A blowout in 2023. Embarrassment in 2024. Perhaps the third time’s a appeal for the Knicks, who’ve turn into professionals on the early-stage NBA Cup exit.
The Knicks have made it to the primary spherical of the NBA Cup in every of the three years of its existence. They usually’ll go 0-3 if they will’t get their highway act collectively and deal with enterprise on the Scotiabank Middle, the place a new-and-improved (albeit struggling in latest weeks) Toronto Raptors group stands in-between the Knicks and a free journey to Las Vegas the place the finalists will compete for the third-annual NBA Cup.
For the Knicks, it’s about extra than simply hanging a banner from the rafters at Madison Sq. Backyard — although it’s been 52 lengthy, gut-wrenching seasons since an NBA championship parade got here down thirty third and seventh. It’s about aggressive pleasure, one of many requirements new head coach Mike Brown stated is non negotiable in his first 12 months on the job. And it’s about making ready for the lengthy haul, changing into conversant in the duress that comes with enjoying video games together with your again towards the wall.
It may not be the playoffs. The season isn’t hinging on misses and makes in December. However these NBA Cup video games simply may really feel just like the playoffs — and that’s as shut because the Knicks are going to get to simulating year-end stress earlier than the brand new calendar 12 months.
“Life is short, and you want excitement in your life, so you try to put yourself in positions where you have ‘pressure’ at times, and that’s something that if you’re a competitor and you want some excitement in your life, you embrace it,” Brown stated after observe on Monday. “But also, it helps prepare you for times down the road when you’re put in the same situation, and so during the regular season, this is probably about as close as you can get to simulating a playoff run. And so we try to talk about it, add more pressure to it so our guys will embrace it, handle it the right way so our guys will go get it.”
The Knicks, in fact, can’t even start to consider stress, stakes, or that ever-so elusive NBA Cup if they will’t advance previous the Raptors on Tuesday.
Their Cup quarterfinal appearances have been painted with the comb strokes of heartbreak: The Knicks have been dreaming of the way to spend their In-Season Event prize cash in 2023 when elimination got here in a 24-point beatdown by the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks. And final season, the Atlanta Hawks surprised the Knicks on their very own dwelling flooring, a defeat underscored by the unforgettable picture of Trae Younger rolling imaginary cube on the Madison Sq. Backyard center-court brand.
“[I forgot about Trae rolling the dice] until you said it. It happened so long ago. So much stuff has happened,” Josh Hart stated after observe on Monday. “I think every year, [we’ve] fallen short at this stage. We’ve got to get over this hump. So it will be a good test against a good Toronto team.”
Younger’s antics are a factor of the previous. However not the best way the Knicks coughed up two journeys to Vegas after qualifying for the quarterfinals in every of the final two seasons.
“The past is the past, but there has to be a level of urgency,” stated group captain Jalen Brunson. “This isn’t a series. It’s a one-game series. This is win or go home so you’ve gotta be ready to go. There’s no easy win to this. So there has to be a level or urgency.”
In the meantime, the Cup has its quirks, like a schedule that had but to be introduced as of observe on Monday. The Knicks knew they’d be enjoying towards the Raptors on Tuesday. They didn’t know something about their opponents past that date, as who they face subsequent will differ relying on the results of the quarterfinal matchup.
Plus members of the family and family members need to tag alongside for the journey to Sin Metropolis, however the gamers don’t know in the event that they’re going but — and the flight costs, even for multi-million-dollar athletes, is steep. Brunson, for instance, is a brand new father with a one-year outdated. It reminds him of the ebbs and flows of his childhood rising up in an NBA family throughout his father, Rick Brunson’s profession.
“Yeah it brings up question marks, trying to plan especially around the holidays. You just don’t know,” he stated on Monday. “But I feel like in this life, even as a kid, you just don’t know, things are always gonna change, plans don’t go as planned, you’re kinda just going with the flow. So it’s not the easiest thing in the world, but you don’t complain. You just trying to do what you’ve have to do and cross bridges when you have to.”
The Knicks are going to just do that: cross these bridges after they get there. They’re targeted on Toronto. Win or lose, the eye shifts to who comes up subsequent on the schedule. And in the event that they’re lucky sufficient to win all of it, how excited will these Knicks be to hold an NBA Cup flag alongside the ’73 championship banner?
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” stated Brunson.
