By this point, it should’ve been expected, anticipated, foreshadowed, predicted — anything but surprising. This is who the Knicks are. This is who Tom Thibodeau wanted them to be. They can adapt to the unadaptable, adjust to the unadjustable, turn even the most impossible scenarios into something that seems, at the very least, possible.
That was the case again Sunday, when Precious Achiuwa jumped toward Joel Embiid in the final minutes of Game 4 and swatted a 3-point attempt into the Wells Fargo Center seats. The mid-season acquisition — an afterthought in the OG Anunoby deal — hadn’t even played in Games 1 and 2 of the Knicks’ first-round series against the 76ers. He probably wouldn’t have played in Games 3 or 4, either, if Mitchell Robinson’s left ankle hadn’t encountered a setback, and Achiuwa almost certainly wouldn’t have been on the court in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter if starting center Isaiah Hartenstein hadn’t picked up five fouls in the third frame.
But for most of the regular season, the 2023-24 edition of the Knicks constructed a reputation based on figuring out how to resourcefully win games despite strange, bizarre, how-is-this-happening circumstances.
That has carried over into the playoffs.
