{"id":478654,"date":"2026-02-16T14:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/478654\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:31:08","slug":"knicks-title-run-an-unexpected-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/478654\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks&#8217; title run? An unexpected MVP?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When the NBA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/14\/sports\/the-post-answers-the-10-pressing-nba-questions-entering-the-second-half\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">regular season schedule resumes<\/a> on Thursday, the spotlight will swivel to Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks will host the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons, following a pair of blowout losses \u2014 by a combined 69 points \u2014 in Detroit this season. The potential conference finals preview also marks the Pistons\u2019 first trip to New York since they stole two of three games at the Garden during last season\u2019s first round playoff series.<\/p>\n<p>The first matchup after the All-Star break will also be the start of a grueling 10-game stretch for the Knicks in which they will face eight projected playoff teams \u2014 including most of the league\u2019s top title contenders (Oklahoma City, Denver, San Antonio, Houston, Detroit, Cleveland) \u2014 perhaps providing a better picture of their prospects this spring.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the Knicks\u2019 status as a top contender in the East, it <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/12\/sports\/knicks-hit-peak-on-their-wild-ride-now-comes-next-challenge\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">remains difficult to gauge<\/a> where they stand among the league\u2019s elite, having entered the All-Star break after alternating an embarrassment in Detroit and a puzzling home <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/10\/sports\/knicks-take-worst-lost-of-season-to-pitiful-pacers-in-overtime\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">loss to the tanking Pacers<\/a> with blowout wins in Boston <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/11\/sports\/knicks-head-into-all-star-break-with-49-point-demolition-of-76ers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">and Philadelphia<\/a>. The Knicks have gone 16-14 against teams over .500, and just 13-13 on the road this season.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also unclear how much seeding and home-court will even matter for the Knicks (35-20) \u2014 who are one game up on the Cavaliers for the No. 3 seed and a half-game back of the Celtics for No. 2 \u2014 considering the Jalen Brunson-led team has been knocked out by lower-seeded teams in three straight postseasons and also gone 2-0 as the lower-seeded team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the NBA\u2019s regular season schedule resumes on Thursday, the spotlight will swivel to Madison Square Garden, where&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[193962,49,24617,48,19284,459,2901,5725,28496,6691,82,2089,21217],"class_list":{"0":"post-478654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-beyond-the-back-page","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-cade-cunningham","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-jalen-brunson","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-nikola-jokic","16":"tag-post-sports-newsletters","17":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sports-plus","20":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}