This was the wall a year ago. This was the edge of the cliff. The Knicks won their 10th playoff game last year May 29, Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, a 111-94 win over the Pacers that felt like the last day of school at Madison Square Garden. There was a sense of inevitability for what would follow two days later back in Indianapolis.
Two days later, the Pacers buried them. It was ugly. And it left a terrible taste in everyone’s mouth. It happens that way when any season ends, especially one that had been filled with such hope and promise not long before. The wall fell on the Knicks in Indiana, crushing their souls, crushing their season.
This feels a little different, doesn’t it?
This was a 109-93 schooling of the Cavaliers, in front of a reliably delirious gathering of 19,812 at Madison Square Garden. This was the 10th win of the postseason for the Knicks, but the feeling at MSG was so much different than 51 weeks earlier. Like last year, they have crawled within two games of their first berth in the NBA Finals in 26 years.
