Surging Knicks will enter Eastern Conference Finals as prohibitive favorite after second-round sweep

PHILADELPHIA - A few notes from Game 4 of the Knicks’ sweep of the Sixers:

AWAKENED IN ATLANTA

The seeds for the Knicks’ demolition in Philadelphia were planted about three weeks ago.

The Knicks, in Miles McBride’s words, got "punched in the mouth" by the Hawks in Game 3 of their first-round series.

Instead of wilting, New York considered it a wake-up call.

Yes, the Knicks changed their offense after that loss on April 23 -- that’s been well-documented.

But the offense isn’t the only thing that changed.

“I feel like our mindset shifted,” McBride told SNY. “We know we’re the better team (but) we can’t just come out there and expect to win, because they’re talented too. So I feel like our mindset just shifted totally to ‘take the game’ instead of (waiting for) them to give us the game.”

McBride certainly had a "take the game" approach on Sunday.

He made four three-pointers in an 81-second span to give the Knicks an early 14-point lead.

New York never looked back, building a 24-point lead at halftime and going up by as many as 44 in the second half.

They beat Philadelphia by 30 to extend their playoff win streak to seven games, winning each of those by an average of 26.4 points.

Given the circumstances, has any Knick team in the last 50 years played a better seven-game stretch?

Don’t think so.

Now New York will enter the Eastern Conference Finals as the prohibitive favorite.

“I think the more we’ve played together as a team, the more we’ve grown. And we’ve continued to get better,” said. “It’s a chemistry thing. It’s a feel thing. It’s how things get better. Things get better over time.”