ESPN’s Brian Windhorst: What Their Hawks 51-Point Blowout Says about the Knicks

Brian Windhorst came on The Rich Eisen Show looking for a new vocabulary word. The ESPN insider did not get one from Boston's Game 6 collapse, which Joe Mazzulla had effectively conceded by pulling his starters early in the fourth. He needed something stronger for what the Atlanta Hawks did to the Knicks.

The number tells the story. The score was 11 to 9 when Windhorst flipped over from the Sixers-Celtics game. Within 12 to 15 minutes of real time, it was 35 to 17. Maybe 35 to 12. Rich asked if he was being hyperbolic.

He was not.

"I honestly didn't even see it," Windhorst said. "It happened so fast and so grand I didn't even see it."

Rich asked Windhorst what to call a series like that. Windhorst, mid-pitch, tried out a phrase he had been workshopping on television. Everyone knows what a gentleman's sweep is. The favorite wins in five but spots the loser one game out of politeness. Windhorst's nominee for the next tier down: the courtesy six. Two of the games were one-point coin flips, which is the only thing that pushed it into a sixth game at all.

Chris weighed in. TJ weighed in. Rich offered to have RES Consulting punch up the phrase. The verdict on the floor was that the courtesy six was not quite there yet, but the diagnostic was correct.

With the framing settled, Windhorst pivoted to the more serious question. Are the Knicks finally cresting in a way they were not last year. The case for yes starts with the dashboard. Windhorst rattled off New York's regular-season numbers from memory, with the caveat that he was working from memory. Top eight in offense and defense. Top five in clutch. Fourth-best defense in the league. That, he said, is the resume of a real contender, even though they had a brutal 2-and-9 stretch around the All-Star break that they had to own.

The more interesting development came mid-series. Karl-Anthony Towns, who has averaged about three assists a game across his career and through 50-plus playoff appearances had topped four assists only twice, dropped 26 assists across the last three games of this series. Windhorst credited Mike Brown for a wrinkle the Knicks installed.

"They started making Karl-Anthony Towns a point center," Windhorst said. "It really changed the dynamic of their offense."

He traced the lineage to Brown's years on Steve Kerr's bench, where the Warriors ran offense through Draymond Green. Towns is not Green as a passer, but the action worked. New York's stretch run produced averages from Towns near 25 points, 10 rebounds, and seven or eight assists, on roughly 60 percent shooting.

Rich asked the natural follow-up. Will it hold up against Boston or Philly. Windhorst declined to make the easy assumption. The fastest way to look like an idiot, he said, is to predict anything in the middle of the NBA playoffs.

What he would say is the Knicks are looking at the bracket and seeing a real opportunity. They could be the top seed in the East by Sunday night.

Rich closed with a question Windhorst could not answer: why doesn't the NBA reseed like the NFL. No good excuse, Windhorst said. None.