Knicks have a way to make sure nobody talks about Tyrese Maxey’s magic

Nobody talks about that Patrick Ewing recreation winner.

Nobody goes to 1995, when the New York Knicks trailed the Indiana Pacers 3-1 in a second-round collection, to reference Ewing’s jumper, the one which handed New York a one-point lead with 1.8 seconds to go in Game 5, warding off elimination for a night time.

Nobody mentions the controversy that adopted, the accusations from Pacers nice Reggie Miller that Ewing traveled and that the basket shouldn’t have counted.

Nobody talks about it, though it occurred throughout a collection that three a long time later persists in public discourse.

Game 1 of that collection ended with Miller’s eight factors in 8.9 seconds. Game 7 completed with “the finger roll.”

Miller’s breakout began it. And a botched layup to ice the collection was so traumatizing amongst Knicks followers that there’s no want, even in 2024, to point out who took it. If you had been in New York in 1995 and skim “finger roll,” you most likely already knew it was the identical man who had received Game 5 — Ewing — and that it clinked off the again of the rim to finish the collection.

People acknowledge Miller’s rivalry with a larger-than-life director earlier than they focus on Ewing’s Game 5 heroics. The motive why is apparent: Winners write the historical past.

In 1995, the Pacers received. Ewing’s errant finger roll, Miller’s inconceivable comeback and his feud with Spike Lee are the lasting reminiscences. And that’s what makes contextualizing New York’s newest basketball drama so troublesome. We don’t know who will win.

Tyrese Maxey’s magic may go down in Knicks historical past as a Miller second or a Ewing afterthought.

The legacy of the Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers’ Game 5 — when the Knicks let go of a six-point lead with 28.9 seconds to go, thanks to a fire-breathing Maxey, who knocked in a four-point play and a brand bomb throughout that point — received’t have to do with a lot that occurred Tuesday night time. Instead, these subsequent 72 hours will form how the NBA remembers that night and this collection.

If the Knicks, which lead the collection 3-2, win one of many subsequent two, then the Game 2 fiasco once they benefited from a couple of missed foul calls and Maxey’d the Sixers with a couple of 3s inside the ultimate 30 seconds, will develop into the image of the primary spherical.

If they end their season with three straight losses to Philadelphia, a feat they virtually pulled off in reverse throughout that battle with the Pacers, the Maxey highlights will play perpetually. And not simply in New York. Everywhere.

The Knicks will do no matter they’ll to make sure that doesn’t occur.

They will look at how they’ll wreck Philadelphia much more within the non-Joel Embiid minutes. They’ve gotten more and more inventive. During the fourth quarter of Game 5 when 76ers coach Nick Nurse hoped to purchase a minute of relaxation for his middle, who had performed your entire second half to that time, the Knicks instantly flipped to their smallest lineup of the season: OG Anunoby at middle with 4 guards round him.

Does New York head coach Tom Thibodeau dip into different quirky groupings? Does he proceed to roll with a seven-man rotation, one which included three gamers working for greater than 50 minutes in Game 5 with Josh Hart taking part in all 53?

They will look into why they misplaced the Game 5 rebounding battle, which they’d beforehand dominated all collection, or why a turnover drawback popped up.

They will examine Donte DiVincenzo’s struggles. A person who was important to the staff’s offense for 82 video games has sat on the bench for a number of fourth quarters in opposition to Philadelphia. He’s scored in single digits throughout 4 of the 5 video games.

They will seek for new methods to cool off Maxey, who went for 46 factors Tuesday. The Knicks despatched second defenders to Embiid all through that recreation, typically utilizing Maxey’s man to double-team Philadelphia’s brawny middle. The technique labored on Embiid, who dedicated 9 turnovers, 4 of them within the fourth quarter. It additionally left Maxey unperturbed in moments.

The Knicks will weigh whether or not or not the plan was price it.

Philadelphia will react in anticipation. Part of the explanation crowding Embiid labored so effectively down the stretch was due to how the Sixers ran their offense, which devolved into overextended efforts to feed Embiid within the put up for the second consecutive crunch time. Had Maxey not burst aflame, Philly’s late-game course of can be underneath the microscope proper now.

But it’s not — as a result of winners write historical past.

Nobody talks about Derrick White’s tip-in throughout Game 6 of final yr’s Eastern Conference finals. White received the Boston Celtics their third consecutive recreation, holding a staff as soon as down 3-0 within the collection alive for a Game 7. But even a yr later, nobody talks about it — as a result of Boston misplaced that Game 7.

Nobody talks about Draymond Green’s 32 factors, 15 rebounds and 9 assists in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. Instead, point out Green’s playoff run that season and the primary remark shall be about his Game 5 suspension, which opened the door for a Cleveland Cavaliers comeback from down 3-1 in opposition to a 73-win staff.

Nobody talks about the Ewing recreation winner.

And the Knicks have a way to be sure that years from now, nobody will discuss about that Maxey miracle, too: Win one of many subsequent two video games and be those to write the historical past.

(Photo of Tyrese Maxey: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE by way of Getty Images)