Karl-Anthony Cities doesn’t spend a lot time on social media. But when he opened Instagram or X, he’d see it — Knicks followers weeping tears of pleasure. A franchise as soon as buried by dysfunction now delivering a revival. The Knicks did that.
They’ve restored perception in a metropolis that had virtually given up.
“We know we’re repping the city anywhere we at with that jersey, so we always want to make our city proud,” Cities stated. “We want to make the fans proud. Give them something to cheer for. At the end of the day, most importantly, we want to make sure that the fans know that we gave everything we had that night and we had that New York mentality — win or loss. Just doing everything we can to, like I said, rep the city.”
Jalen Brunson isn’t glued to the discourse both. However the memes nonetheless discover him. Some followers jokingly say “Jalen Brunson saved my life,” attaching hero standing to the captain of a group that’s delivered back-to-back 50-win seasons.
Brunson sees it — and instantly lets it go.
“I see it. Whenever I see stuff like that — positive or negative — I flush it,” he stated. “I can’t have a reaction to it. You can’t react to the positive stuff and think you are going to not react to negative stuff. You have to exclude everything.”
He understands the load of what he and his teammates have achieved — however he’s not celebrating something simply but. The Knicks are up 2-0, not 4-0, towards the Boston Celtics, and the reigning champs nonetheless stand of their manner.
“I’m just happy that I have an opportunity to play for a great organization and a great city,” stated Brunson. “It’s just an opportunity I don’t want to take for granted.”
Head coach Tom Thibodeau is aware of the Backyard will likely be rocking for Recreation 3. However emotion alone doesn’t win playoff video games — execution does.
“I’ve said this many times, we have great fans and we certainly appreciate the fans, the arena and all that. But what we have to understand is what goes into winning Game 3,” Thibodeau stated. “You have to earn it. It’s not given to you. There’s no guarantees because you’re up in a series. There’s no guarantees because you’re at home. You have to earn it, and you have to earn it play after play.”
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The Knicks are 5-0 on the street within the playoffs — and simply 1-2 at house — coming into their first second-round recreation at Madison Sq. Backyard.
They went 27-14 at house and 24-17 on the street through the common season, however their skill to win on the street has translated immediately into playoff momentum.
“You go on the road, you have a close-knit group, you understand that it’s you against the crowd, you against the atmosphere. Calls are probably not going to go your way so you have to make things go your way,” Thibodeau stated. “We have to have that understanding, and then the same thing, it’s the playoffs so there’s urgency to it. Whether you’re home, road, there has to be urgency in every game. We have to understand what’s at stake. You have to earn your wins.”
Defending house court docket has confirmed more durable than anticipated. The Knicks misplaced Video games 2 and 5 at MSG within the opening spherical to Detroit. In the event that they drop Recreation 3, Boston will get an opportunity to reclaim momentum.
“I think you have to bring it to every game. You sense it more — like on the road, you know the crowd, the atmosphere, everything,” Thibodeau stated. “We can’t get lost in thinking because it’s the home crowd — we have to give them something to cheer about and we have to earn what we want. You have to deserve what you want.”
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Whether or not it’s cheers within the Backyard or boos on the street, Brunson says his strategy by no means modifications as soon as the ball goes up.
“Whenever you get inside those lines, you have to block out everything regardless of what is going on,” he stated. “You have to focus on the little things, being out there with your teammates and covering for each other. You have to have a certain level of focus.”
Cities expects nothing wanting an explosion from the MSG crowd — and he’s prepared for it.
“The fans here have been amazing for us all year so you expect nothing less from them. They’ve been bringing us energy and that support that’s needed all year for us to be at this point,” he stated. “So shoutouts to our fans. They really push us to new heights when they come out and support us like that.”
Initially Revealed: Could 9, 2025 at 4:21 PM EDT
