who knows what the spurs will become, but ready to see the brakes on any kind of thunder franchise dynastic ascension…

hope the surging spurs deny okc from consecutive finals appearances…and then we deny the spurs another championship…they already have a legacy…

we’re about 3 to 4 chips short of that…it would be great to take one from them…

Jalen Williams ruled out tomorrow

The universe wants Brian happy, so they want Game 1 to be in San Antonio on Wednesday.

Start with the thing that’s been true all postseason: this team has no single point of failure. Most contenders give you a lever to pull — sell out on the one engine, hunt the one weak defender, attack the one undersized spot. The Knicks don’t hand you that. Brunson, Towns, Bridges, and OG can all get a bucket, so you can’t load up on any of them. The wing trio lets them guard every perimeter type and shift big or small at will. And they’re built for exactly the basketball that wins in late May — a half-court grind where Brunson’s iso is a cheat code when possessions tighten. The bonus nobody talks about: when they get out and run, those 130- and 140-point nights against Cleveland weren’t half-court grinds. Take away the paint, they push pace. Get back to stop the break, they execute. Pick one.

Then there’s the defense, which has been the best in the playoffs and has already answered the question both Western teams want to ask. They smothered Embiid. Donovan Mitchell got his numbers and it didn’t matter — Cleveland still got swept, because the cast went silent. They limited Maxey, who’s a better, more proven creator than anything San Antonio puts next to Wembanyama. That’s the template: let the star have his 35, suffocate everybody else, and watch the empty calories pile up. A star scoring a lot doesn’t beat this team. The points that beat you are the ones the supporting cast adds, and the supporting cast disappears against New York.

Which brings us to the Wemby question, because it’s the only real one. And the answer is Karl-Anthony Towns. Wembanyama’s whole defensive value is anchoring the paint — but you cannot sit in the lane against the best shooting big in the game. Drag him to the arc and his rim protection is gone. Sag him off and KAT buries threes. And KAT is stronger, so when Wemby’s instincts scream at him to leave his feet and block something, KAT drives through the closeout and sprays to a shooter — and we have killed teams all playoff long spraying. Add Mitchell Robinson, who attacks the offensive glass precisely where Wemby is weakest, since shot-blockers gamble and lose their box-out. I’m going to assume Mitch plays. The supposed kryptonite turns into a chess match the thin Spurs cast has to win over and over. I don’t think they can.

The honest caveat: Game 1 is on the road, and the Knicks are coming off 10 days of rest. A rusty, cold-shooting first game in a loud building is the one nightmare. But rust threatens the first twelve minutes; fatigue threatens the West champ all series after a seven-game war. And this is the team that came back from down 2-1 to Atlanta and erased 22 on Cleveland with eight minutes left. Slow starts don’t snowball with this group.

So knock the dust off early, steal one on the road, and I like the Knicks to be the last team standing. Either way.