MARK down June 7. By then the Yankees will have the AL East sewn up as Red Sox fans repeat the mourning process. Bobby Valentine and Rickey Henderson will be in the terminal stage of their relationship, and that is the day the NBA Finals will start — with the Knicks again representing the East.
Their impressive, undermanned 89-88 victory over the Sixers yesterday at the Garden was more proof that this team will be back in the Finals.
Before the game coach Jeff Van Gundy noted that “six or seven teams” are capable of winning the East. Once again, you have to ask, who is the coach kidding?
Miami and Indiana are two aging teams that can’t get out of their own way. Toronto has Vince Carter but still has no idea what playoff basketball is about. The Sixers probably are the second-best team in the East with the addition of Toni Kukoc, but Kukoc always seems to play the role of the Invisible European against the Knicks ever since the days Anthony Mason terrorized him.
Kukoc was 1-for-5 yesterday and scored all of six points. Over the final 4:20, the Sixers, who play finger-in-your-eye defense, were 1-for-9 from the field as the Knicks clamped down, sending Allen Iverson, who blew off the media after his 8-for-26 performance, to his favorite tattoo parlor to console himself.
The Knicks have won five of the last six, and they’re doing all this without Marcus Camby, who was labeled the team’s MVP last year by Larry Johnson. To a man, the Knicks know how good they really are even though their coach is taking the cautious route to the playoffs.
Listen to Camby.
“People should definitely get their tickets now,” he said with typical candor and a smile. “I definitely think we are going to be in the Finals.”
The Knicks have grown in confidence and character from last year’s group that lost in five games to the Spurs, but some refuse to see the improvement.
“A lot of people are writing us off — everyone is talking about Indiana because they’ve got a 22-game home winning streak, and Miami is always going to be in the thick of things, but we consider ourselves one of the elite teams in the East,” Camby said.
“The added depth and everything, I think we are going to be tough to beat in the playoffs, especially when we get that homecourt advantage.”
That point is huge. At home this season the Knicks are 23-6, and you get the feeling they still haven’t turned it up a playoff notch.
“We went to the Finals last year without having that homecourt advantage,” said Camby, who should be back from his arthroscopic knee surgery by the weekend. “In the Garden we are never really out of the ballgame. We’ve had two great comeback wins in the fourth-quarter the last two games.”
The Knicks are 23-11 since Patrick Ewing’s return, and he has shown he will play a more submissive role, which is key. During yesterday’s comeback from 12 down in the third quarter, Ewing was on the bench. The Knicks believe in themselves, and have come together.
“We feel good about ourselves,” Ewing said after his 18 points topped six Knick double-figure scorers. Nine of the Knicks’ last 10 wins have come against teams with a plus-.500 record, including three of the four divisional leaders, and tonight they travel to Miami.
“When I come back I just want to add to the chemistry that we have going,” Camby noted. “John Wallace (15 points) is playing well, a great spark off the bench for us and he should make us a deeper ballclub so Jeff doesn’t have to play seven guys all the time. That’s definitely going to help us down the stretch.”
Knick management obviously loves the team’s chances because no trade was made at the deadline. Injuries have made this a stronger team.
“For the last three years there has always been some major person out,” Van Gundy said. “We’re at that point in a lot of guys’ careers where you are not going to get healthier. This is our best chance.”
NBC broadcaster Bill Walton believes the Knicks are the best in the East.
“The Knicks still have the best defense in the East,” said Walton, who always thinks defense first. “They still have the mental toughness. They have the driven fans who are not only hungry but they are confident, the fans give this team so much confidence. And then the ultimate, they have the unstoppable offensive weapons in [Latrell] Sprewell and [Allan] Houston in the halfcourt set. Championship-level basketball comes down to where everybody is playing great defense, the preparation is flawless, but if you have the guy who can score, getting and creating his own shot, getting the good shots, that’s the key and that’s what the Knicks have in Sprewell and Houston.
“The other teams don’t have that — Indiana doesn’t have that, Miami doesn’t have that.”
Add it all up and, come June 7, that’s why the Knicks again will be in the Finals.