Rival East head coach claims Knicks are best team in East: ‘I’ve felt that way for months’

The New York Knicks advanced to the second round of the playoffs by beating the Atlanta Hawks in six games, and they now take on the Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Embiid with a chance to make the Eastern Conference Finals.

New York dominated Philadelphia in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Monday night, winning by 39 points. Jalen Brunson (35 points) led the way in the win while the Knicks shot over 60 percent from the field as a team.

One Eastern Conference head coach believes the Knicks are the best team in the East, even with the 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers and No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons still remaining in the playoffs.

“They are the best team in the East and I’ve felt that way for months,” a rival East head coach said. “When they fell down [2-1] in the Hawks series, you could see that it actually brought them together. You can see they’re together and they’re hungry, which wasn’t the case for much of the year. Sometimes when we played them, I thought they didn’t all like each other. Now they seem like they do.”

New York won three straight games in the first round to knock off the Hawks, and it has the best net rating in the postseason of any team.

The Knicks also made the Eastern Conference Finals last season, so they have plenty of postseason experience with their current core. Since Brunson joined the team ahead of the 2022-23 season, New York has won at least one playoff series in each of the last four years.

There’s still a long way for the Knicks to go, as they’ll need to get past Philly and the winner of the Cleveland-Detroit series in order to make the NBA Finals. The Pistons dominated the Knicks in the regular season, winning all three of the meetings between the two teams by 15 or more points.

Last season, Detroit took the Knicks to six games in the first round of the playoffs. However, both the Pistons and Cavs needed seven games to advance in the first round, and the No. 2-seeded Boston Celtics were knocked out by Philadelphia. There’s a chance — if Cleveland beats Detroit — that New York will have home court all the way until the NBA Finals.

Only time will tell if the Eastern Conference coach is right, but the Knicks’ recent play suggests that they’re built to compete with anyone in the East this postseason.