CLEVELAND — These aren’t the regular-season Knicks — at least not since they trailed the Hawks in the first round of the playoffs.
They haven’t lost in a month, reeling off a franchise record 10 consecutive wins in the postseason, mostly in dominant fashion.
Take it from someone who would know.
“Teams that make that next step, it’s the balance that’s impressed me the most,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said after practice Sunday, the eve of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals series that could end Monday night at Rocket Arena with one more Knicks victory. “They have so many contributors right now, and I think that is what’s different from the regular season.
“We all know they had ups and downs, they had periods where they weren’t playing well. The sustainability of it, you’re expecting a letdown. We haven’t seen a letdown from them yet.”
During this 10-game winning streak, the Knicks have won by an average of 22.5 points.
Only two games were really undecided late: The second game of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the 76ers, which the Knicks won by six, and Game 1 of this series, when they rallied from 22 points down in the fourth quarter.
Otherwise, it has been a parade of blowouts.
In the postseason, the Knicks are outscoring the opposition by 18.5 points per 100 possessions, by far the best in the league.
They are second in offensive rating and first in defensive rating.
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The entire starting five of Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart are averaging double figures in the postseason, and Anunoby, Towns and Bridges are all shooting better than 55 percent from the field.
“It comes down to performing better, individually. Bridges is 27 of 38 [in this series]. [Landry] Shamet is 7-for-8 from 3 in this series. They’re getting stellar performances across the board,” Atkinson said. “Josh Hart in Game 2 had an incredible game. Jalen’s great and Towns is great, but we’ve kind of done a decent job on those guys, you can argue. … OG’s two wing 3s [in Game 3], like the jab, jab 3, are you kidding me? …
“The goal was to slow down their momentum, and that mojo they got, and we haven’t been able to do that. That’s the frustrating thing for me. Part of that is them playing great. We haven’t found a formula to slow their mojo down.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
