Satisfied, after the Knicks lost the Eastern Conference Final, A. Smith labeled the Knicks as "exceeded expectations"

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith labeled the team as "exceeded expectations" after the Knicks lost to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals.

New York Knicks lost to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals six games, and fans are now debating whether the team is beyond expectations or below expectations. As the Knicks have been rumored in the offseason, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith will express his opinion on whether the team has reached an acceptable height.

Smith said on First Take that the New York Knicks “overcompleted their mission” as they beat the Boston Celtics, even though Jason Tatum’s season-reimbursed injury changed the course of the series. He mentioned that people could have expected them to be low because they lost to the top team in the regular season and eventually lost to the Indiana Pacers again in the playoffs.

"Well, I think they exceeded the task," Smith said. "I think when you're only two games away from the NBA Finals, they're overdone. Because even if we expected them to have one of the best starting squads before the game started, they ended up going to the Eastern Conference Finals."

" Then, during the regular season, we saw the New York Knicks against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Boston Celtics and the Oklahoma City Thunder, who actually had a 0-10 record, not winning in 10 games against the three top NBA teams," Smith continued. "So, as the playoffs approach... in all of us, the New York Knicks will go home in the second round like last year, which is a foregone conclusion."

Stephen A. Smith said the Knicks "should have performed better"

{1 If anything, it is that Smith is ultimately disappointed with the New York Knicks’ performance this season because “they should have been better than last season.”

"So, because of that, I'm going to focus on the New York Knicks, we didn't expect them to go to the Eastern Conference Finals because we didn't expect them to beat the Boston Celtics, but they did," Smith said. "The problem is, they lost to the team they lost to last year, and they should have performed better this year, but that's not the case."

In any case, the Knicks ended up with a record of 51 wins and 31 losses, ranking third in the Eastern Conference and eventually advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.