Latrell Sprewell. Allan Houston. Marcus Camby. Larry Johnson. Charlie Ward. Jeff Van Gundy as coach.
The last time the New York Knicks were in the NBA Finals, 27 years ago, those were the legendary names (Patrick Ewing helped get them there, but was out with an injured Achilles).
Now the names that will go down in Knicks history are Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and others. Mike Brown, who was brought in with a finals-or-bust mandate as coach, has delivered.
“I feel like the word ‘hope’ has been gone from the New York Knicks name for a long time and for me to be part of this team that revives hope is something special,” Towns said.
The entire team delivered hope on Monday, as they have for a few weeks and a few series now. Once again, New York ran Cleveland out of its own building, this time in a 126-83 blowout win that saw the Knicks sweep the Cavaliers out of the playoffs and themselves into the Finals. Jalen Brunson was named the Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
New York heads to the Finals for the first time since 1999, riding an historic 11-game winning streak — outscoring opponents by 262 points during the streak, the largest 11 game point differential in NBA history, regular season or playoffs. Everything with the Knicks has clicked at the right time.
New York will get more than a week off to rest and recover as the NBA Finals don’t start until June 3, with Game 1 either in Oklahoma City or San Antonio, depending on who comes out of the Western Conference Finals (that series is tied 2-2 heading into a critical Game 5 on Tuesday night).
Cleveland heads into an offseason with a lot of questions — including whether Donovan Mitchell will sign an extension to stay beyond next season. This team was the top seed in the East a season ago but lost in the second round of the playoffs. Then, this season, traded for James Harden mid-season to improve their chances, made the Eastern Conference Finals but were out-everythinged by the Knicks. It’s going to force a summer of harsh evaluations for the most expensive team in the NBA.
For a brief few minutes to start Game 4, there was a glimmer of hope for the outnumbered — at least it sounded like it — Cavaliers fans in their home arena. A desperate Cleveland team started the game on an 8-2 run, and midway through the first quarter the Cavaliers still led by one.
Then Game 4 turned into essentially a replay of Game 3. Cleveland missed contested looks while New York hit open ones — or scored in transition. Knicks’ role players could not miss, starting with Landry Shamet off the bench. The Knicks’ 26 first-half fast-break points were the most by any team in the playoffs in the last 30 years (stat via ESPN). New York was executing on a level Cleveland could not match on both ends of the court and that turned into a 20-0 run that thrilled the Knicks faithful.
20-0 RUN FOR THE KNICKS 💨
— NBA (@NBA) May 26, 2026
New York leads by 26 in Q2 of Game 4! pic.twitter.com/ePCyrDIVNF
Cleveland pretty much rolled over from there, any runs the Cavaliers made was simply because the Knicks hit a cold stretch.
New York spread the scoring around. Towns led the scoring with 19 points, Anunoby had 16, Shamet remained hot off the bench with 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting, while Bridges and Brunson had 15 points but both were a little cold from the floor. Not that it mattered.
Mitchell showed up and played hard, at least on offense, scoring 31 on 9-of-18 shooting. He was also frustrated on the bench because of the effort his team gave on Monday night, and that’s going to lead to even more questions this summer.
The only question the Knicks face is how to spend the next week until the NBA Finals start.
