Breaking the Curse: How the Knicks’ dynamic duo ended the drought

Welcome to Part 2 of our second Knicktion: Knicks-based fiction. In Part 1, the Knicks assembled the super team of James Dolan’s dreams, landing Chris Paul and eventually Carmelo Anthony. But both signed one-year deals with the intention of winning a championship, with the mighty Miami Heat standing in their way.

If you missed Part 1 of this two-part article, be sure to read it first!

“I know I played a couple seasons across the river, but I feel like I’ve finally arrived home,” said Carmelo Anthony, donning Knicks colors for the first time in front of fans gathered at “The Cage” on West 4th Street in Manhattan in July of 2013. “Home is playing for y’all. I promise you, that after 40 years, I’m gonna bring that Larry O.B. back where it belongs.”

Chris Paul and Carmelo were joined by Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, and Tyson Chandler to form a potent starting five for the Knicks’ 2013-14 campaign; key rotation players off the bench included Raymond Felton, J.R. Smith, and free agency acquisition David West (personally recruited by Paul and Anthony). 

Some had been drafted, others acquired via trade or free agency, but there was a universal understanding of the difficult climb ahead of the Knicks, and what the ultimate goal was: a championship.

Though Melo’s homecoming was met with a flood of excitement, the team approached the season with more caution than exuberance. In particular, the organization made “load managing” Paul and Melo’s minutes and workload a priority. Although a sensible decision, it quickly prompted fan and media criticism.

Cowardly Chris Dodges Red-Hot Heat read the headline of one New York Post article when Paul skipped New York’s first game against their indomitable rival, Miami.

“Chris was gonna be damned if he lost his legs to the regular season,” said a source close to Paul. “He’d had 60-plus win seasons, been a one seed, gotten First Team All-NBA and All-Defense. He didn’t care about any of that shit anymore. The prize was a championship; nothing else mattered.” 

Chris would skip all four games against the Heat; Carmelo would skip two.

“I grew up with the ’90s Knicks, man,” opined actor and Knicks super fan David Futernick, whose casting to replace Chris Hemsworth in the film “Thor: The Dark World” as the titular character was met with skepticism. “I know for a fact those Knicks teams would not have ducked the Heat. They might’ve got their asses kicked on the scoreboard, but Oakley would’ve had LeBron in a fucking headlock. I knew this team was talented as hell, but they were also soft as hell.”

“What do you say to your teammates when you want to take the night off,” Marc Berman of the New York Post asked Paul after a Sunday practice. “Is it a conversation? Can Klay come to you to request a night off?”

“Everyone does what they have to to get through the season,” said Paul. “I’m thankful my teammates are there for me when I need them.”

When asked by Berman if he was upset at having to pick up the slack left by his veteran teammates, Klay was left bemused. “Nah, I’m good,” was all he replied.

“I don’t give a f*** about your f***n hamstrings Point Bitch,” tweeted Knicks fan account @StateNYKPOD, referring to Chris Paul. “If Klay tears something you goin back to NOLA in a bodybag, on god.”

Load management created a mystery box around the team. While stacked with talent (“they’re the favorite….if healthy” was a commonly-heard refrain), seldom had the entire starting unit shared the floor — in particular, its two stars, Paul and Melo, saw relatively limited time together, often resting on separate days.

When they did play together, the chemistry was lacking. At times, it seemed as if the team gelled better when one was absent: The primary challenge was getting Paul and Melo to blend their styles when they shared the floor. 

If Paul was calling out plays and directing the offense, Melo would often stand around on the perimeter, not even readying himself for a pass with his hands on his knees. There were other instances when Melo would ignore the called play, and position himself at the elbow with his hand raised, demanding the ball. Paul responded in kind, often ignoring his co-star’s pleas. There was clearly some clunkiness and tension on the court between the two, but when questioned, head coach Mike D’Antoni played things off.

“Chris and Melo are still figuring out how to play together,” D’Antoni said. “It’s not instant coffee, man. My job is to blend what they do best to get the best out of them and the rest of the team. I have to learn what they specifically need from me. These are the growing pains.”

When questioned on the same topic later that evening, Anthony replied, with a wry smile, “What, you don’t like how I play?”

***

While Anthony and Paul were still figuring out their on-court partnership, the rest of the team was thriving around them. One key rotation decision involved moving Iguodala to the bench, where his playmaking skills had room to breathe, and starting J.R. Smith in his stead. However, in crunch time Iguodala remained on the floor and the Knicks’ “death lineup” dispatched contenders and lottery teams alike. They closed the season with a 12-game win streak, and though they emerged with a mere No. 4 seed in the East, it was clear their record did not reflect their true level of play. 

Many around the league shifted uncomfortably: perhaps this team from New York finally had to be taken seriously.

Their first round matchup was a familiar foe: Tom Thibodeau’s Chicago Bulls. This was not the fearsome, hard-nosed, defensive powerhouse Bulls team of yesteryear, though. With Derrick Rose out for the season after suffering yet another knee injury — this time a torn meniscus — the Knicks made light work of their foes.

The highlight of the series wasn’t even related to anything that happened on the floor, as after Game 1, Joakim Noah was caught on film by TMZ at 1 OAK in New York City, loudly proclaiming he was “too lit” for New York with a bottle of Grey Goose in hand. Noah was suspended for Game 2 by the Bulls, and was notably subdued for the remainder of the series, as Chris Paul picked apart Chicago’s pick-and-roll defense with an endless barrage of elbow jumpers and kick-outs to 3-point shooters.

The Knicks would handily win the series in five, but the Bulls went down fighting, literally. Several skirmishes broke out as the Knicks pulled away during the early stages of the second half. It nearly culminated in catastrophe when, in the closing moments of the third quarter, Noah rammed his body into an airborne Tyson Chandler, reaching for a lob. Chandler crashed to the floor, landing on and injuring his shoulder. He’d play the remainder of the playoffs through pain, before getting surgery to repair a torn labrum.

“Fucking bums,” intoned Futernick, whose directorial debut The Accidental Goy is currently in production. “They couldn’t play basketball, so they turned it into a wrestling match.”

Next up were the top-seeded Indiana Pacers.

They had come a long way since being trounced by the Knicks two years prior. Danny Granger was diminished after suffering several injuries, but Indiana had been lifted to contention by All-Stars Roy Hibbert and Paul George, as well as rising star wing Lance Stephenson. 

Also of interest were the various swaps between both franchises involving both players and executives: the Pacers had brought former Knicks GM Donnie Walsh to their front office shortly after he was jettisoned by James Dolan for failing to make the Carmelo Anthony trade. Meanwhile, the Knicks had poached two-time All-Star forward David West from the Pacers in the previous free agency to bolster their bench (Paul George famously called West a “Benedict Arnold” during a media day press conference). “I still haven’t figured out how the Knicks even structured his contract to fit under the cap,” said The Strickland’s capologist, Jeremy Cohen.

The Knicks surprised many by taking Game 1 in Indiana, punching the Pacers in the mouth with a score of 99-87. George and Carmelo went shot for shot, but the Pacers had no answer for Paul, who was once again “in the zone,” orchestrating the offense and sparking a 16-4 run late in the fourth to seal the victory.

The Pacers adjusted in Game 2, putting lengthy wing defenders on Paul, which forced the Knicks to frequently run things through Melo. Although he scored 31 points, he required 36 shots to get there. Too often he opted to shoot over double and triple teams rather than look to swing the ball out to open shooters on the perimeter. Conversely, George scored 27 points on only 19 shots, while notching 12 assists as he constantly sliced into the paint, drawing defenders and kicking out to the perimeter in a stunning playmaking performance

With the series shifting back to New York for Game 3, D’Antoni, at the suggestion of assistant coach Mike Woodson, opted to aggressively double team George as soon as he got the ball, sending Klay and Iguodala to trap him immediately. The goal was to force Stephenson to beat them.  The adjustment proved to be a masterstroke, as the Pacers’ offense completely stalled out.

The Knicks made their own tweak offensively, as Paul operated more out of the mid-post. He carved up George Hill repeatedly with an array of face-up and off-the-dribble jumpers. When the Pacers sent help, his kick-outs keyed brilliant sequences which inevitably seemed to end up in the hands of Melo, J.R., or Klay, as the trio connected on eight triples apiece en route to a 114-92 victory.

Just as it seemed the Knicks were poised to take control of the series, Indiana won the next two games, one each in New York and Indiana. The Pacers seized the momentum buoyed by two spectacular offensive explosions from George, who scored over 30 in each contest and carved up every coverage the Knicks threw at him. Equally frustrating for D’Antoni was how Indiana was getting away with Hibbert camping out at the rim on defense with the refs unwilling to call him for a defensive three seconds.

No matter how much D’Antoni protested, it had little effect, and with Chandler a non-factor offensively, every possession became a slog. Facing elimination in Game 6 in front of a raucous Garden crowd, the Knicks edged an ugly 83-80 victory, a defensive showdown similar to the franchises’ playoff battles in the ’90s.

The Knicks returned to a hostile Indianapolis arena for Game 7. The team walked onto the floor knowing they would have to dig deep for a win. And so they did.

“It was the first game where Paul and Melo clicked — like, really clicked,” recalled Knicks fan Kris Pursiainen.

“It was beautiful,” Futernick said. “The two-man game. Chris Paul beating his defender, getting the defense to shift, bouncing it to Melo on the block and relocating for a corner three. We saw the true potential of the tandem, fully realized.”

“Pass the rock to Klay ffs bumasses,” tweeted @StateNYKPOD. 

Though the New York superstar duo was resplendent on the offensive end, they still had no answer for George. He showed off his full repertoire, crossing up into pull-up threes, driving to the rack with force, and creating havoc in the passing lanes to trigger easy transition buckets to keep Indiana in the game. 

To make matters worse, Chandler’s struggles continued unabated. He couldn’t do anything to stop Hibbert in the post and struggled to check him on the boards. Midway through the third, D’Antoni opted to pull Chandler and rolled with West at the five. 

“I was just looking for a spark somewhere,” D’Antoni said when asked about his decision. “I guess I was just kinda hoping, you know, this is a guy who has played a lot of games in this building, for that organization. Maybe he could dig deep and find something to help us slow down Roy.”

The gambit paid off, as the Knicks found easy offense running pick-and-pops for West. He was able to connect on five jumpers in the second half with Hibbert unwilling to come out and contest. Still, the Knicks found themselves clinging to a two-point lead with just 28 seconds left, with the Pacers in possession.

George brought the ball up, methodically sizing up Melo from the top of the key. After what seemed an eternity, George finally made his move, looking to drive right, only to cross back to his left and raise up for a three with Melo’s hand in his face. Splash. Pacers up one with 10 seconds remaining.

D’Antoni called a timeout.

Knicks fans were on the edge of their seats, hoping against hope the Knicks could just find a way. Anthony and Paul seemed to have finally figured out their on-court dynamic, but it was unclear who would take the final shot with their season on the line.

Iguodala went to inbound the ball out of the timeout, as the ref blew the whistle. After four seconds of confusion, the play materialized with Klay sprinting off a screen set by West: Melo and Paul were decoys.

Iguodala nailed Klay with a pass right in his shooting pocket, and Klay was as open as he’d ever been, right at the top of the key. He pulled up...

...and his shot clanked off the rim.

Time stood still. West and Hibbert were right underneath the rim, each with an elbow in the other’s abdomen, poised for the rebound.

Both went up for it...

...and West just got a hand on the ball, tipping it to Carmelo, who had crashed the glass from the corner as soon as Klay released the ball. “Get the hell out of here!” Melo shouted, securing the ball and pivoting toward the basket with four seconds remaining...

Three… Hibbert flipped his hips, the only thing between Melo and the rim.

Two… Melo took a long stride forward and Hibbert crouched down, each ready to explode upward…

One…

Melo’s poster dunk on Roy Hibbert as the game clock hit zero sent the Pacers home.

There were smiles and cheers all around from the Knicks as the bench charged the court, swarming and tackling Melo. Scores of shocked Pacers fans dejectedly filed to their cars.

But, all in all, the celebration was muted: the Knicks’ journey wasn’t over. The Eastern Conference Finals and the Miami Heat loomed on the horizon.

***

The Knicks had been built for the sole purpose of bringing this Miami Heat team down. They knew it wouldn’t be easy, but two straight wins in Miami to start the series — with Melo, Klay, and Paul raining down a hail of triples — led many to declare the Knicks as victors.

LeBron was typically brilliant, scoring a total of 70 points over the first two contests. But privately, during a timeout of their Game 1 win, Paul confided to the team he smelled blood: LeBron hadn’t missed a beat, but his superstar running mate, Dwyane Wade, looked a step slow. In hindsight, this season marked the beginning of Wade’s decline. LeBron was pulling more weight than usual.

“Let me deal with Wade,” Paul told Melo. “LeBron’s going to get his, just make sure you’re getting yours too and make him work on defense”

The game plan was effective: James didn’t have the juice to balance carrying the Heat offensively and slow down Carmelo. Melo capitalized on LeBron’s lax defensive effort with 38- and 35-point performances in Games 1 and 2, respectively, on 58% shooting.

Meanwhile, Paul hunted Wade mercilessly, frequently blowing by him off the dribble, exposing the 32-year-old’s declining athleticism.

However, the Knicks, perhaps flying too high after their two road wins, dropped Game 3 at the Garden, 102-87, in an inexplicably flat performance.

“Carmelo was feeling himself,” said Pursiainen. “He went rogue.”

Falling prey to hubris — and overly eager to send a message to LeBron, who had overshadowed him ever since they’d entered the league together — Carmelo stopped playing within the offense and sharing the ball. Miami sensed it, too, as they sent double and triple teams at him, unafraid that Melo would make them pay by spraying the ball out to the Knicks’ shooters.

“He was a black hole,” said Futernick. “As soon as the ball touched his hands, especially if LeBron was on him, it was jab-step, in and out, between the legs, jab-step, turnaround contested jumper.”

“Melo needs to chill,” tweeted @StateNYKPOD. “Klay standin in the corner with his dick in his hands.” 

Carmelo finished with a team-high 33 points, but took 44 shots to get there. No other player, including Paul, took more than 10. The performance prompted a chorus of boos from the Garden crowd.

“Coach and CP laid into Melo after the game, saying he wasn’t playing championship-level basketball,” said a source who was in the locker room. “Melo just shook his head and said they had to let him play how he needed to play.”

Perhaps unhappy with his lack of commitment to play team basketball, Paul took control in Game 4, only passing the ball to Melo if he had an open shot. Though Melo wasn’t pleased to see his touches slashed, with Paul orchestrating and Klay and J.R. spreading Miami’s defense out, he notched 33 points, but this time only needing 19 shots.

Paul’s controlled display saw the Knicks holding a 6-point lead with 40 seconds left. However, a rapid series of uncharacteristic, unforced errors took the Knicks right back out of it.

First, a lazy pass to Iguodala on the perimeter led to a steal and breakaway dunk for LeBron. Upset from the boneheaded move, Paul then rushed an inbounds pass to Carmelo, who was facing the opposite direction. It bounced off Carmelo’s back and LeBron was upon it in seconds, again rising for a dunk — and, unconscionably, CP3 fouled James on the way up.

The Garden crowd was as quiet as a library as LeBron sank a free throw, narrowing the Knicks’ lead to a single point. 

On the following possession, with 28 seconds remaining in regulation, Paul faced a full court press from LeBron as he brought the ball up. As soon as Paul crossed half court, Wade came over to double. Paul, overwhelmed by their length and surprised by the speed of the double, panicked. Rather than call for a timeout, he attempted a rip through — from half court — and heaved the ball toward the hoop, wildly flailing his arms in a desperate attempt to draw a foul.

The refs were not impressed, and the ball sailed out of bounds, untouched. Miami ball.

The Heat now had the chance, down by one, with 19 seconds left, to grab victory from the jaws of defeat. The Knicks had shown all season they were fully capable of coming up with critical stops, but their faith in themselves and each other had been shaken.

Wade inbounded the ball to LeBron, who drew Iguodala out to the top of the arc and milked the clock. With just under six seconds left, James made his move, putting his head down and looking to bulldoze his way to the hoop. The Knicks were prepared as West left Bosh in the weak side corner to collapse the paint, but that was exactly what James had been waiting for. In that split second he sent a bullet pass into the hands of a cutting Bosh for an easy lay-in as the game clock expired.

A series that had been firmly in hand was now tied 2-2, and the Knicks flew to Miami for Game 5 in an uncomfortable silence. An entirely winnable series was now deteriorating due to the egos of the stars that had brought them there.

The Knicks lost by 32 in Miami, with the Heat Big 3 clicking as well as they ever had. The Knicks’ superstar tandem, for their part, looked the complete opposite, each playing in a bubble whenever they had the ball, looking off the other. 

“Melo lost his trust in Paul, and vice versa,” said a source close to the team. “Game 5 was a dumpster fire.”

Facing an elimination game at the Garden for Game 6, with Paul and Melo’s relationship eroding rapidly, someone else had to step up.

“That was when we met ‘Game 6 Klay’ for the first time. Damn, I’m getting chills. Look,” Pursiainen said, showing us the goosebumps emerging on his forearm.

“I think Klay took a total of three dribbles the whole game,” said Futernick. “But you know what he did? He took that fucking ball, and he said ‘Fuck you Melo. Fuck you loser-ass Chris Paul. I’ll show you what a real gamer does. He wins games.’”

“I told y’all Klay was baby god,” tweeted @StateNYKPOD. “Now god is grown up and you see what he can do.”

Klay finished the game with 41 points, hitting from beyond the arc a playoff record 12 times. Even as Miami locked in on him as the game wore on, Klay would not be denied. He hit numerous contested shots from anywhere and everywhere, including the dagger from the logo with just under two minutes left that pushed the lead to 13. The Knicks walked out 111-96 winners, with the series now tied 3-3.

“Not much you can do when a role player catches fire like that,” said a morose LeBron in his press conference after the game. “I’d like to see him try it again.”

“I feel like I was born to beat this team,” Klay said in his own press conference. “This super team shit — LeBron invented it. I’d never be a part of one by choice. It’s not my vibe.”

In Game 7 in Miami, rallying behind another exuberant performance from Klay, Carmelo and Paul were able to find their groove together again. Klay’s sudden star turn didn’t just create more space for them to exploit, but also provided an outlet they had full faith in to knock down shots when they kicked out.

“It took the pressure off of each of them to try to ‘will the win,’” David West told The Strickland.

LeBron, Wade, Bosh, and the rest of the Heat team tried to keep up with the Knicks’ firepower — but, just as LeBron challenged him to, Klay repeated his performance, including a blazing hot 21-point outburst on seven 3-pointers in the third quarter.

Down seven heading into the final frame, LeBron and Wade went off, igniting Miami’s transition game with aggressive traps on the Knicks’ ball handlers and fruitful gambles in the passing lanes. They forced the Knicks into six turnovers in the quarter, many of the “pick six” variety, and with just under 20 seconds left, Miami, down one, had a chance to take the lead. LeBron again had the ball at the top of the key, as he had at the end of Game 4, only this time as the clock ticked down under 10 seconds, Klay left Mario Chalmers to trap LeBron. James saw the trap, but couldn’t find an open man, and with the clock running down, launched a leaning jumper, more of a prayer really, 30 feet out from the right wing, over Iguodala and Klay, that banked in off the glass.

The Heat were up two with three seconds left, with their sights set on a fourth consecutive Finals berth. The Knicks were reeling, on the verge of crashing out. There was a sense of panic and desperation that was starting to seep through, but D’Antoni immediately looked to restore a sense of order, calling a timeout. And he knew exactly what to call. Although there were two bonafide superstars on the floor for the Knicks, he thought back to Game 7 against Indiana.

D’Antoni, again, dialed up the play they ran against the Pacers, which had gotten Klay a wide open three. Again, with the series on the line, Iguodala inbounded, Paul and Melo were used as decoys, and West set a screen against LeBron to get Klay free off the inbounds. And once again, Klay caught it, squared up to the rim, and fired. 

And so, on May 16, 2014 — on the 15th anniversary of Allan Houston’s series-winning shot against a No. 1-seeded Miami team, Klay Thompson hit a series-winning three against the defending champion Miami Heat.

Finally, the Knicks had slain the three-headed dragon. After brief niceties, LeBron would storm back into the tunnel and immediately pull his jersey off over his head. He would not return to the Miami Heat the following year; nor would Wade. The superteam had missed the Finals for the first time — the Heat had finally broken.

Though the Knicks stood in front of microphones in Miami’s arena as the dejected fans filed out to their cars and accepted trophies, t-shirts, and hats declaring them “Eastern Conference Champions,” celebration would end soon: they knew all too well that another, bigger dragon waited them in the Finals.

Because just as Allan Houston’s Knicks would go on to face Tim Duncan’s Spurs in the Finals in 1999, so too would Klay Thompson’s Knicks have to face Tim Duncan’s Spurs in the 2014 Finals.

***

After 15 long years, the Knicks had finally made it back to the NBA Finals. Fan excitement had reached a critical mass.

“You couldn’t go to a sporting goods store in New York to buy a Melo, CP3, or Klay jersey,” said Futernick. “That shit was flying off the shelves. It was insanity. I had to settle for Felton.”

The Knicks would have a chance to win their first championship in 41 years… but they’d have to go through a familiar foe to do so: Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs.

After a few years of working with the Spurs development staff, their raw wing prospect, Kawhi Leonard, had blossomed into a bona fide two-way superstar. His lethal midrange game and ability to lock down the opponent’s best player down on the other end made him the best player on a team that also featured Tim Duncan.

“Kawhi completely erased Carmelo in Game 1,” Pursiainen said. “I’d never seen someone anticipate Melo’s every step like that. He was sliding his feet like he knew everything Melo was about to do. It was like he was his shadow. Melo couldn’t lose him no matter what he did.”

“It wasn’t just that Melo couldn’t hit a shot,” recalled ESPN Front Office Insider Jeremy Cohen. “It was that Kawhi would rip the ball out of his hands and rumble down the court to the other basket like a refrigerator rolling down the side of a mountain. Halfcourt, transition, it didn’t matter. No one wanted to get in Kawhi’s way.”

It wasn’t just Carmelo who struggled with the Spurs’ defense.

“Will someone tell Manu to hop off Klay’s dick,” tweeted @StateNYKPOD.

“Tony Parker was in Chris’ head too,” recalled Futernick. “When you’ve got Chris trying to settle a personal score instead of playing team ball, you’ve won. That’s to say nothing of the unspeakable acts Old Man Duncan was committing on our center rotation.”

The Spurs took the first two games in San Antonio, sending the Knicks back to New York City.

“They’re the more experienced team,” lamented Jonathan Macri on his podcast, Knicks Math Class. “And I fear they have the best player in the series in Kawhi Leonard. When the more experienced team also has the best player in the series, that team is the prohibitive favorite.”

“I was scared,” admitted Pursiainen. “But I thought that, you know, going back home, to the Garden, if we took those two games, maybe we’d have a chance to get back in the series.”

“I had court side seats to Game 3,” bragged Futernick. “I gotta tell you — the sound. A Finals game being played in the Mecca. You wouldn’t believe it. The place wasn’t just rockin’. It was electric. And that energy powered our team. I’m sure of it.”

“Definitely Game 3 of the Finals was the best offensive performance I’ve seen from Melo, ever,” said Cohen. “Kawhi was in his shirt, and it just didn’t matter. He took 20 shots — and he only missed three!”

“Someone tell old man Manu to stop trying my man Klay,” tweeted @StateNYKPOD. “This a new generation, grandpa.”

“It was only a matter of time before Chris got Parker out of his head and just started playing the game,” said Futernick. “The Game 3 win was awesome, but Game 4, I mean, that was just Paul’s masterclass.”

“Dimes, dimes, dimes,” recalled Pursiainen fondly. “The sound of the crowd from my TV alone — it was like you couldn’t hear Mike or Clyde. They couldn’t hear themselves!”

“When your point guard notches 28 points and 18 assists and goes 6 for 7 down the stretch, there’s a good chance you won the game,” said Cohen, referring to the spectacular stretch of clutch shotmaking and playmaking wizardry from Paul in the fourth, which helped to even the series to 2-2.

“That was sweet, but Game 5 in San Antonio,” tweeted Macri from his account, @JCMacriNBA. “Something tells me the winner of this game takes the series.”

“Im tellin u my man Klay bouta have a real ass game,” prophesied @StateNYKPOD in a tweet.

“That was bittersweet,” recalled Pursiainen. “Game 6 Klay turned into Game 5 Klay. He gave us everything he had. He wasn’t just hitting 3’s, he was cutting, driving, he was locking up Kawhi in the halfcourt. He did everything he could and more.”

Late in the fourth Thompson suffered an injury, landing awkwardly after ramming into Tim Duncan on a drive to the rim. “NO NO NO PLEASE FUCK OFF,” tweeted @StateNYKPOD, presumably reacting to the incident. “TAKE MY KNEES TAKE MY MOMS KNEES TAKE MY FUCKIN GRANDMAS KNEES BUT LET KLAY PLAY!”

“Klay shot his free throws like Kobe,” said Futernick. “No one knew at that point he had torn his ACL.”

“The Knicks went up 3-2, but at what cost!” lamented Pursiainen. “We lost Klay for the following year. If we didn’t win the championship… it was all for nothing.”

Fans took different approaches as far as where they watched the potential championship-clinching game.

“I watched from a bar down the block from MSG,” said Cohen. “I wanted to be among the people.”

“Courtside, of course,” said Futernick with a smile.

“I begged my mom to get us nosebleed seats,” said Kris. “She agreed, but we had to go Dutch. There went my allowance for the rest of my life.”

“I watched from an Applebee’s in Long Island,” said Macri.

***

Up 3-2 and with a chance to win it all, the Knicks returned to their home floor. They hoped the crowd would power them to a victory. 

Injuries, however, loomed large. The Knicks had lost one of their starters in Klay. Tyson Chandler winced in pain every time he took contact, gutting it out with a bum shoulder. To make matters worse, it was clear Paul was running on fumes, too.

When asked before the game how his own health was doing, Paul hesitated ever so slightly before saying, “I’m good. I’m fine.”

The Knicks won the first quarter 26-24, powered by the manic Garden crowd, which was in a frenzy an hour before the game and never relented. Melo and Kawhi again traded a few shots, but both seemed to be saving themselves for crunch time. 

D’Antoni attempted an Iguodala-at-the-5 strategy, trying to alleviate Chandler’s literal pain, but after hemorrhaging points to the Duncan/Iguodala matchup early in the fourth, D’Antoni was forced to put Chandler back in.

“With Iguodala, West, and Chandler on the floor, the Knicks will be heavily reliant on isolation scoring from Carmelo and Paul,” observed Mike Breen, sagely.

“Not enough firepower!” summarized Walt “Clyde” Frazier, who was granted a special one-series deal by MSG Networks to commentate on ESPN/ABC’s Finals coverage.

The Knicks lost the second quarter badly, as the offense stalled out for long periods, and went into halftime down 51-44.

“There will need to be some sort of adjustment here from Mike D’Antoni,” opined Jeff Van Gundy. “And Mike’s not known for adjustments. But even he must see how much Paul is struggling to get going.”

“Guys gotta be better,” observed Mark Jackson.

Coming into the third, D’Antoni’s adjustment was clear: He inserted Iguodala into the starting lineup and had him take on playmaking responsibilities, freeing Paul and Melo to play more off the ball.

The strategy worked — the aging Spurs could not keep up with the duo, and they found ample open shots. The Knicks went on a 26-6 run in the third quarter. However, they paid a heavy price when Paul stepped on Tony Parker’s foot and went down clutching his ankle and writhing in pain.

The Garden watched in an anxious, stunned silence as Paul limped into the tunnel, supported by the Knicks’ medical staff, and Coach D’Antoni subbed Raymond Felton in. It had taken 41 years to get here: was this misery going to extend even further?

When Kawhi took over the game late in the third and into the early minutes of the fourth, it certainly seemed that way.

“Kawhi was unconscious,” remembered Futernick. “He had that look in his eye. Matrix moment.”

Kawhi sparked the Spurs own 20-point run, and with six minutes left to go in the fourth, D’Antoni called a timeout. Carmelo’s offense had dried up. In the huddle, in recently obtained unedited “mic’d up” audio from the broadcast, D’Antoni asked his star what he needed.

“Chris,” said Melo with a sad smile. “I need Chris.”

“Let him have the ball,” offered Iguodala. “Melo can do more with it than I can.”

“You good with that?” D’Antoni asked Carmelo. “We’ll clear out the side for you.”

“You told me that’s not how you win championships,” said Melo. “Ain’t that what we’re trying to do?”

“The ball should be in the best player’s hands,” piped in West. “You’re the best player on the floor. Not Kawhi. Not Duncan. You.” 

Melo looked in West’s eyes, trying to believe him.

“Don’t think it,” said West. “Be it.”

West’s speech had the desired affect, igniting Carmelo’s 12-point, 5-assist run late in the fourth quarter. Kawhi guarded him; it didn’t matter. Popovich sent double teams, triple teams, even bringing Duncan away from the basket. None of it mattered.

Carmelo unleashed the full repertoire. He hit contested jumpers, beat double teams by finding the open man, and ran pick-and-pop to perfection, feeding West on the money for in-rhythm jumpers. Regardless of what they did, the Spurs simply could not find a way to stop him down the stretch: this is what the highest stakes game come down to — the ability for the best player to elevate his own performance.

Defensively, the Knicks had success slowing down Kawhi by trapping him as soon as he crossed half court. Unused to that type of heavy pressure, Kawhi picked up his dribble, bringing the Spurs’ offense to a complete halt. In two instances, he panicked and threw passes that were picked off. Although the Spurs adjusted, having Parker again take the reins of the offense, the Knicks had been successful: the ball was out of Kawhi’s hands.

As the Knicks tied the game at 89 with three minutes to go, they received their best news yet: Chris Paul would return to the game, his ankle taped up.

As Paul subbed in, Melo met him at half court.

“You good?” Melo asked him.

“Let’s send these motherfuckers home,” replied Paul.

In the final three minutes of the 2014 NBA Finals, the Knicks put together their best stretch of basketball yet. The house came down with every defensive stop, and the Knicks made triple after triple after triple, with the crowd roaring as they realized the Knicks were in control.

With 22 seconds left and the Knicks up 105-93, Kawhi threw up the Spurs’ final shot of the game, which bounced off the rim. Paul jumped up for the rebound on his hobbled foot, crossed half court, picked up his dribble, and smiled ear-to-ear.

Carmelo came to hug him as the buzzer sounded and the confetti cannons fired.

***

“I can’t tell you what this means for me,” said Carmelo, clutching his Finals MVP as confetti fell around him. “To win this… for the greatest fans in the world… for the greatest city in the world… I’m at a loss, man…” in reply, the Garden erupted in cheers.

“I’ll remember that feeling for the rest of my life,” said Pursiainen. “And I’m only 12 years old.” 

“The three greatest moments of my life,” enumerated Futernick. “When I met my wife, when Adam Sandler asked me to start a production company with him, and this.”

It isn’t known what the future holds for the Knicks, but Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony are expected to sign max extensions this offseason, and it is widely expected New York will try to retain every player from their championship core.

There’s belief that if Klay continues his growth trajectory after his injury rehab, and the Knicks’ raw, but physically gifted pick from the 2013 draft, Giannis Antetokounmpo, achieves the All-Star upside some within the organization believe he has, this may be the beginning of a dynasty.

“We’re only going up from here,” said Paul after Game 6, looking toward Carmelo, holding the Larry O’Brien trophy in his arms, tears sliding down his face.

And Carmelo, looking back, said: “Together.”