While the rest of the Eastern Conference grinds through Game 7s, the New York Knicks are already resting, recovering, and sharpening their game. The Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, and Cleveland Cavaliers all needed a decisive seventh game to settle their first-round series. The Knicks? They wrapped things up in six games, handling business with authority.

That efficiency earned them an extra day of practice at the team's Tarrytown training facility on Saturday—even if they still don't know who they'll face in the second round. With the Celtics and 76ers locked in a Game 7 battle, the Knicks are using the uncertainty to focus inward.

"Well, you can always get better. It's about us," head coach Mike Brown said after Saturday's session. "And a lot of times, it's about us even if we know who we're playing. There's plenty that you can work on without knowing who your opponent is because you're trying to get better, or sharper, in the areas that make you who you are."

That mindset has paid off in a big way. After dropping two of the first three games against the Atlanta Hawks, the Knicks flipped a switch. They dominated Game 4 by 16 points, crushed Game 5 by 29, and then delivered a historic beatdown in Game 6, leading by as many as 61 points in an elimination game that sent shockwaves through the league.

Meanwhile, the rest of the East is still fighting for survival. The top-seeded Pistons needed a Game 7 to dispatch the eighth-seeded Magic. The Celtics—dealing with a Jayson Tatum injury from Game 6—are battling the Sixers in a winner-take-all showdown. And the Cavaliers were stunned in Game 6 by a R.J. Barrett prayer of a game-winner in Toronto, forcing a Game 7 back in Cleveland.

While the chaos unfolds around them, the Knicks are staying locked in on their own game plan. "I haven't really thought about it. It's one of those things where you can't really worry about," team captain Jalen Brunson explained. "You have to control what you can control, focus on one day at a time and focus on the task at hand. Those things you try not to think about, because you just can't control those things."

The Knicks aren't buying into the hype that they're the team to beat in the East. They're too busy putting in the work—and waiting for their next opponent to finally catch up.