The Knicks are the new bullies of the East — and soon, they’ll pick on a team their own size
CLEVELAND — The Knicks beat an Atlanta Hawks team punching above its weight as a No. 6 seed. They beat a Philadelphia 76ers team that, despite upsetting the No.
2 Boston Celtics in the first round, finished the regular season just two games above the East’s 10th seed. And now they’ve taken a commanding 3-0 Eastern Conference Finals lead over a Cavaliers team few expected to survive long enough to reach the third round. Barring an all-time collapse — no team in NBA playoff history has ever blown a 3-0 series lead — your New York Knicks are headed to the NBA Finals.
And aside from an early 1-2 scare against Atlanta in Round 1, they’ve barely looked challenged on the road to the biggest stage the franchise has seen in a quarter-century. The Hawks lacked depth at center beyond Onyeka Okongwu and leaned heavily on 36-year-old C. J.
McCollum and first-time All-Star Jalen Johnson. The Sixers gave the Knicks a compromised Joel Embiid fresh off an appendectomy. Now the Knicks are overwhelming a Cavaliers team that looks completely overmatched by the moment.
Maybe the Knicks are simply that good. Maybe they really are the buzzsaw they were billed to become after assembling one of the deepest, most expensive rosters in basketball. Maybe they’re so dominant they’ve made every opponent look unworthy of sharing the floor in a championship conversation.
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