SI:AM | Knicks Cruise Past Cavs to End Decades-Long Finals Drought

Good morning, I'm Dan Gartland. I'm sorry, but I don't care one bit about a combined no-hitter. A true no-hitter is an impressive display of individual dominance. A combined no-hitter is just a boring display of offensive ineptitude.

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I don't recognize these Knicks

The Knicks are headed back to the NBA Finals for the first time in nearly 30 years.

It seemed almost inevitable after their stunning Game 1 comeback over the Cavaliers, but it's still impossible to believe that the Knicks of all teams will not only be playing for a championship, but are also entering the Finals looking like a total juggernaut.

Game 4 in Cleveland on Monday night followed a familiar script. Just as they had in previous close-out games against the Hawks and 76ers, the Knicks beat the brakes off the Cavs, 130–93. New York became the first team to score at least 130 points four times in a single postseason since the Suns in 1989.

The New York Knicks just played the most dominant 10-game stretch in NBA history, and it's not even remotely close pic.twitter.com/5qaLngvQLE

- Lev Akabas (@LevAkabas) May 26, 2026

It's the first Finals appearance for the Knicks since 1999, when they lost to the Spurs in five games. They haven't won a championship since 1973, six years before the introduction of the three-point line.

The long drought between Finals appearances doesn't even accurately portray just how dismal the past two-plus decades have been for Knicks fans, though. Over a 20-year span covering the 2001–02 to '21–22 seasons, the Knicks had the worst winning percentage in the NBA (.401). They only won one playoff series over that stretch, against the Pacers in 2013. I was a college student in the Bronx at that time, and I swear people were reacting like the Knicks had won the title.

The Knicks were more than just bad for the first 20 years of the new millennium. They were hopeless on the court and embarrassing off it. They had a famously meddlesome owner, James Dolan, who installed a series of incompetent executives and coaches. The worst of the bunch was Isiah Thomas, who was hired first as the team's president of basketball operations and later given the head coach duties after having been accused of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Dolan is still in charge (and still detestable for non-basketball reasons), but he's finally found the right guy to lead his team. Leon Rose has constructed a deep, complementary and talent-laden roster. The Jalen Brunson signing, widely derided at the time as an overpay for a career backup, has proven to be a stroke of genius. The same can be said for the smart trades that landed Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart.

This current iteration of the Knicks hasn't been afraid to take chances. Signing Brunson to a $100 million contract after one good postseason was a risk. So was trading away Julius Randle after he'd revived his career in New York and firing Tom Thibodeau after he became the first Knicks coach since Jeff Van Gundy to reach three straight postseasons. But those gambles have paid off, and now the Knicks are just four wins away from their first championship in a half century.

The Knicks will await the winner of the Spurs-Thunder series. San Antonio and Oklahoma City both look far superior to the Knicks on paper. One is led by a back-to-back MVP winner, and the other has the most versatile player the league has ever seen. But the Knicks are also playing their best basketball when it matters most. They're just the fifth team in NBA history to win 11 straight playoff games. Who's to say the streak has to end in the Finals?

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• With spring ball in the rearview mirror and college football rosters mostly finalized, Zach Koons projects the starting quarterback for each SEC team.
• After Gaël Monfils played his final match at Roland Garros, Jon Wertheim pays tribute to the show the Frenchman gave tennis fans during his 22-year career.

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Colton Cowser's walk-off homer for the Orioles in the 13th inning. (Cowser also scored the tying run in the 12th with an impressive slide.) It was the second straight day that Cowser hit a walk-off homer. He had a three-run shot in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday.

4. An outstanding defensive play by Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña in the third inning of what ended up being a combined no-hitter.

3. Karl-Anthony Towns's putback slam to cap a 20–0 Knicks run.

2. Andrei Svechnikov's accurate wrist shot to win it in overtime for the Hurricanes. Svechnikov's defense got the play started, and the Canes now lead the Canadiens 2–1 in the series.

1. Jacob Misiorowski's eight pitches in the first inning at 103 mph. The Brewers pitcher is the only starter in the majors this season to throw a pitch that fast. He now has 22 pitches this season at 103 mph or faster. Everybody else in the majors has four (three by Mason Miller, one by Edgardo Henriquez).

This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Knicks Cruise Past Cavs to End Decades-Long Finals Drought.

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This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 7:09 AM.