Chris Percy-Einen

Oh, you're going to...

maybe not believe, or maybe groan at my answer.

You know, I will say this.

There were... It will seem characteristic of being New York City media when I tell you that I have tweets, I have videos, TikToks, conversations with random people on the street, I'm sure.

Going back to March 4th,

saying the three best teams in the NBA full stop are OKC, New York, and San Antonio.

So I have long felt like this Knicks team was the best team in the Eastern Conference and that they have a chance against the Western Conference.

Now, I will say this.

I was there in Las Vegas for the NBA Cup.

I saw the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs.

I also saw

Shea Gilchrist-Alexander looked like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were related and had a cousin, and he plays now.

So basically, going into the postseason, I had Thunder beat the Knicks, beat the Spurs.

You know, in a bit of like rock, paper, scissors.

Styles makes fights, and I figured if the Knicks and Thunder played, it would be OKC because...

They have the guard defense for Brunson and the wing and big defense for Towns.

Going back to March was when I really identified the Knicks and Spurs as two of the three best teams in the NBA, reason being the defenses.

The defenses were so elite, even at that point in the season.

If you look at some of the numbers, New York, their turnaround started a little earlier than Game 3 of the Hawks' series.

Game four, rather, like you mentioned, but there were signs, right?