The New York Knicks have achieved one of James Dolan’s goals by winning the Eastern Conference NBA title and reaching the NBA Finals. Now, they have an opportunity to end a 53-year championship drought, Yankee Scores reports.
In a radio interview in January, Dolan made a statement in regards to the Knicks winning the Eastern Conference for the first time since 1999, “we absolutely got to do.”
New York Knicks, on Monday night extended their winning streak with a 130-93 blowout win of the Cleveland Cavaliers to complete yet another four-game sweep in the conference finals.
The Western Conference finals is tied at two games apiece, Game 5 to be played on Tuesday in Oklahoma City. For Knicks, they have 8 days to rest till the NBA Finals in June 3.
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Karl-Anthony Towns said the Knicks won’t rest while waiting to see who emerges as the champion in the Western Conference.
“It’s something that New York has been dying for a long time and we’ll enjoy that plane ride. But once we get in those cars and go to our respective homes, it’s going to be back to business,” said Towns, who is averaging 16.9 points and 10.6 rebounds in the postseason. “We’re all going to be in the gym tomorrow probably getting shots up, getting treatment, doing what we need to do to get ready for the next series already. We understand that the job’s not done.”
The Knicks defeated the Spurs twice this season, including a 124-113 win in the NBA Cup final on Dec.16 in Las Vegas, giving them their first title in 53 years. If the Spurs overcome the OKC Thunder to emerge Western Conference champions, the match up against the Knicks would be the rematch of the Knicks’ last NBA Finals appearance in 1999, which San Antonio won in five games.
The Knicks lost to the Thunder in both meetings in the regular season.
Mike Brown is the first Knick coach to get to the finals in his first year with the team. He’s the 15th coach since 1976 to lead the Knicks.
“I truly felt that this team was an NBA Finals team. I felt we legitimately had a chance if we could help them figure it out and the players can stay together during the process, especially when we hit adversity, because we hit it at different times during the season,” Brown said.
Dolan’s bold statement of “winning the finals, we should win” is looking very possible.
