Knicks’ toughness has lifted them beyond expectations

We’ve heard forever — and admittedly regurgitated by myself — that the path to NBA success is through superstars.

The Knicks chased that for a long time, pitching plans involving cap space and high draft choices and mega-trades for box-office attractions.

Yet here we are today, April of 2024, enjoying the most exciting NYC basketball team in decades, with its roster built on college friendships and connectivity and grunt work.

Josh Hart exemplifies the tough identity behind the Knicks’ success. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

The most impressive statistic about these Knicks, often overlooked, is that not a single member of the rotation was a lottery pick. You can’t say that about any other team in the NBA, let alone one in the playoffs. Take out the injured Julius Randle — who hasn’t logged a second since January — and the highest pick is Donte DiVincenzo, hardly a blue-chipper out of high school, at No. 17.

More than half their rotation were second-rounders — Jalen Brunson, Isaiah Hartenstein, Mitchell Robinson, Miles McBride and Bojan Bogdanovic.

The other half share the same trait.

“They’re all overachievers,” Greg Anthony, the former Knick and current TNT analyst, told The Post. “There’s not one guy in their rotation who is not an overachiever.”

In all walks of life and human existence, it takes a certain personality to outgrow the outside expectations. Most of that is about commitment, about effort.

Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein #55 greets New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson #11 after Brunson scores during the third quarter. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

In basketball, that best translates to more possessions. And that’s exactly how the Knicks beat the Sixers on Monday night, with two extra DiVincenzo shots in the final 20 seconds — one off a strip by Josh Hart, the other from Hartenstein’s offensive rebound.

The team from the corporate capital is more blue collar than the Sixers of Rocky’s hometown. The Knicks’ core — Brunson, Hart and DiVincenzo — hung banners in Philadelphia as NCAA champs from the elite private school in the suburbs outside the ‘gritty’ city, and now they return for Thursday’s Game 3 with a chance to dig the Sixers’ grave.

No NBA team has recovered from a 3-0 series deficit.

“They just outwork,” said Anthony, who is calling the Thursday game at Wells Fargo Center for TNT. “They get the ball more than you do. They just seem to want it more. Their basketball instincts are just superior.

“They rarely will go into a game where you look at on paper and say, ‘They’re more talented.’ But ultimately they win that game because they had more will.”

It’s reminiscent of the identity forged by Anthony’s Knicks squads, roughly 30 years ago.

“Our ’90s basketball teams weren’t up there when you look at basketball talent. But we were really talented from a toughness standpoint. And this group is kind of built like that,” Anthony said. “They’ve been tougher and more physical than Philly. They won the battle of the possessions, the 50-50 balls. They win all those. And those are momentum plays.”

Hart has become the personification of the Knicks’ repurposed identity, an undersized forward who reacts to loose balls like a bloodhound to a rabbit. He’s part of a group that cleans the glass better than any team in the league, an identity cultivated by the NBA’s grunty coach, Tom Thibodeau.

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau with center Isaiah Hartenstein #55, during practice. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

Even with Brunson in a shooting funk, they managed to beat the Sixers twice, a team with the reigning MVP (Joel Embiid) — albeit hobbled with a balky knee — and the winner of the Most Improved Player (Maxey).

Hartenstein, sporting gashes on his arm in the locker room Monday after grabbing the offensive rebound that led to DiVincenzo’s game-winner, wasn’t ready to celebrate the victory.

“It doesn’t mean much,” he said. “The job’s not finished.”

That’s an admirable mindset but a 2-0 series lead does mean this: a 93 percent chance of advancing, according to the results of the NBA’s long history.

Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo #0 reacts after he hits the game winning three point shot over 76ers Nicolas Batum late in the fourth quarter. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

And the Knicks reached that point by bringing back an identity.

“They epitomize the city, man,” Anthony said. “They built this team that way. And Thibs coaches that way.”