The New York Knicks did the unthinkable against the Boston Celtics in Game 1 when they erased a 20-point lead, and shocked the reigning NBA champions into submission. Given the level of difficulty involved, you might think the Knicks already delivered their best punch in this series, and then still barely won, leaving them uniquely vulnerable in the games to come.
You might think all of that. You'd be wrong, but you might think it.
Forgive yourself if you do. Just as the natural impulse with the Knicks down 20 in Game 1 was to declare their season over, the inclination to look at their comeback, their scrambling and switching defense, the number of wide-open looks Boston missed, and the energy expended as a perfect storm of circumstances that won't repeat themselves is strong.
Resist that temptation, though. Because for as good as these Knicks were to close Game 1, they have room to improve in meaningful ways.
Karl-Anthony Towns will be better
Jekyll-and-Hyde acts are part of the Karl-Anthony Towns experience. Minnesota Timberwolves fans already know this. The Knicks and their fans now know it, too. Especially on the heels of their first-round series against the Detroit Pistons.
Game 1, of course, was far from the worst version of Towns New York has seen. He defended well on a bunch of possessions, including when it came to some high-stakes floor navigation down the stretch.
Yet, he can and will be better. He won’t spend as much time in foul trouble every game, and his offensive decision-making will improve. This doesn’t mean he’ll suddenly start playmaking out of his drives. But he won’t just aimlessly dribble into a Al Horford-sized brick wall at the rim or get tunnel vision attacking mismatches as often, either.
There is also obvious room for Towns to take more threes. To be fair, this is something you can say after virtually every performance. He is attempting under five triples per 36 minutes in the playoffs. That is much too low for someone with his outside touch and gravity, and when he’s spending so much time alongside the non-threatening-from-distance Josh Hart.
Monday's performance fell on the more extreme end of the spectrum. Towns attempted just one three-pointer. Foul trouble and Boston's defense contributed to the low volume, but he was also too quick to venture inside the arc after popping beyond it after certain screens.
Mikal Bridges has more to offer on offense, too
Mikal Bridges is coming off a nearly no-notes defensive performance in Game 1 that featured a win-sealing steal. It will be tough to expect more from him on the less glamorous end—as well as OG Anunoby and Josh Hart, for that matter—moving forward.
The offensive side of the floor? Now that is a different story.
Bridges finished Game1 shooting 3-of-13 from the floor (23.1 percent), including just 1-of-8 on two pointers (12.5 percent). Some of his misses will invariably become makes, even relative to his offensive struggles throughout the postseason.
You may not love watching his turnaround fadeaways, or him snaking into the lane off screens only to bail out for a mid-range jumper rather than attack the hoop. But those are looks on which he subsists, and just two or three of his attempts from Monday night felt truly forced. More of his usual mid-range attempts will find the bottom of the net.
New York also has the runway to get more creative with how it deploys him. Some of Bridges' on-ball usage has transitioned to OG Anunoby following Brunson's return from a sprained right ankle to close the regular season—for obvious reasons. That's fine. The Knicks can involve him more by increasing his possessions as the screener, and by getting him the ball when he's matched up against Payton Pritchard, as he was quite often in Game 1.
There is more New York can do to upset Boston
There are number of other things the Knicks can do to improve off their opening victory over Boston. Some of it's even lower-hanging fruit.
The Celtics won't miss a bunch of wide-open threes forever, but New York can try its hand at more aggressively running them off the line, rather than conceding those looks outright. There will be times when Boston isn't employing Maul-a-Mitch strategies, and when Towns isn't in foul trouble. That'll limit (read: erase) the amount of time head coach Tom Thibodeau is compelled to run out lineups with both Hart and Precious Achiuwa in them.
Brunson's shot attempts are not going to get any easier. The Celtics won't allow it. He is their primary focus. But going 4-of-14 on twos (28.5 percent) is very unBrunson-like, regardless of the defense he's facing.
Make no mistake, Boston can and will be better as well. Game 1 was far from the Celtics' best stuff, and they still managed to build a gargantuan lead. But just because they weren't in peak form doesn't automatically mean the Knicks were. They decidedly were not.
They played well, they scrapped and clawed, they showed gobs of resolve and schematic versatility, and they put Boston on notice. And they can still be better.
Dan Favale is a Senior NBA Contributor for FanSided and National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.