Knicks Win Streak Leads to Power Rankings Surge

The New York Knicks have won nine of their last ten games and are inching closer to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.

While their one loss during this stretch comes against the first-place Detroit Pistons, the Knicks are angling themselves to be one of the biggest threats to dethroning them in the standings. NBA.com writer John Schuhmann conducted his weekly power rankings and placed the next at No. 4, which is four spots higher than the previous week.

"The Knicks saw their eight-game winning streak come to an end on Friday, when they got clobbered in Detroit for the second time. But they did the clobbering two days later, beating the Celtics to take back second place in the Eastern Conference," Schuhmann wrote.

"The Nuyoricans at Madison Square Garden will get to welcome Alvarado home on Tuesday. The Knicks will then be at a rest disadvantage when they visit the sixth-place Sixers (who are only three games behind them in the loss column) the following night."

New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns drives the ball against Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown. | David Butler II-Imagn Images

Knicks Keep Momentum Going in Power Rankings

The three teams that ranked ahead of the Knicks in the power rankings are the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and the aforementioned Pistons.

A big reason behind the Knicks' success has been their defense, which put together their greatest showing in their latest win against the Boston Celtics.

"More important than one ugly offensive performance may be that the Knicks have had the league’s top-ranked defense by a wide margin (100.8 points allowed per 100 possessions) over their last 10 games," Schuhmann wrote.

"Their win on Sunday was the Celtics‘ worst offensive game of the season (89 points on 94 possessions), though that was mostly about Boston shooting 7-for-41 (17%) from 3-point range. With most of the improvement over these 10 games being about how poorly (28.2%) the opponents have shot from beyond the arc, it may not be sustainable."

If the Knicks are going to be the best team in the league, it will be due to their defense. That is what will drive their success and it's what turns good teams into great ones.

If the Knicks can keep things up in the final week of the first half of the season against the Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers, they should find themselves with a lot of momentum after the All-Star break for a chance to catch the Pistons at No. 1.

Make sure you bookmark Knicks on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!