{"id":791084,"date":"2026-07-29T09:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/791084\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:59:09","slug":"the-knicks-100-no-81-jose-alvarado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/791084\/","title":{"rendered":"The Knicks 100: No. 81 – Jose Alvarado"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning! I hope everything is good stateside. I find it somewhat fitting that as I\u2019m currently on one island in the Caribbean, today\u2019s honoree has a family lineage going back to another one not far away\u2026 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How much is nine minutes and 40 seconds of basketball worth?<\/p>\n

Before we get to that answer (and why I\u2019m asking the question in the first place), a quick list of names to consider:<\/p>\n

Kevin Seraphin. Lavor Postell. The Travii (Knight and Wear). Lee Nailon. Alexey Shved. Cleanthony Early. All of Jerome James. DeAndre Jordan. And of course, the immortal Bob Cluggish, aka, \u201cSluggish Cluggish<\/a>\u201d of the inaugural 1946-47 New York Knickerbockers.<\/p>\n

What do they have in common, you ask? <\/p>\n

All 10 are among the 322 individuals who have scored more regular season points in a Knick uniform than today\u2019s entrant on our list, Jose Alvarado.<\/p>\n

Even in playoff scoring, Alvarado doesn\u2019t rank all that highly. His 75 postseason points slot him 91st all time, a few spots ahead of Anfernee Hardaway (yes, that Anfernee Hardaway, who scored 66 points in the most forgettable playoff series<\/a> in Knicks history).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that Alvarado didn\u2019t have #meaningful moments during his first four months in New York following a midseason trade with the Pelicans. His Super Bowl Sunday debut in Boston was solid, followed two days later by the pre-All-Star explosion in Philly. Right after the break, he had three of his five steals in the fourth quarter of a comeback victory over the Rockets.<\/p>\n

After that, Alvarado went nine straight games without hitting a three. He had a few nice starts in place of Jalen Brunson against tanking teams over the final month, but lost his spot in the rotation right before the playoffs and didn\u2019t see the court in the Knicks\u2019 Game 1 win over Atlanta.<\/p>\n

And then, with the Knicks down 2-1 to the Hawks, everything flipped. Jose connected from downtown in seven straight games, regaining his spot in the rotation in the process. He had a quiet Eastern Conference Finals but became more valuable than ever when the calendar flipped to June. In a series the Knicks wound up outscoring the Spurs by a total of 12 points, they outpaced San Antonio by 20 points in Alvarado\u2019s 60 minutes.<\/p>\n

None were more important than the nine minutes and 40 seconds he played in the fourth quarter of Game 4. His role in that comeback begs two questions: <\/p>\n

Do the Knicks win Game 4 without him? <\/p>\n

Do they win the championship without winning Game 4?<\/p>\n

The answer to the first question, confidently, is no. <\/p>\n

Alvarado was a perfect 3-for-3 from the field, and every basket was massive in its own way. His first three cut the deficit back under 20 after San Antonio\u2019s counterpunch. His spinning layup past his former high school rival came right after a De\u2019Aaron Fox triple seemed to give the Spurs some momentum. And finally, his 3-pointer with 3:07 to go got the Knicks back within four after a Wemby make. Fittingly enough, he assisted Jalen Brunson on his triple over Wembanyama on the very next possession, pulling the Knicks within one.<\/p>\n

He also chipped in two boards and two more dimes, including a pump fake-and-drive dish that pulled in Wemby on an OG corner three. His presence as a second trusted ball-handler was arguably the most significant tactical adjustment of the entire series.<\/p>\n

So\u2026do they win the series without winning that game? Who knows, but I\u2019m sure happy we didn\u2019t have to find out.<\/p>\n

That uncertainty is enough for me to slot Alvarado 81st here, ahead of his fellow bench guard Jordan Clarkson, who was also in and out of the rotation but didn\u2019t have a moment on the level of Jose\u2019s fourth quarter in Game 4.<\/p>\n

As for the six names immediately ahead of him\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning! I hope everything is good stateside. I find it somewhat fitting that as I\u2019m currently on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-791084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}