For a Team That Hasn't Always Loved Us Back

Last Night They Did.

By Sergio Rodriguez

★ Article updated 05/20/26 at 7:34PM — Josh Hart section added

Honestly? It looked like they didn't have it.

The long layoff was showing, for the Knicks at least. I don't know what the Cavs' excuse was, maybe the fatigue of coming out of another seven game series, but New York was flat out rusty. At one point they were something like three for twenty five from three. Three for twenty five. And somehow they were still hanging around early, still in it, still keeping it close enough that you couldn't look away.

But then it started becoming too much. They were missing way too much and the Cavs started making everything. They rolled into halftime with a lead, blew the door open in the third, and by midway through the fourth it was ugly. Real ugly.

I was more content with them losing than anything else at that point. Not happy about it. Just okay, take the L, don't get the doors blown off. Keep some dignity. Live to fight in Game 2.

But then they started making noise. And when they did something shifted in me. I wasn't thinking comeback anymore. I was thinking momentum. Okay, we're going to lose this game, but at least we're going down swinging. At least the fourth quarter showed something. Take that energy, take that fight, carry it into Thursday. That was the new goal. That was enough.

I was holding onto that like a life raft. A little pocket of hope for Game 2.

Thank goodness I was wrong.

Because they just kept going. And going. And going. Down 93-71 with under eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. Twenty two points. At that stage of a playoff game against a team that had been rolling all night. Most fanbases pack it up mentally. Most teams do too.

Not this one.

And neither did the Garden.

The crowd was in it from the jump. Loud, locked in, ready. But that third quarter really silenced them. The Cavs were rolling and you could feel the air going out of the building. There were still rumblings here and there, people refusing to let it go, but it was rough. You could feel it.

But here is the thing about a pressure cooker. It builds and builds until it blows.

When the game got within around seventeen points the Garden started responding. You could feel it before you could even hear it fully. Getting louder. The defense chant went crazy. And then it got closer and it got louder. Closer. Louder. Closer. Louder. Until we were there baby. The Garden was absolutely raucous. Unbelievable. One of the loudest buildings in sports doing exactly what it does when a New York team gives it something to believe in.

From that moment the Knicks went on a 44-11 run through the end of regulation and overtime. Forty four to eleven. I need you to sit with that number for a second because it is absolutely insane.

I almost shut the game off. I want to be honest about that. I almost shut it off. But there was no way I was actually going to do that. Because this team is different. And somewhere in the back of my mind I already knew it.

Let me break it down.

Jalen Brunson put the entire city on his back and carried it like it weighed nothing. Thirty eight points, six assists, five rebounds. But the stat line does not tell the full story.

There is a clip circulating of Brunson in the huddle when they were down twenty two. Talking. Animated. Locked in. You do not know exactly what he said but you can feel the energy of it. Maybe it worked. Maybe he gave them some kind of Independence Day speech. We will not go quietly into the night type energy. We are not done. Let's go. Whatever it was, something changed after that huddle.

He saw James Harden switching onto him in the fourth and he went straight at him. Over and over and over again. And it just kept working. Harden is a liability on defense and the Knicks knew it from the jump. They hunted him every single possession down the stretch. Fifteen points in the fourth alone on 7-of-9 shooting. Relentless. Unstoppable. He tied the game at 101 with 19 seconds left in regulation and the Garden completely lost its mind.

I have watched a lot of Knicks basketball in my life. A lot. And I am telling you, the man is just different. This is his team. He showed it last night for the whole world to see.

I'll say this quick and then move on. It does make me wonder a little if the Cavs can try to flip that script on us with Brunson. He's not the greatest defender, undersized, and they could look to find mismatches. But you know what? Neither here nor there. I'm not thinking about that right now. Forget I said it. Let's get back to this.

Mikal Bridges hit the three in the final minute of regulation that tied the game for the first time since the opening quarter. Just ice in his veins. That is the shot that kept everything alive. Without it none of what came after happens. Karl-Anthony Towns was a wall all night. 13 points and 13 rebounds in 40 minutes, gritty and physical and exactly what this team needed from him. I said I was wrong about KAT when I wrote the memoir and I will keep saying it because he keeps proving it.

OG Anunoby deserves his own moment here. Coming back from a 13-day hamstring layoff, he was tentative early. You could see it. He was moving carefully, not fully trusting it, not taking chances he normally takes. But as the game went on you could literally watch his confidence building in real time. By the fourth quarter he was going. He had this crazy drive where he went up like he was about to throw it down and I saw it and I was like, okay. He's basically back. That is the guy we know. If he is more healthy and more confident going into Game 2 that is a whole other weapon we can rely on. He finished with 13 points and was really good by the end. Really good.

Now let me tell you about the guy nobody was really talking about going into this game.

Landry Shamet was the unsung hero of this entire run. Seventeen minutes off the bench. That's all he played. But Mike Brown kept him in for the entire closing stretch because of what he was giving on both ends and honestly after watching it you completely understand why.

After the Cavs went up big, Shamet took over as the primary defender on Donovan Mitchell. What happened next? Mitchell missed his final five shots and did not score another single point for the rest of the game. Not one. The guy who had 29 points and was carrying Cleveland all night. Locked up. Done. By a bench player in seventeen minutes.

And then Shamet turned around and got his own buckets. Three for three from three. Nine points total. He hit a wild bouncing three with 44 seconds left in regulation to tie it at 99, the kind of shot that has no business going in and went in anyway. Then in overtime he drilled the dagger three with 1:49 left to push the lead to 110-101 and basically close the door. His plus-minus for the night? Plus-25. Game high. In seventeen minutes off the bench. Respectfully, that is absurd.

Donovan Mitchell finished with 29 for Cleveland and they were rolling for a long time. But the Knicks' fourth-quarter defense turned their offense into complete dust. A total collapse under pressure. And that is not luck. That is not a fluke. That is a team that knows exactly who it is and what it does when the moment gets biggest.

That is what this team is about this year apparently. And I am honestly not used to it. Twenty plus years of Knicks basketball and I still do not fully know how to process a team that just flat out refuses to quit. It feels foreign. It feels earned. It feels like something that was built for exactly this kind of moment.

I wrote about all of it. Every era, every heartbreak, every reason this moment hits different. If you want to feel what last night meant, go read Born Into Waiting. Link in bio.

Eight straight wins. Game 2 Thursday at MSG.

We are here. And this time, we keep going.

A Note on Josh Hart (Updated 7:34PM 05/20/26)

I want to come back to something I glossed over writing this. Josh Hart finished with a plus-minus of minus-23 and I know that number looks rough. But if you watched that game you know the box score does not tell his story at all.

Hart was everywhere. Diving on loose balls, fighting through contact, keeping possessions alive that had no business being kept alive. He finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists but the real number is the energy he brought every single time he touched the floor.

When nobody else could find the bottom of the net in the first half Hart was still competing on every possession like the game was on the line. Because for him it always is. That is just who he is. In those first three quarters when the Knicks were getting worked, Hart was showing up. Consistently. Relentlessly. While his teammates were still trying to find themselves, he was already in the fight.

Yes, he was ultimately the guy who came out when Shamet checked in and started going crazy. And look, that is the right call in the moment. Shamet was having a generational defensive performance against Donovan Mitchell down the stretch and you ride that. Mike Brown made the right adjustment. But let's not let that substitution rewrite what Hart gave us before it. He laid the foundation that made the comeback possible.

The plus-minus is what happens when you play significant minutes across a game your team was getting blown out in for three quarters. It does not mean he hurt us. It means he was out there grinding when it was ugly and nobody was watching.

Hart does not get enough credit for what he does for this team. Last night was another example.