Whoever the Knicks face in the Eastern Conference finals, whether it is the Pistons or Cavaliers, will be a team coming off back-to-back seven-game series.
Both teams went the distance in the opening round and the two will meet Sunday night in a winner-take-all Game 7 in Detroit.
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The Knicks, meanwhile, will have a nine-day layoff between games by the time the next series begins Tuesday night.
Is that an advantage?
Coach Mike Brown isn’t certain.
“I’ve been in both situations, playing while a team’s waiting and I’ve been waiting while a team’s playing,” the Knicks coach said after practice Saturday. “You can say a lot theoretically. You can say they’re going to be tired, but you can also say they have a competitive edge because they’ve been going at it for seven games and we’ve been off.
“You keep trying to do different things during the course of the downtime to keep them sharp, keep them focused and try to keep their competitive edge up as much as you can.”
Mike Brown addresses reporters during his May 16 press conference. Charles Wenzelberg
The break has given the Knicks a chance to get healthy, especially OG Anunoby, who has been dealing with a mild right hamstring strain.
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“I know you’re eager to go out there and play, but I think it’s just good to rest, get the body right and just keep working on your craft and working on what we have to do,” Mikal Bridges said. “So, obviously there’s positives, negatives in this situation, but I just try to look at the positives.”
Josh Hart isn’t backing down from his claim that he no longer considers Philadelphia a sports town after Knicks fans took over Xfinity Mobile Arena during the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
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“You can’t be a sports town if another team’s fan base takes over your arena,” Hart said during the latest episode of “The Roommates Show.”
“You cannot be a sports town if that happens. Boston? Sports town.”
He also took a shot at Joel Embiid, who implored 76ers fans to show up prior to the start of the series.
“You will never see Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum sitting there saying, ‘fans, we need y’all to come out because if y’all don’t the Knicks are gonna take over.’ They’re never gonna say that because they don’t have to,” Hart said. “Because that’s one of the places that’s a sports town, and you will not take over that arena. I don’t think you’re gonna take over the arena in New York.”
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