Jalen Brunson has defined the meaning of improvement this season. With every game, he is leading his team toward history. The New York Knicks are just two wins away from booking their berth in the Eastern Conference Finals, which happened last in 2000. While New York City celebrates their home team’s historic post-season run, Warriors forward Draymond Green is chalking up the Knicks’ recent success to luck, calling it a “fluke”.
Green sees dark clouds on the horizon, not for his aging Golden State roster but for this year’s post-season heroes, the NY Knicks. Appearing on his podcast, ‘The Draymond Green Show’, the former Defensive Player of the Year undermined the efforts of the current Knicks squad by comparing the team to the 2016 Portland Trail Blazers and 2020 Atlanta Hawks.
Both teams had one-off success and later dipped. Talking about it further, Green said,
“Hawks…made ECF & never got back…[2016] Blazers…Fluke. That’s what the Knicks are setting y’all up for. It’ll be probably another 15 years of misery, & we’ll all sit around and laugh at Knicks fans with their delusions because that’s just what happens.”
Green’s comments are rather ironic, considering that the 34-year-old was sent home after the California side failed to beat the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the Play-In Tournament.
What makes matters worse is that if Green had held back on his on-court antics during the start of the season, the probability of the Warriors still playing in the ongoing playoffs would have been high.
But regardless of the hate, the Knicks look confident as they hit the road for the first time in this series. As per Game 3’s injury report, the Knicks will be missing out on the services of four key players, as Game 2 hero OG Anunoby joins the likes of Mitchell Robinson, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Julius Randle on the sidelines after incurring a concerning hamstring injury in the third quarter of Game 2.
With the Knicks missing a lot of their supporting cast, the pressure should fall on the shoulders of the Villanova trio, who have been on a roll, thus far.
The trio from Villanova has to rescue the Knicks
The New York Knicks’ formidable trio of Villanova alumni—Donte DiVincenzo, Jalen Brunson, and Josh Hart—have been on fire during this year’s NBA playoffs. Their latest exploit came in Game 2 of the second-round series against the Indiana Pacers, where they collectively shot an incredible 83% from the field in the fourth quarter, guiding the Knicks to a pivotal win.
But they will have to double down on their fourth-quarter strategy from Game 2, as the team will be without OG Anunoby and his 28 points when they head into Indianapolis on Friday.
Averaging 35.6 points over the last 8 games, Brunson will be the obvious number 1 option heading into Game 3. Despite his injury struggles, the 6’1″ guard has been putting up Jordan-like numbers, even joining the GOAT as the only two players to have four consecutive 40-point performances in the post-season.
It’s common knowledge now that their success has been the result of hard work and perseverance, not dumb luck. Undersized and unathletic, the Knicks guard knows what it’s like to be the underdog and has proven haters wrong on every level, winning championships at the school, AAU, and collegiate level. Brunson and his team know how to win, and they are showing everyone just that—proving that their recent success is not a fluke.
