The Knicks in 5 Knicks Forever immortalized

Before we officially turn the page, here are the 50 best stats and most fascinating facts from the Knicks' magical 2025-26 title run: ​🏀 The Knicks outscored their opponents 2,201 to 1,918 in the 2026 Playoffs. That staggering +283-point differential is the highest in a single postseason in NBA history (a full 53 points higher than the previous record, set by the Golden State Warriors in 2017). ​🏀 To help put that number in context, when the Knicks won their first title in 1970, their net point differential that postseason was +69. When they won their second championship in 1973, they posted a point differential of +86. ​🏀 With a playoff record of 16-3 (.842), the 2026 New York became just the second team in the NBA’s modern era with a postseason win percentage of .840 or higher. ​🏀 Of those three losses, two were by one point (both to Atlanta), and the other was by four points to San Antonio. The Knicks are just the third team since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1984 to win the Finals without losing a single playoff game by more than 4 points, joining Michael Jordan’s first (1991) and last (1998) title teams. ​🏀 12 of the Knicks’ 16 wins were by double-digits, tied for the most in NBA playoff history. ​🏀 Five of the Knicks’ wins were by 29 points or more, the most such games all time in a single playoff run. ​ 🏀 New York went 4-0 in closeout games, winning all four on the road. They outscored their opponents by 122 points in those four contests. That’s an average margin of victory of 30.5 points per game. Think about that for a second. ​ 🏀 In the Game 6 demolition of Atlanta in the first round, the Knicks poured in 140 points (the most points scored in a playoff game in franchise history) en route to their largest postseason win in franchise history (51 points). This victory also marked the largest road win in franchise history (regular season or playoffs). 🏀 In their smackdown of the Sixers in Game 4, to complete a sweep in round two, the Knicks tied for the most three-pointers made in any quarter (11), most three-pointers made in any half (18) and most three-pointers made in a playoff game (25) in NBA history. It was NY’s first best-of-seven series sweep since 1999. 🏀 The Knicks scored 130 points in their Game 4 annihilation of Cleveland. Kat was the team’s leading scorer with 19 points, as New York tied the NBA record for the second-most points in a playoff game without a single 20-point scorer. 🏀 The Knicks became the first team since 1950 to sweep a conference finals via all double-digit wins... The Knicks went 8-0 in May, the second undefeated month in franchise history (March 1994). ​🏀 New York’s victory in Game 2 of the Finals was thier 13th straight playoff win, the second-longest such streak in NBA postseason history.​ 🏀 The Knicks led the league in both Offensive Rating (120.4) and Defensive Rating (104.9) during the 2026 playoffs. According to Basketball-Reference, they are the first and only team ever to average more than 120 points per 100 possessions while allowing fewer than 105 points per 100 possessions. ​ 🏀 New York closed out the postseason by winning nine straight road games, the longest road winning streak in a single postseason. The previous record was held by Shaq and Kobe’s 2001 Los Angeles Lakers squad (8 in a row). ​ 🏀 Prior to the close-out contest in San Antonio, the Knicks have won each of their prior eight road contests by 10+ points, shattering the previous all-time record of five such wins in a row (held by the 2013 Heat and the 2017 Warriors). ​🏀 Remarkably, the Knicks trailed by at least 10 points in every game of the NBA Finals (they were outscored by 57 points in all 1Q’s combined). NY is the first team in more than 50 years to win a Finals series despite trailing by double digits in each contest. ​🏀 Over the entire 2026 postseason, the Knicks were 6-2 in games in which they fell behind by 10+ points at some point (the best such record in the NBA’s modern era). All other NBA teams went 15-74 in those instances this year. ​ 🏀 San Antonio led by 27 points at halftime of Game 4 (the 3rd-largest halftime lead in Finals history). Midway through the third quarter, the Spurs held a seemingly insurmountable 81-52 lead. The Knicks had never come back from a 29-point deficit to win a game. Not once in franchise history. Not in the regular season. Not in the playoffs. Not in the NBA Finals. ​In fact, no team in NBA history had overcome a 20-point deficit in the final frame of a Finals game… until June 10th, 2026, which culminated in the OG “Hand of God” tip-in. ​🏀 The Knicks led for a grand total of 54 seconds in Game 4, the second-lowest amount of time leading in an NBA Finals win since 1970-71, behind only Indiana (0.3 seconds) in Game 1 of the 2025 Finals. ​🏀 Heading into that contest, playoff teams were a combined 4-733 when trailing by 20+ points in the 4th quarter in the modern play-by-play era (since 1996-97), including 0-45 in the Finals. ​🏀 And it was the second time this postseason that New York overcame a 20-point deficit in the final frame. They also engineered a miraculous 22-point comeback over the final eight minutes in Game 1 of the East Finals against Cleveland on May 19. ​🏀 Incredibly, the Knicks went undefeated, a perfect 2-0, when they trailed by 20+ points in the second half of games in these playoffs. ​🏀 Cumulative record of all teams in history (not including the 2026 Knicks) in games in which they trailed by 20+ points in the 4th quarter of a playoff game in the NBA’s play-by-play era: 3-732​ Record of the 2026 Knicks when trailing by 20+ points in the 4th quarter of a playoff game: 2-0 🏀 The Spurs scored 76 points in the first half of Game 4. That’s the second-most points scored in the first half of an NBA Finals game this century. The Spurs scored 30 points in the second half of Game 4. That’s the fewest points scored in the second half of an NBA Finals game this century. ​🏀 Each Finals game was within 4 points in the final minute of regulation… Games 2 through 4 were decided by a total of six points (the fewest points needed to decide a three-game span in NBA Finals history). ​🏀 Per @NY_Knicks_Stats, “After becoming the first team in NBA history to lose by 1 point in regulation in consecutive playoff games against the Hawks, the Knicks join the 1975 Warriors as the only teams to win multiple NBA Finals games by 1 point.” … New York is also the first team in the play-by-play era to win each of the first two games of the NBA Finals despite trailing in the final two minutes of each contest. ​🏀 Per NBA. com New York scored 345 points in the last six seconds of the shot clock during their playoff run while limiting their opponents to just 166… NY’s opponents shot 4-for-19 (21%) on clutch three pointers and 10-for-21 (48%) on free throws in crunch time this postseason ​🏀 The Knicks outscored their opponents by 14.9 PPG this postseason, the best per-game point differential in NBA playoff history.​ 🏀 The Knicks outscored their opponents by 175 points on the road this postseason. That is, by far, the high point differential in road games in a single postseason in NBA history. In fact, no other team had ever been north of plus-100. The previous high-water mark for a Finals champion was held by the 2001 Lakers at +93. ​🏀 The Knicks-Spurs series was the most-watched NBA Finals in 28 years, averaging 20.6 million viewers. NY’s series-clinching win in Game 5 averaged 24.5 million viewers and peaked at a whopping 33 million. ​🏀 The 2026 Finals generated a record 15 billion views on social media. For context, last year’s Finals series between the Thunder and the Pacers generated fewer than 5 billion views. The 2024 Finals between Boston and Dallas generated roughly 2.3 billion views. ​🏀 The Knicks are the first team to win both the NBA Cup and the NBA championship in the same season. ​🏀 By capturing their first title since 1973, the Knicks ended a 53-year drought. That had been the longest gap between championships in NBA history. (The Bucks had held the previous record at 50 years, from 1971 to 2021.) ​🏀 Jalen Brunson is one of only four players in NBA history to pour in at least 45 points in a Finals-clinching win. The other three are Bob Pettit vs. the Celtics in 1958 (50 points), Giannis Antetokounmpo vs. the Suns in 2021 (50) and Michael Jordan vs. the Jazz in 1998 (45) 🏀 Brunson and MJ are the only two players to score 45+ points in a Finals closeout game on the road. ​ ​🏀 Jalen scored 47.9% of New York’s points in their championship-clinching Game 5 victory. That’s the fifth-highest such figure in any Finals game and the second-highest percentage of a team’s points in a Finals closeout game in league history, trailing only Michael Jordan (51.7%, 1998). ​🏀 Brunson scored 29 points in the second half of Game 5 (second-most points in the second half of any NBA Finals game played in the NBA’s modern era). 🏀 Brunson’s 29 second-half points were more than the rest of the Knicks team combined. JB scored 29 points on 15 FG attempts (53%). His teammates scored 28 points on 28 FG attempts (35%) ​🏀 Here are the stats in the fourth quarter of the final two games of the 2026 NBA Finals: Jalen Brunson: 24 points 7-of-12 from the floor (58%) 9-of-10 from the FT line (90%) +32 Plus/Minus (best among all players on either team) Victor Wembanyama: 8 points 3-of-14 from the field (21%) 2-of-6 from the FT line (33%) -25 plus/minus (worst among all players) 🏀And, as a reminder, Brunson is “too small.” Except, here are the leaders for most points in the paint scored in the NBA Finals: 1. Jalen Brunson: 66 points 2. Victor Wembanyama: 62 points 🏀Karl-Anthony Towns averaged 4.9 assists per game during the 2026 playoffs. The only other seven-footers to average 4.9 APG or more in a postseason (minimum 10 games played) are: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain 🏀 Highest plus/minus in a single postseason in NBA history: 1. Karl-Anthony Towns: +258 (2026) 2. Steph Curry: +244 (2017) 3. Jalen Brunson: +234 (2026) 4. Draymond Green: +227 (2017) 5. Kobe Bryant: +213 (2001) 6. LeBron James: +210 (2016) 7. Kevin Durant: +206 (2018) ​🏀 Highest postseason scoring average for one franchise (min 50 games played) among players who won a championship with that franchise: Michael Jordan (Bulls): 33.4 PPG LeBron James (Cavs): 30.1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Bucks): 29.7 Jalen Brunson (Knicks): 29.4 Jerry West (Lakers): 29.1 ​🏀 Brunson is the Knicks’ all-time playoff leader (minimum 20 appearances) in: Scoring: 29.4 PPG Assists: 6.6 APG Made three-pointers: 2.4 per game 🏀 In the 20 years before the Knicks signed Brunson (2001 through 2021), they had the worst regular-season winning percentage in the entire league (.401) and more losses than any team in the NBA (1,007). New York also had the league’s worst postseason winning percentage (.267) 🏀 In the four years since they signed Brunson (2022 through 2026), the Knicks are 74 games above .500 in the regular season (.613 winning percentage) and have won more playoff games (39) than any team in the NBA. ​🏀 Playoff road wins by the Knicks in the 2026 NBA Finals: 3 Playoff road wins by the Knicks in the 20 years before the Knicks signed Jalen Brunson: 2 🏀 Most points in the clutch in the playoffs over the past three years combined: 1. Jalen Brunson: 143 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 84 3. Tyrese Haliburton: 48 4. Anthony Edwards: 43 5. Nikola Jokic: 36 6. Cade Cunningham: 35