NBA Playoffs 2025 – Can Knicks continue the clutch performance against Celtics?

After the final The Summer sounded and the New York Knicks gave the bottom of the Little Caesars Arena to celebrate victory 6 against the Detroit Pistons in the series. Striker Mikal Bridges secured his headset for an interview with legendary play-by-play announcer Mike Breen.

Bridges had played one of the defining games of victory-a left-handed putback with a 35 second lead to tie the game before the star team colleague Jalen Brunson hit a stone-cold 3 pointer. Bridges, an experienced veteran wing of the eighth year, was still reinforced when Breen asked for the drama of the late game after New York.

“We built for this S-man. That is all it is. We built it for it,” said the normally mildly sannen bridges before BREEN reminded him that they were on live television.

Regardless of the FCC violations, it was impossible to argue with the conclusion of the bridges. That night the Knicks gathered with a seven-point deficit with two and a half minutes remaining and dramatic end of a series, in which the last four games were decided by three or fewer points. It provided the stage for a fascinating conference against the defending champion Boston Celtics, a matchup with all reasons not to show many clutch-time theaters from New York.

During the regular season, the Celtics flashed the Knicks by 23, 27 and 13 points in the first three meetings of the teams. And even if the score has become tight in the last few minutes, no team in the league had a better percentage of the coupling period than the Celtics.

But the apparently revived kinks showed incredible determination in important moments of late games, as was shown in their argument in the first round with Detroit and now against Boston. And despite the Celtics drilling in New York in game 3 by 22 points, the Knicks threw them into adjustments when games 1 and 2 went into the wire after several 20-point leads disappeared in front of the crowd of the TD Garden.

Under the direction of defensive star Bridges-Er with every win, the winning stop and the clutch players of the year of the NBA in Brunson, New York, has indeed looks so built that they work on the high-pressure sequences of the playoffs.

“I think it was a great help that we went through a lot of fire,” said Backup Guard Deice McBride. “We go through together and come out with a win on the other.”

But how did the Knicks maintain such a consistent feeling of calm in the late game? And what is more important to go to game 4 on Monday in New York (7:30 p.m. ESPN), will this fearless Knicks group get closer enough in this series so that it is important again?

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Some teams shy Away from the hard lights. The Knicks seem to sunbathe.

And New York's playoff success in tight games is far from a chance. The team has a number of unusual characteristics and bandage -dna that make it a bigger threat in these scenarios.

The clutch period, if the score is within the last five minutes or in the extension within five points, often shows enlarged possessions and insulation -heavy sentences. Both aspects are analogous to the normal playing style of the Knicks. In the regular season, New York completed less than 98 possessions per 48 minutes, one of the five sipper in the league. In addition, it goes without saying for the Knicks to trust Brunson in these actions in the late game with the ball when you consider that he treated the ball for an NBA height of 8.6 minutes per game.

It is also noteworthy that in the starter of Knicks in the middle of the infinite debate over minutes, five of coach Tom Thibodeau played more than any other unit in the NBA this season. New York had enough opportunities for his group to escape and learn his responsibility in all scenarios – big leads, big deficits and of course coupling situations.

It connects everything to Thibodeaus Standard: Develop “a mental discipline to survive all the things that can happen in an NBA season”. And the cadres of the Knicks up and down, many players fit this form with a laundry list of intangible values ​​to influence every game that hangs in balance.

Josh Hart, New York's Ultimate Hustle player with only 6-foot 4, is a kind of magician after recovering an NBA best 88 balls during the regular season. His instincts on the offensive glass – where defense lawyers often do not track him down for Boerlokals, after leaving him massively as a below -average shooter from Deep shooter – the Knick's invaluable additional possessions collected.

“People always talk about offensive runs. Well, I think they can also take defensive runs. And bumpy runs,” said Thibodeau. “Josh is a prime example in which he can get four or five rebounds in a row, even if he does not take pictures.”

The Knicks have recovered with Mitchell Robinson in the line -up on the offensive. The center did not make its debut until February 28 because of ankle operation.

New York secures almost 39% of its mistakes in this post -season – a rate that would be best in the regular season and the NBA playoffs. In contrast, the Knicks have only registered an average 29.9% stress rate without it.

Then there are Bridges and OG Anunoby, two-way wings that have stamped several coupling games this season. Apart from the fact that every player previously reached a game winner in the campaign – Anunoby in Memphis and Bridges in Portland – they were very influenced on defense. Anunoby is one of the league leaders in distractions per competition, while Bridges had five stocks of one-people games in the last 10 seconds in the last 10 seconds. Two of these games are sealed games 1 and 2 for the Knicks in Boston.

“As soon as we have achieved it within 10 years, we always believe that we can win,” said Thibodeau after the victory in game 2 against the Celtics.

But this rally scream creates an unpleasant reality for the angry kinks.

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Maybe Brunson said It is best to suffer its first defeat in the series on Saturday.

“We cannot consistently catch up with a team like this,” he said, admitted and admitted that the Knicks have fewer mistakes than the Celtics. “It is really difficult against every NBA team that comebacks happen. They are a great team, the defending champion.

“I just don't think we want to be in a 20-point hole in every game. It won't suit us well.”

New York has not shown that Boston can defeat something in anything as a nail. Of the seven games they played this season, Boston took place in six 20-point preloads. For this reason, the Knicks' ability to win a series that they originally led 2-0 could be decided by deciding whether they can steal two more competitions during the clutch period.

This strategy has many roadblocks. Apart from the possibility that Karl-Anthony Towns' left hand will be broken during the third game, there is also the fact that Robinson's outstanding work on the glass is hindered by Boston's hacking strategy. Robinson missed 16 of his 23 free throws in the series, including a few Air balls in game 3. These mistakes have made Thibodeau to get his center out quickly, although Robinson has a team best plus-29 for the series-a whopping 27 points better than the nearest rotary winner.

And the Knicks know that their chances are even slimmer when Boston has almost 50% of his 3 Series, as was shot in the first two matchups in game 3.

But no team has a higher fluctuation rate of the opponents in the clutch than the kinks in this off -season. Combine this with another cold shooting spell from Boston and opens the door for New York, which has a more balanced shooting profile and at the same time has one of the best 3-point percentages in the league for the season.

In all the conversation about the Knicks this season against the team of last season, the concept of spiritual hardness has been lost. This team is not as consistent in defense or even as robust as one of the last two iterations, which resembled the 1990s of the franchise. (The striker Julius Randle, one of the physical kinks of last season, enjoys the best off -season of his career at Minnesota.)

But the ability of the team can believe that it can win is probably stronger than before. The trust of Brunson's late games, which ended the season with the best 52 coupling baskets of the NBA, although he was missing for a month with games, seems to be the main reason. It has reached a point where Brunson's teammates believe that all of his key recordings will fall.

“High-pressure situations do not feel it. No matter whether he has to fight or if he joined, they could never tell,” said Bridges the night when the southern paw packed the pistons with his series end.

New York's belief in Brunson and the surrounding group, all of whom are unimpressed by late play drama, was obvious. However, the defining question of the series is whether the kinks have enough in the tank to bring the champions back to the coupling period.

After all, you feel like you are built for it.