This was a statement 11 months in the making.
This was a declaration that started to take shape when the Knicks acquired Mikal Bridges — five first-rounders and all — from the Nets last June. This was one that rounded into form when Karl-Anthony Towns arrived in the middle of training camp, when the pair of stars joined three returning starters and gave the Knicks a lineup that, on paper, could compete with the Celtics.
But paper only matters for so long. The Knicks discovered that during the season, when they went 0-4 against Boston and left the arena embarrassed in three of those games. The only statement they made was in taking the Celtics to overtime in the fourth meeting, and after years of rebuilding and tinkering with a roster to get to this point, overtime losses in a best-of-seven series with a trip to the conference finals at stake wouldn’t be enough. Far from it.
So they needed this. They needed the stunning 108-105 overtime win Monday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal, a wacky game inside TD Garden where the Knicks erased a 20-point deficit, had a chance to win at the end of regulation until Clutch Player of the Year Jalen Brunson missed a shot and then didn’t know if they’d actually escape until Bridges snatched the ball from Jaylen Brown’s hands, chucking it down the court as the horn sounded.
