With the Knicks one win from reaching the NBA Finals after a 3-0 lead over the Cavaliers, Josh Hart turned James Dolan’s January “get to the Finals” message into a joke about being traded—while Dolan’s own comments on New York radio framed the stakes and the e
The moment Josh Hart walked into the Knicks’ rhythm, he pulled the group closer with a joke—and a little pressure, at least in public.
“Better get to the Finals or we’re going to get traded. ” Hart said. speaking with the team in a series where it has one victory separating it from the NBA Finals. The punchline landed in the middle of a very real situation: the Knicks hold a 3-0 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Hart didn’t leave it there. He also explained why Dolan’s remarks haven’t made the locker room feel any heavier. “Because that’s the goal that we all have. Obviously, it hits a little bit different when the big dog says it.”
Dolan’s “big dog” status goes back to January. when the New York Knicks governor made his expectations plain during an appearance on the New York station WFAN. He said, “I’d say we want to get to the Finals and we should win the Finals. This is sports; anything can happen. Getting to the Finals, we absolutely have to do. Winning the Finals, we should do.”.
For a franchise that hasn’t been to the NBA Finals since 1999 and hasn’t won a championship since 1973. the language from the top has the effect of turning a postseason run into a declaration. Last season. New York got close—reaching the Eastern Conference Finals—only to lose to the Indiana Pacers one step short of the league’s biggest stage.
Now it looks like the Knicks may finally be ready to make that next leap. They have defeated the Cavaliers by a combined 29 points over the last two games, turning “one more series” into something closer to inevitability—at least on paper.
Game 1 is where the emotional momentum fully shifted. New York overcame a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter, then won in overtime. After that, the Cavaliers haven’t been able to recover from the loss.
That’s why Monday’s Game 4 matters so much. Jalen Brunson and Co. have a chance to close out the series. If they do, the Knicks would also gain a rare kind of postseason luxury: rest and recovery before their next opponent.
Their timing could be even better than it feels right now. The Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs is tied at two games apiece. and the matchup could still stretch through a full seven games. The NBA Finals begin June 3. so a Knicks win on Monday would give them more than a full week of recovery time while their eventual opponent works through a back-and-forth series against another elite team.
Being the more-rested team would naturally raise expectations in the Finals. Dolan already tried to set that expectation back in January—turning the Knicks’ goal into something his team would have to carry all the way through.
On the court, Hart’s trade-joke offered a release valve. But on the scoreboard, the Knicks are still chasing the exact thing Dolan publicly demanded: getting to the NBA Finals—and, as he put it, winning them.
Josh Hart James Dolan New York Knicks NBA Finals Eastern Conference Finals Cleveland Cavaliers Jalen Brunson WFAN Knicks vs Cavaliers Game 4 Oklahoma City Thunder San Antonio Spurs NBA schedule June 3