The findings, visualized
The same story, in five charts.
Each chart is generated automatically by the pipeline in the official Knicks colors. Read the plain-English takeaway first, then the detail. New to basketball stats? The cheat sheet below decodes every term.
Plain-English cheat sheet
- Net Rating
- Points a 5-man group scores minus points it gives up, per 100 trips down the floor. +18 means they outscored the opponent by ~18 every 100 possessions.
- True Shooting % (TS%)
- Scoring efficiency that properly credits 3-pointers and free throws. League average is ~58%. Above 64% is elite.
- Usage Rate (USG%)
- How often a player is the one who finishes the play — the shot, free throw, or turnover. High usage = the offense runs through him.
- ICE / DROP / SWITCH
- Three ways to defend the pick-and-roll. ICE walls the ball toward the sideline; DROP keeps the big man back; SWITCH trades defenders.
Chart 1 · The sweep
The margins got bigger every game.
What you're looking at: each game's final score and how much the Knicks won by, left to right.
- Average win margin: +19.3 points across four games
- The trend: the lead grew from +11 in Game 1 to +37 in Game 4
- The read: Cleveland never found an adjustment that worked
Chart 2 · Best lineups
The bench unit was the team's best group.
What you're looking at: how badly each 5-man group beat Cleveland, per 100 possessions. Taller bar = bigger beating.
- Bench mob (+18.4): McBride, Shamet, Alvarado, Clarkson, Robinson
- Starters (+18.2): Brunson, Bridges, Anunoby, Hart, Towns
- The read: a second unit this strong is a luxury most contenders don't have — Shamet alone hit 8 of 9 threes across Games 3 and 4
Chart 3 · Best defense
ICE coverage was the difference-maker.
What you're looking at: how the Knicks did with each of their three defensive tactics. Orange = net result.
- ICE: +21.1 per 100 — the coverage Cleveland never solved
- DROP: +6.0 — fine in spots, situational
- SWITCH: −0.4 — essentially a coin flip
- The swing: 21 points per 100 between their best and worst tactic
Chart 4 · Who did what
Brunson did the heavy lifting; the role players were ruthless.
What you're looking at: each player's workload (how far right) vs. their shooting efficiency (how high up). Top-right is the dream zone.
- Brunson: 102 points, highest workload — the engine and series MVP
- Anunoby: 65% efficiency on low usage — quietly the most efficient scorer
- Towns & Bridges: both above 64% — premium scoring without needing the ball
Chart 5 · The data check
Four bad rows were caught before they touched a single number.
What you're looking at: the automated quality check. Real data feeds break — this proves the pipeline catches it instead of silently reporting garbage.
- A player credited with 18 made shots on only 4 attempts — impossible
- A row missing the minutes-played field entirely
- A row with no player ID and one with negative minutes
- The point: all four were quarantined and logged — none reached the analysis