The Knicks woke up in time to seize a weak Eastern Conference

Few teams entered the postseason under more pressure than the Knicks. Owner James Dolan's Finals-or-bust expectations, combined with an inconsistent regular season performance, ratcheted up the heat on New York entering the playoffs.

There was a point in the first round where it looked like the pressure would smother the Knicks, who lost consecutive one-point games to the Atlanta Hawks to fall behind 2-1 in their best-of-seven series. New York was able to flip a switch in Game 4, however, and simply dominated the Hawks the rest of the way to become the first team in the East to reach the second round.

Thursday night's historic blowout of the Hawks was a truly terrifying display of basketball from the Knicks, who went on a 63-11 run in the first half. That kind of domination feels more apt for a buy game in college basketball, where blue bloods like Duke will pay low majors to come to Durham and get blown out, than in an elimination game in the NBA Playoffs.

Anyone who watched the final three games of the series saw a Knicks' team that was truly locked in on the defensive end, harassing Hawks' ball handlers and diving to the floor for every loose ball. Even the much-maligned Mikal Bridges, who saw his minutes cut in favor of Deuce McBride, stepped up with a 24-point performance in the clincher.

The Knicks may be the favorites to win the East right now

A look around the rest of the Eastern Conference makes it easy to buy into the Knicks as the favorites to reach the NBA Finals right now. Their next opponent will be either Boston, which has looked sloppy in the first round, or Philadelphia, which is a flawed group trying to rally from a 3-1 deficit against the Celtics.

The other side of the bracket isn't much better. Detroit, which bullied the Knicks in the regular season, is on the brink of elimination after being out-physicaled by an underachieving Magic team. Cleveland is also underachieving in the postseason, going into a Game 6 situation with Toronto tonight despite having significantly more offensive firepower than the Raptors.

Matchups will be the name of the game from here on out but Mike Brown has shown the ability to adjust his rotations on the fly, which is key. Brown received criticism after being too cute with his rest for Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, notably leaving both off the floor for extended stretches in New York's two losses, but he rectified that in Game 4.

The bench, which was a weakness last year when Tom Thibodeau refused to trust more than 7 players during the regular season, has more options this year as well. While McBride and Mitchell Robinson have established themselves as key reserves, Brown adjusted his rotations when it became clear that Jose Alvarado would be more necessary as a secondary ball handler than Landry Shamet was as a wing defender.

Alvarado had fallen out of the rotation at the end of the regular season, but Brown knew his skill set would be important in this series. The same can be said of Brown's decision to increase McBride's minutes at the expense of Bridges', which provided a necessary spark to New York in the second half of the series.

Closing out this series in six also gave the Knicks a few days of rest ahead of Game 1 of their second-round matchup. That rest edge could be critical as Boston and Philadelphia are set to play a do-or-die Game 7 on Saturday night, giving them a chance to jump out in front early in the next series.

We still have a long way to go in the playoffs but the Knicks may have unlocked their final form. It is too soon to tell if that form is good enough to take down a Western Conference behemoth, but New York certainly looks like the biggest threat out East right now.

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