The New York Knicks were sitting on a sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers, an Eastern Conference Finals berth in the bag, and a bracket question that would not get answered until either Cleveland or Detroit closed out their second-round series. NBA Today put the question to its two senior writers on Wednesday morning. They split.
Andrea Carter Ruiz and Malika Andrews framed the debate around the Knicks' scouting calculus. Mark Spears went first.
"The way the Cavaliers are looking right now — the Cavaliers are the tougher opponent because they have more offensive weapons," Spears said. "And I see Donovan Mitchell being extra motivated going back home. I mean, I don't think you want to play the Cavs because of the way they're playing. But Detroit and the Knicks already know what it looks like when you play a seven-game series, and that one was real close last year. Their styles are both kind of physical, rugged teams. They push each other around — they usually win with their physicality. So, I'd rather play a team that I can be more physical against, and I think that would probably be the Cavs."
Ramona Shelburne stepped over that read of Detroit's identity and pointed at the unknowns underneath it. The Pistons advanced past Orlando from 3-1 down and survived a Game 5 in which they trailed by nine inside the final three minutes only to lose in overtime. Jalen Duren has not been Jalen Duren since the start of the second round, Detroit's depth has been thinned out by a Duncan Robinson injury that has him moving in and out of the lineup, and a Game 7 in Detroit is still very much in the air.
"For me, it's Detroit, because when you look at it, Jalen Duren has not been the Duren that we've known him to be all season," Shelburne said. "They do not have Duncan Robinson — we don't know the status of even if he does play, how healthy will he be? So because of the unknowns of Detroit, I think that's the opponent that you really want to go into the series and see."
The two takes are not as far apart as they look. Both writers acknowledged Cleveland's recent surge — Game 5 in particular, in which the Cavaliers overcame their largest deficit in the final three minutes of a playoff game in the last 30 years and broke a record James Harden's teams had carried for the worse part of a decade. Spears wanted to focus on the way the Cavaliers are scoring. Shelburne wanted to focus on how thin the Pistons have become. Both believed the Knicks were the better roster on paper.
James Harden, for his part, finished Game 5 with the words his coach and his teammates have been waiting on him to find. "We're a brand-new team for the most part, so we got to find out who we are in the moments," Harden told Lisa Salters after the OT win. "It's good for us. This is our story. This is how we're shaping our story. Great time to win the game. Great time to have a first road win. Get them at home, no time to relax. We're not going to get this opportunity often. Do whatever you got to do to prepare for Game 6."
The night that Harden's speech aged badly was Game 6, two days later, when Detroit's 21-point road win not only forced a Game 7 but tied a 66-year-old NBA playoff record for the largest Game 6 road blowout by a team trailing 3-2.
That swung the East narrative back toward Shelburne's read — and away from Spears'. The Pistons have spent two months convincing the league that they cannot be written off. They have also spent two months convincing Detroit that they do not need Duncan Robinson at full strength to be dangerous. The Knicks, if they end up watching this Game 7 from a hotel ballroom in Manhattan, may end up watching it knowing that neither writer's pick was the easy answer. Mark Spears wanted Cleveland because of the offence. Ramona Shelburne wanted Detroit because of the unknowns. The bracket, characteristically, refused to make either look obviously correct.
