The New York Knicks' 2026 Playoff Run: A Differential That Doesn't Make Sense

Published May 12, 2026 · By The Basketball Fans Editors

Ten games. 194 points. That’s the margin by which the New York Knicks have outscored their opponents this postseason, the best point differential in a 10-game span in NBA playoff history. At +19.4 per game through two rounds, they’ve posted the best per-game differential for any team through the first two rounds in the 43 years since the league moved to its 16-team format. These aren’t numbers that suggest a team having a good run. They suggest a team nobody in the East has a real answer for.

The Knicks swept the Atlanta Hawks in the first round. Then they swept the Philadelphia 76ers in the East Semifinals, winning all four games by a combined 89 points. Their Game 4 blowout over Philly ended 144-105. In that game, New York hit 25 three-pointers, tying the all-time NBA playoff record for threes in a single game.

How this roster was built

It started with Jalen Brunson. He signed with New York in 2022 and quickly became the franchise’s organizing principle. In July 2024, two years to the day of his original signing, Brunson took a four-year, $156.5 million extension through 2028-29, a number well below his market value that summer. The below-market deal gave the Knicks room to operate, and they used it.

Then came Karl-Anthony Towns. New York acquired him from Minnesota in October 2024, pairing a center who can score from anywhere on the floor with a guard built to create the spacing that makes those shots possible. The fit was theoretical at the time. It’s not theoretical anymore.

OG Anunoby is the third piece: a wing defender capable of guarding 1-through-5 on a good night, with off-ball movement and length that playoff defenses can’t scheme away. He’s been dealing with an injury this postseason. The Knicks have still won 10 straight. That’s a significant data point.

Brunson’s numbers don’t look real

The +162 plus-minus Brunson posted in four games against the Sixers is the number that should stop you. For context: a great plus-minus in a playoff series is somewhere around +20 or +30. +162 across four games means the Knicks were outscoring opponents by an average of 40-plus points per 48 minutes with Brunson on the floor.

When Brunson and KAT share the court in these playoffs, the Knicks outscore opponents by 14.1 points per 100 possessions. That’s not a two-star advantage. That’s a systematic gap that top organizations spend years building, generated by two players running the same actions every night until defenses have no good answer.

The pairing works because they address each other’s vulnerabilities in specific ways. Towns gives Brunson a drop-zone target in the pick-and-roll that defenses can’t ignore, because Towns makes those shots. Brunson gives Towns a drive-and-kick engine that has the defense in rotation before Towns ever catches the ball. The result is a two-man game that’s simultaneously hard to stop and easy to read: everyone knows what’s coming and it doesn’t matter.

The Game 4 demolition and a record tied

The Sixers series closed the way it opened: New York in control, the margin just varying by how much. But Game 4 was different in scale.

The Knicks scored 144 points. They made 25 three-pointers, matching the all-time NBA playoff single-game record. And notably, some of those threes came from the guy replacing an injured starter. Miles McBride, filling in for OG Anunoby, scored 25 points on 7-for-9 shooting from range. That’s a reserve, stepping into a starting role, turning in the kind of performance that anchors normal teams’ playoff efforts. The Knicks have that kind of depth right now, and it’s what makes the +19.4 differential sustainable rather than lucky.

Their bench units held leads through stretches in every game of the Sixers series even when starters were resting. That’s not a coincidence or a small sample. That’s roster construction paying off.

What comes next

The Knicks are waiting on the Cavaliers-Pistons series, which was tied 2-2 as of May 11. The East Finals are scheduled to begin May 17 or May 19 depending on how quickly that series finishes.

The Pistons held the East’s top seed this year, which means home-court advantage in any series they reach before the Finals. If Detroit gets through, New York plays Games 1 and 2 on the road. If Cleveland advances, seeding from that series determines court advantage.

Either way, the Knicks enter as the hottest team in the Eastern Conference by any measurable standard. Ten games, 194-point margin, seven consecutive wins in a single postseason for the first time in franchise history. A healthy OG Anunoby at some point in the East Finals changes what this team looks like defensively in ways that are hard to overstate.

The last time a Knicks team was this far into a run and looked this dominant doing it, Patrick Ewing was the center and Reggie Miller was the villain. That’s how long ago this was. The 2026 version has a different name at every position but the same address, and right now it looks like a team that’s playing its best basketball of the season at the exact moment the competition gets hardest.

Sources

• NBA.com, ‘4 Takeaways: Knicks Find Their Best Form When It Matters Most, Sweep 76ers in East Semifinals’
• ESPN, ‘Knicks Sweep 76ers, Return to Eastern Conference Finals’
• Yardbarker, ‘Tying Three-Point Record Adds to Historic Nature of Knicks’ Entire Playoff Run’
• Posting and Toasting, ‘Knicks Are Shattering Franchise and NBA Records During This Run’
• DailyKnicks, ‘Knicks Have Unlocked a New Jalen Brunson Advantage’
• Basketball-Reference, New York Knicks 2025-26