Steve Popper: Knicks ready for playoffs, determined to fulfill expectations

GREENBURGH — It’s not like the last seven months for the Knicks, spanning Mike Brown’s hiring as head coach through camel rides in Abu Dhabi, an NBA Cup victory in Las Vegas and 82 games of ups and downs that logged 53 wins didn’t mean anything.

But really, it didn’t mean anything.

It was all a steppingstone to get here, to the postseason, where the judgment on this team that the Knicks have built will finally be told. If it wasn’t clear the massive expectations placed on this group after falling in the Eastern Conference finals last season when the team fired the coach, Tom Thibodeau, who’d led them that far, it was put on the record when Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan went on the radio in January and declared“ ... Getting to the Finals we absolutely got to do. Winning the Finals, we should win.”

The path begins Saturday evening at the Garden when they host the Atlanta Hawks, a team against whom they are a clear favorite. But they know, particularly from their own experience of upset wins and losses last year, the playoffs offer no guarantees.

“It’s great that we put ourselves in this position to be in the playoffs in this position,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “At the end of the day the season doesn’t mean anything if we don’t capitalize on this opportunity.

“…This is the time. We’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to execute, capitalize again on this opportunity. At the end of the day we’ll be judged by what we do in this run.”

It’s a heavy weight on any team’s shoulders, but the Knicks, after piecing this roster together in recent years with experienced and accomplished veterans, have a path to reach the Finals as clear as they have had in the more than 50 years since the last championship run in New York.

The front-running Pistons were a team they beat last season and have deficiencies: shooting and playoff inexperience other than the first-round loss to the Knicks a year ago. The Boston Celtics have shocked everyone outside of their locker room. They have done this not just by finishing second in the East standings after losing Jayson Tatum to a torn Achilles in Game 4 of their series against the Knicks last season and shedding many of their veteran leaders in the offseason, but by getting Tatum back ahead of schedule. But they are not the defending champs they were a year ago.

The Knicks have a roster as good as anyone in the East, depth they didn’t possess a year ago and they are healthy. Every player practiced Wednesday as the team began preparation.

“Obviously, we want to win, which is very important for us, but I think our approach matters and how we attack that every day, attack that goal, is really important,” Jalen Brunson said. “So I think, regardless, it's important for us to just focus on one day at a time . . . 

“I enjoy that. Like I said, I enjoy the process every single day. Yes, it's tough. Yes. There's times, there's ups and downs and self-doubt creeps in maybe sometimes, but I mean, this is something that I enjoy doing and it's something I worked my entire life for. So I embrace the opportunity.”

The Knicks beat Atlanta in two of the three meetings this season. And while the Hawks are a different team than they were in the first half of the season, finishing the season by winning 19 of their last 24 games, on paper at least the Knicks are in a different class.

“Everybody in that locker room has a competitive spirit that I like and that I can say is unmatched,” Brown said. “I love the group and we’re competing, not just for 53 wins. We’re competing at the end of the day, like everybody else is, to win it.

"For us, we’re concentrating on practice tomorrow, getting ready for Atlanta. But our competitive spirit is there. It’s not anything we take lightly.”

It’s not something Brown or the Knicks can do, taking Atlanta or any step along this path lightly. The season has gone on for a long time, but this time, maybe more than any in other season for this group, is when the pressure lands on them like an anvil.

“I’m confident,” Towns said. “I step into every playoff run confident in our team, because at the end of the day we’re the ones that are going to need to get the job done and also, we’re all we need. I know everyone in that locker room believes that we have everything we need in that locker room to give ourselves a chance and we’ve just got to continue to go out there and play at a high level.

“Every day we’ve had to prove ourselves. I think it’s going to be cool to go out here and compete at the highest level possible, the NBA playoffs. It’s great competition. It’s going to be against a great team first round. We’ve got to take care of business."

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.