While Nelson had been a successful coach before joining the Knicks, his offensive-oriented Nellie Ball philosophy failed to mesh with the team, and during the 1995–96 season, Nelson was fired after 59 games, and, instead of going after another well-known coach, the Knicks hired longtime assistant Jeff Van Gundy, who had no prior experience as a head coach. Van Gundy, who restored the team's defense-first style of his mentor Pat Riley, went 13–10 the rest of the way. The Knicks ended up with a 47–35 record that year, and swept the Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs before losing to the eventual champion Bulls (who had an NBA record 72 wins in the regular season) in five games.
While Nelson had been a successful coach before joining the Knicks, his offensive-oriented Nellie Ball philosophy failed to mesh with the team, and during the 1995–96 season, Nelson was fired after 59 games, and, instead of going after another well-known coach, the Knicks hired longtime assistant Jeff Van Gundy, who had no prior experience as a head coach. Van Gundy, who restored the team's defense-first style of his mentor Pat Riley, went 13–10 the rest of the way The Knicks ended up with a 47–35 record that year, and swept the Cavaliers in the first roun.d of the playoffs before losing to the eventual champion Bulls (who had an NBA record 72 wins in the regular season) in five games.