The Knicks have a chance to do something at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night that they haven’t done since 1999.
Close out a playoff series at home.
Last season, they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers with the first-round finale played at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
The Carmelo Anthony-led Knicks team of 2013 defeated the Boston Celtics in the first round, with the Celtics hosting the close-out Game 6 at TD Garden.
You have to go back before the turn of the century to find the last time the Knicks brought the confetti down at MSG.
The Knicks did it twice on their way to the 1999 NBA Finals.
They were a lower seed who swept the Atlanta Hawks out of the second round with the decisive Game 4 played at The Garden, then they upset the Indiana Pacers in the conference finals, securing a closeout Game 6 at home.
“It’d be huge. Hopefully we can do something like that, and they [Knicks fans] can go out on Seventh Ave and have fun,” Josh Hart said after morning shootaround at the team’s Tarrytown training facility on Tuesday: “I don’t think I’ll make an appearance yet. It would be huge, not just for the team, but for the fans.
“As a team during this time we’ve got to be humble, just keep focus on what’s next, what’s next, what’s next. But the fans we want them to be as passionate, as energetic, as idiotic and etcetera as they want. We want them to have fun and enjoy the ride that we’re on.”
Current Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was on Jeff Van Gundy’s coaching staff during the 1999 run, and Jalen Brunson’s father and current Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson was a point guard on the squad.
Brunson described Thibodeau as “some dude who is bald now [that] was on the staff.”
He said his father had mentioned the 1999 run leading up to Game 5.
“That they closed out the game in ‘99. That’s literally what he said. I’m not even trying to be a smartass. That’s literally what he said,” said Brunson. “He just said moments like these are pretty cool. So just go out there and have fun and make sure you’re playing with the same intensity, same mindset. It’s cool to play at home but I feel like once the game starts all that goes out the window. It’s just what we have to do to win the next game.”
HART REBOUNDING RAMPAGE
Hart’s rampant regular season rebounding was not a fluke — and he has the playoff numbers to back it up.
Hart averaged 8.3 rebounds per game during the 2023-24 season and 10.6 rebounds since he was thrust into the starting lineup following the injuries to Julius Randle and OG Anunoby.
Entering Game 5 of the Knicks’ first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers, Hart ranks fourth with 12.8 rebounds per game.
Each of the other top-six postseason rebounders play the center position and stand at least 6-11.
In fact, of the 20 players averaging more than 8 rebounds per game in the playoffs, the 6-4 Hart is the shortest.
Hart said he is unsurprised his regular-season rebounding has translated to the playoffs.
“I was able to do it at times in the regular season,” he said Tuesday. “I think the biggest thing for me is just pursuing the ball.”
Hart said opposing teams know the Knicks are going to crash the glass and put an emphasis on it on the scouting report entering the game.
“Sometimes you can match it for one quarter, two quarter, three quarters. But if it’s not something that’s part of your foundation, something that’s in your DNA, at some point you are going to forget,” he said. “Everything is going to be going 100 miles an hour, a shot goes up and you look at the ball and try to find myself [the rebounder].
“Myself, I’m programmed to do that as much as I’m in the game. If I’m playing 48, I’m programmed to do that all 48. You might do a great job for 46 minutes of it, that last two minutes if there’s a little slip, we want to capitalize.”
CLOSE-OUT MENTALITY
The Knicks are in position to close out the 76ers in Game 5 and advance to the second round of the playoffs for the second season in a row.
They know the Sixers won’t lay down without a fight, even with both Joel Embiid (migraine) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (illness) questionable for the closeout game.
“We’ve just got to know what the situation is. We know that that team is going to come out with a lot of urgency, intensity, desperation, so we’ve got to be ready for that,” Hart said after shootaround. “We’ve got to be ready to match that intensity, not just match it, exceed it. That’s what we’ve got to focus on. We know the situation we’re in, the situation they’re in. We’ve just got to continue to play our game.”
Last season was Hart’s first career playoff run after his mid-season trade to the Knicks. But Brunson won two playoff series with the Dallas Mavericks before leading the Knicks to a second-round playoff appearance last season.
In the first round of the 2022 playoffs, Brunson and Luka Doncic eliminated the Utah Jazz in six games and then the Phoenix Suns in seven games before losing to the Golden State Warriors in the conference finals.
“It’s going to be all out,” Brunson said after shootaround on Tuesday. “For us, we’re going to have the same mindset that every game we approach we have to be together, play hard, we have to play smart. And no matter what goes on we have to stick together.”
HOSTILE TAKEOVER
Brunson said he saw the viral videos of Knicks fans taking over Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center during the Game 4 victory that gave New York a commanding 3-1 series lead on Sunday.
He also saw the comments made by Joel
Embiid voiced his displeasure with the lack of a true home-court advantage following the Game 4 loss.
“I will say this: what Joel said — that Philadelphia is a sports town — that’s 100 percent true,” said Brunson. “I just think with New York being that close and obviously being a franchise that’s been around for a very long time, it’s easy for them to come to Philly obviously.
“I’m happy our fans are always around and stuff like that. But it was definitely weird seeing that – especially in a town like that. But I love our fans. And they mean the world to us.”
