postseason.

Ewing didn’t score 47. Fraizer, Reed, Gallatin, Oakley, Cartwright, Starks, Houston, Melo, you name them.

None of ‘em did it. Not even Bernard King.

Brunson’s reaction to setting an impossibly hard record to match, leat alone break?

“I’ll look back when I retire. Seriously. It’s great right now, it helped us get a win, but it’s not going to do anything for us going forward.”

If Hart’s the Knicks bone, JB is the Knicks meat. Or vice-versa, whatever.

Final note here.

This 97-92 win in Game 4 was monumental. On the road (although it felt it was not), under the absolute most pressure and trying to avoid turning a seven-game series into a three-game do-or-die matchup had it ended in a loss. With Mitchell Robinson (injury) and Isaiah Hartenstein (foul trouble) out...

Precious Achiuwa & OG Anunoby.

Brothers and sisters, pour one for the Knicks front office here.

Odds are New York doesn’t win the championship. There are the Celtics. There are the Nuggets. Hell, there are the Wolves, the Thunder, and whoever you want to include in that group. The field of competitive teams is dense, is what I’m saying.

But with this team and what all dudes from the players to the staff to the head coach to the last equipment guy out there, if I’m honest to God, I won’t for a second feel upset at all when (if, here’s hoping they don’t!) they are sent home.

This is the best team the Knicks have put together in a million years. The franchise has taken a 180-degree turn for the mad, absolute better.

Feel proud about your Knickerbockers. Appreciate them, enjoy them, follow them, love them.

I told you the last time we talked: Knicks in Five, Orange & Blue Skies.