Rhythm or rest? The Knicks chose rest.
It’s the eternal debate for playoff-bound teams: roll the dice for rhythm or preserve bodies for battle? For a Knicks team stumbling into the postseason, it was a decision that felt more like a concession.
Three straight losses — to Boston, Detroit, and Cleveland — left New York grasping for momentum. Sunday’s regular-season finale against the lowly Brooklyn Nets presented an ideal tune-up: a chance to recalibrate the offense, reestablish chemistry, and walk into Round 1 with heads high.
Instead, the Knicks punted. On rhythm. On reps. On the game entirely.
They defeated the Nets, 113-105, but rested everyone.
Jalen Brunson (ankle), Karl-Anthony Towns (knee), OG Anunoby (thumb), Josh Hart (knee), and Mitchell Robinson (ankle) were all ruled out. Mikal Bridges started, played a ceremonial, singular minute to preserve his perfect attendance streak, then hit the bench for the afternoon.
Four rotation players took the floor: Cam Payne, Landry Shamet, Precious Achiuwa, and P.J. Tucker — all names who could factor into head coach Tom Thibodeau’s playoff plans. But the main group, the one responsible for 50 wins and so much of the team’s offensive identity, was in sweats.
That includes Brunson, who just days ago had declared the Nets matchup a “must-win.” The Knicks changed course. They chose caution.
And with it, they chose uncertainty.
NOTHING TO PLAY FOR
The stakes weren’t standings. They were synergy.
The Knicks had nothing left to clinch — the No. 3 seed was already theirs after Indiana lost to Orlando on Friday. But cohesion? Offensive rhythm? Comfort in combinations? All of that remains up in the air.
New York will open the playoffs against the No. 6 Detroit Pistons — the same Pistons who just beat them on Thursday to finish the season 3-1 against Thibodeau’s squad. The same Pistons who have yet to see the Knicks at full strength but have exposed lapses in transition defense, offensive rebounding, and late-game execution.
The Knicks won’t get a final test against another team before Round 1. They won’t get more in-game reps balancing Brunson’s ball-dominant brilliance with Anunoby and Bridges’ off-ball movement. They won’t see if Towns can continue to thrive as a floor-spacing secondary scorer, or how Towns and Robinson can work in synergy on the defensive end.
With the exception of a week’s worth of refining on the table, the work, for better or worse, is done.
What you see is what you get: a Knicks team that went 0-4 against the Celtics, 0-4 against the Cavaliers, and 0-2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder — the NBA’s top three seeds — and 1-3 against the Pistons, but came close to running the table against most other lower-seeded opponents.
The talent on paper at Madison Square Garden is undeniable. But have these pieces spent enough time out of the box to properly put this puzzle together?
GOOD BENCH PLAY
If there’s a silver lining, it’s the bench.
Landry Shamet continued his late-season shooting surge. Cam Payne lit it up from three, too. Precious Achiuwa added energy in transition and finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds. Miles McBride looked steady in his return to a larger workload.
The three-guard lineup of McBride, Payne and Shamet combined to score more than half (67) of New York’s 113 points. Shamet made seven of his first nine threes and finished with 29 points off the bench, and McBride and Payne combined to dish 15 assists.
The question now becomes: How far into that bench will Thibodeau go in the playoffs?
Shamet seems like a lock. Will Payne get real minutes behind Brunson and McBride? Will Achiuwa’s size and versatility play a factor for Thibodeau against the physical, rough-housing Pistons?
For now, all that’s clear is this: the Knicks are walking into the playoffs having chosen preservation over preparation.
While the starters got a much-needed day off, there was no rest for the second unit. Thibodeau turned back to Payne, Shamet and Achiuwa with four minutes left in a two-point game and rode them for the final moments of regulation.
Hanging in the balance: the idea of year-over-year improvement. That is, going from 50 to 51 wins after trading six draft picks and two key pieces for Bridges and Towns during the offseason.
That mission has been accomplished. The taller task remains one-upping two straight second-round playoff appearances.
The Knicks are healthier than last year. Deeper, too. But the road ahead is brutal, and the margin for error is thin.
The next time they take the floor, it’ll be for keeps.
And after resting through the final week of the season, they’ll need to rediscover their edge in a hurry.
