News & Blogs
Knicks overwhelm Cavaliers again to take 3-0 series lead – ESPN
Knicks push Cavs to the brink of elimination with comfortable Game 3 victory – The Athletic – The New York Times
Knicks keeping same mindset heading into Game 4 looking to book ticket to NBA Finals – SNY
WWE’s Danhausen Announces Knicks Merch in New Photos After Cursing Cavs in NBA Playoffs – BleacherReport
Knicks 121, Cavaliers 108: “Well well well. It really is happening.” – Posting & Toasting
Jalen Brunson, Knicks Go Up 3-0 on Cavs, Final Box Score Stats & Highlights for Harden, Mitchell – BleacherReport
Mikal Bridges’ play one of biggest reasons Knicks sit one win away from NBA Finals – SNY
ECF Game Thread: Knicks at Cavaliers, Game 3, May 23, 2026 – Posting & Toasting
Are The Knicks Unstoppable? | Knicks Keep Rolling I WIth 10 Straight Wins InThe Playoffs! – Knick of Time
The Knicks Continue To Dominate The East Playoffs | Game 3 Debrief + Knicks All NBA Reactions – Knicks Fan TV
The Run.down Knicks vs Cavaliers Eastern Conference Finals Game 3 Postgame Show – The Strickland
Knicks at Cavaliers (ECF, Game 3) | Opening Monologue | POSTGAME RECAP – Knicks Film School
YT News
53 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.05.25)”
I miss the Memorial Day afternoon game. I still remember MSG chanting Charlie Ward’s name the last time we played in one.
Get it done tonight, and guarantee we are way more rested than whoever comes out of that knife fight out west.
I wouldn’t be surprised or disappointed if the Cavs won on some hot shooting tonight. Game 5 at MSG would be an epic party. And this hasn’t exactly been a physical series that we need to wrap up early (even OG’s hammy is hardly worrying me right now). The Finals start on June 3, so it’s 6 days rest vs 8 days. Either is plenty. The other series is going at least 3 days longer.
But we are not gentlemen. We are motherfuckers.
OKC’s offense without JDub and Ajay is eerily similar to Detroit.
Hubs, I normally would think that’s a possibility but our dudes are locked in and we seemed to break their will at the end of game three. I’m expecting us to be up by 20 by half and we close it out tonight.
I think that unless Spida is 100% healthy (and I don’t think he is by a long mile) the burden of not quitting rests entirely on the shoulders of Mobley, and I don’t see him being that kind of player.
So if the Cavs win, it will because Merrill goes 8/10 from three and we fall behind by 10-15 at the end of the first quarter. Which, to be honest, is entirely possible.
I’m with Farfa (good to have you back! miss the recaps! Wake max up!)
This should be a textbook “we’re just better than them” win. There’s no reason to think that they might unlock something. Sure, Merrill might get hot, but so might Deuce. Maybe Mitch wakes up. We still have rounds in the chamber.
Anything can happen of course, but I think there is more chance of a Knicks blowout than a Cavs win.
Evan Fournier and Frank Ntilikina are celebrating the EuroLeague championship in Athens after defeating Real Madrid. Fournier was MVP and Frank played a significant defensive role while guarding Mario Hezonja. How’s that for a little blast from the past?
If we won a championship the same year as Frankie Smokes, that would be some kind of weird cosmic justice.
As for game 3, I do expect the Cavs to shoot better, but eventually the Captain will shoot better, too. He’s been terrible from 3 this series. Him, Deuce, Mitch, even Clarkson – we could be playing much better.
I never thought OKC had an elite offense. It’s very good, but some of what has made their offense so good (aside from Shai) is forced TOs. Their defense forces a lot of TOs and they are effective scoring off them. If you can limit your TOs you can put a dent in their offense. Their strength is DEFENSE.
The defensive intensity of the WCFs jumps off the screen. Guys are hurtling themselves into each other, through the air and across the floor.
It will be a major step up in intensity for us. I think we are ready for it, especially if we take care of business tonight without incident and have time to physically and mentally prepare for it. Our guys can sit back and watch them play, while they are beating the shit out of each other.
If a coach says “analytically we won” when losing all 3 games, it means his team was out-coached. And if a coach lets a player convince him that his body is fine when the eye test says differently he will never completely gain the locker-room. If we sweep (which I think we will mostly because of them, not us), interesting to see what their off-season looks like.
The defensive intensity of the WCFs jumps off the screen. Guys are hurtling themselves into each other, through the air and across the floor.
It will be a major step up in intensity for us. I think we are ready for it, especially if we take care of business tonight without incident and have time to physically and mentally prepare for it. Our guys can sit back and watch them play, while they are beating the shit out of each other.
yeah, it really jumps off the screen. detroit surely would have been better prep for the massive intensity jump that will come if we make the finals. not saying that would playing the pistons worth it, of course.
we can all remember last year when nembhard and nesmith wouldn’t let jalen take a single backcourt dribble or come around an off ball screen 40 feet out without using his face as a breathlyzer. the last two rounds have been very, very different.
castle has dramatically ramped up his defensive intensity from the regular season (and, btw, my take is that he is getting away with even more fouls than ihart in doing so, and while everyone is understandably focused on OKC as getting away with foul and SGA for grifting, castle and vassell and bryant have very successfully adopted the “you can’t call everything” strategy to commit 12-15 holding and ball hawking fouls a game. but they are also very effective pressure defenders). and it goes without saying the same applies in spades to wallace, caruso and dort. the water’s going to feel cold as hell early in game 1 should we get there.
Our closeout games last two years have been comical beatdowns (outside of Detroit), so I have no reason to think the boys will let this get to 5.
Evan Fournier and Frank Ntilikina are celebrating the EuroLeague championship in Athens after defeating Real Madrid. Fournier was MVP and Frank played a significant defensive role while guarding Mario Hezonja. How’s that for a little blast from the past?
it feels like a violation of the 8th amendment to tell someone that a vision of their godchild finally making good by effectively constraining mario hezonja was a mainstream media level hallucination. but i’m pretty sure frank was a healthy scratch in the euroleague final four games and never faced off against super mario.
EuroLeague champion Frank Ntilikina scored a total of 109 points in 24 games (5 started) with shooting splits of 40/36/82, grabbed 1.1 rpg and dished 1.6 apg in around 14 mpg. Such pedestrian numbers that it’s really hard to know what scouts saw in him apart from the frame and some precocious – but unfruitful – defensive instincts.
I really wished Frank would work out. But week after week, month after month, it felt like the Bon Iver song (more famous in Birdy’s version, but still):
Come on skinny love just last the year
Pour a little salt we were never here
My my my, my my my my my my my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
Castle is a fearsome athlete. He, Vassell, Fox, Harper, Keldon, Champagnie, and Bryant are a formidable pack of hounds, especially when you have the greatest rim obstacle of the modern era behind them.
OKC is gonna have its hands full in Game 5.
Good article by Hollinger about the Knicks.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7306375/2026/05/25/knicks-nba-finals-jalen-brunson-karl-anthony-towns-playoffs/
Either Atkinson is trying to get fired, or he has unwittingly gotten himself fired after a great season. Because, wtf is he sayin?? THAT’S the hill he chooses to die on with his team down 0-3 in the ECF. Even if he truly believes that, he should never say it aloud.
Johnny Bryant will be Cavs coach next season
Strat, I asked ChatGPT “ If the Knicks go on to meet okc in the finals, could their low-turnover efficient offense stymie one of okc’s biggest defensive advantages?” What you said basically was one of the answers it gave. If Bridges and Hart can bring the ball up against their ball pressure and get it to KAT, then they can continue to limit Brunson on-ball. Also, Brunson is a low-turnover guard, and the Knicks’ passing is more surgical than flashy. As long as the we can dictate the pace with our half-court offense, we can neutralize OKC’s biggest defensive threat.
We still gotta get there, but this potential matchup feels more like the ‘11-‘12 Giants instead of the ‘07-08’ Giants: SGA is Brady, and the Pats were favored for SB 46 mainly bc of media vibes and rep but when you broke it down on paper, the Giants were more closely matched than most wanted to admit.
Also, JK has been saying that the Cavs are soft, and indeed they folded near the end of Game 3.
Like everyone here, I’m not used to this feeling of confidence going into a game. In fact, I feel the exact sams way today as I did Game 4 vs Philly: Cavs have nothing for us that we can’t handle. If Merrill and Strus get hot from 3, it’ll be in the first half, not the 2nd. And we will have adjusted to it.
Sure am glad Kenny A isn’t outcome-based.
(“Everybody is outcome-based. You know, sure, I get that too.”)
So the big question is what quarter will the Cavs fold? 1st? 2nd? 3rd? 4th? I’d put money that it won’t be in Game 5…
I can confirm Frank was a DNP in both the final and the semi-final, but don’t let Evan Fournier’s MVP performance distract you from the fact that OAKAAK Kostas Papanikolaou got some burn!
I am hoping that the prospect of getting yet another full all-star break is enough of a motivator tonight. Not that I worry about these guys’ level of motivation, but it’d be hard to blame them for letting their guard down a tad. But get the job done while OKC and San Antonio continue their rock fight.
I also get the impression the level of physicality of both west teams would be a hell of an adjustment, especially after going up against the Mitchell/Harden backcourt. It’d be incumbent on our wings to match it on both ends–going up against OG in particular with a relaxed whistle sounds like a nightmare if we’re able to weaponize it.
Apologies for asking a “Hospitality” question here at Knickerblogger, but I’m wondering where this community thinks there might be a “Knicksiest” watch party vibe, perhaps a great sports bar in Upper Manhattan or Westchester.
I have a die-hard Knicks fan coming up from the DC-area to enjoy watching the game with me in NYC, but I live in Westchester these days.
The NY Police it appears have cancelled the Watch Parties near MSG, and Summerstage in Central Park is sold out.
Does anyone know a great sports bar in upper Manhattan or White Plains or anywhere which might make my friend happy? She just wants to be in a sea of Orange and Blue if/when we send Kenny Atkinson off for the summer to review his analytics. TIA for your thoughts.
@Fullcourtpass
“The Miami Heat and Boston Celtics are increasingly perceived to be the potential trade destinations that currently most intrigue Giannis Antetokounmpo, per @TheSteinLine”.
@TheRant
It’s not in Manhattan, but I watched the Knicks clinch against the Pistons last year in at Finn’s Corner in Prospect Heights and it was a great time. A solid sportsbar on the UWS, meanwhile, is Blondie’s.
If we end up making it to the finals, I may fly back to NY just to watch a game or two in the city/to soak up the vibe!
Atkinson is not stupid. Apparently, he can point to some numbers to back up his claim. There is literally a ton of those out there. The problem is not Atkinson but the uncritical reliance on formal calculations which capture one aspect of the game at a time. Mikal Bridges was playing like shit for very large segments of this season but several people, including here on KB, were pointing to his %TS or BPM and the like. For a number of games now Bridges started playing like an all star but there are still some analytic metrics that don’t show it. Reality is not dead numbers; it is a live multifaceted totality, and it is understood by reason and judgment. Analytic metrics are helpful but are just for advising purposes and nothing more.
Vibe killer!!
I live in Brooklyn and will likely be at Finn’s tonight, but re: upper Manhattan I echo the Blondie’s rec, and will add The Throwback on 94th and Amsterdam. It’s pretty new but I’ve watched a few games there and have nothing but good things to say. Tons of screens, good food, reasonably priced drinks, and a good crowd.
The problem with Atkinson’s thinking here is that sure— maybe in an absolute sense you got “better” looks at the basket, but that goes out the window when you’re facing a team that has several guys who are very good at making difficult shots. There are shots that the analytics might call “difficult” that aren’t actually difficult when Jalen Brunson and KAT are taking them.
…or when Mikal Bridges is shooting 1,000% from midrange…
“Frank played a significant defensive role”
LOL
Seeing a bunch of videos on Twitter of 1999 Game 6 vs Indiana which was last time Knicks reacted the Finals has given me chills. Houston scored 32 pts on 12 for 17 shooting and didn’t even make a 3pter!
I have no issue with Atkinson trusting his process and analytics. Coaches should do that. But you look damn silly when you say “analytically we won 2 out of 3” when you are down 3-0 in a series. Keep that stuff to yourself, otherwise this is just another attempt to justify the losing, like Biekerstaff and the refs.
I can’t quite believe that the Knicks could be in the NBA finals in less than 8 hours.
“Keep that stuff to yourself, otherwise this is just another attempt to justify the losing, like Biekerstaff and the refs.”
Actually I think it is worse—my strategy was right, execution (responsibility of the players) failed. Hate James Harden but perhaps he was hoping for a timeout in Game 1/Q4 for a quick rethink? No, analytics says save those timeouts., ignoring tired legs. Can’t see them rallying as a team with Spida semi-injured, Harden a liability to his new team, and the coach throwing them under a bus as a recipe for success for overcoming a 0-3 lead.
The comp I keep feeling in my bones, CDiggy, is the ’96 Yanks.
Mike Brown is so Joe Torre it’s eery.
And when they got to the end, the final boss was the seemingly insurmountable defending champs (who kicked their ass in the first two games).
In fact you can even dig down a little further… the ’96 Yanks were down a game in the ALDS, with Juan Gonzalez in the CJ McCollum role.
Yankees and Mets embarrassing themselves to make the Knicks win be even sweeter tonight.
More moronic nonsense.
To say the Mets are garbage is actually an insult to garbage
Once this Knicks season is over I might not watch sports again until 1st game of Knicks next season….
Instead of leaving top prospect Jonah Tong in AAA to work on his secondary pitches and build up his stamina, the Mets are going to use him as a middle reliever in the majors, in a season where they will be lucky to win 70 games.
OK maybe I’ll still watch the Yankees…
Ok Yankees, I see you.
Ajay Mitchell will be out tomorrow, JDub is questionable (and his injury is now designated as a strain).
Spurs have to win tomorrow.
It doesn’t matter to me who wins tomorrow. Only that the other team wins game 6.
Let’s do this tonight everyone. Go Knicks
I can’t believe how relaxed I am about this game. Talk about playing with house money. It’s even less concern than a meaningless game in the January doldrums.
Still, really hope we crush them like bugs.
Kinda weird the two guys Leon gave the Thunder are the ones who are hurt, while at the same time both KAT and Mikal suddenly became incredible, and Mike Brown turned into a genius. It’s almost like Leon met Mephistopheles after game 3 of the Hawks series and sold his soul like Faustus to make all his moves pan out.
Ugh
Looks like there will be a lot of Knicks fans in Cleveland.
best lob jalen has ever thrown