Breathe.
At 9:07 PM Eastern time this evening, late in the first quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Spurs’ Harrison Barnes went flying into Jalen Brunson’s lower leg. The Knicks captain grimaced, and limped, and asked off. He doesn’t ask off. He went to the locker room in obvious pain.
And, just like that, back it all came. All those years, all the heartbreak, the intermittent head-fakes towards glory and the ultimate resignation to cruel, unrelenting fate. Starks can’t hit a jumper. Reggie can’t miss one. Half the team leaps off the bench in Miami. Ewing’s body finally quits on him. Melo can’t share the spotlight. The whole team gets hurt in the spring of 2024. That damn Halliburton shot goes in the year after.
Of course. Of COURSE. It wasn’t just over, it was over IMMEDIATELY. Shame on us for thinking we could have nice things. We weren’t even going to get to watch our actual team lose. And they weren’t just “going to lose.” We were never even going to get to find out whether they could have won.
In the couple of hours since I resigned myself to the inevitability that the Brunsonless Knicks were about to be swept in four games, those selfsame Knicks took a 1-0 lead in the NBA Finals, via a 105-95 win powered in significant part by the captain’s 13 fourth quarter points, 30 overall. His knee is fine. The ankle he appeared to turn in the second quarter? Also fine. My man was spinning, twirling, stutter-stepping death in the fourth quarter. Same as it ever was. Mitch Robinson’s notoriously broken hand? Didn’t seem to limit him. OG Anunoby’s hamstring? A mere footnote to history. What’s that? KAT goes clattering to the floor, looks to hit his head, gets called for an offensive foul in the process? Merely a flesh wound. Dominates the rest of the quarter, keeps us in the game.
This is simply not how things go for us, friends. Or at least not how they used to go. The fundamental essence of this franchise is two parts bluster, one part blunder, one part snake venom. Or at least it was.
What is it now? I don’t know yet. There’s still a long way to go here. It’s still entirely possible that this is the biggest setup of them all, a team that checks all the boxes, the ur-Knicks as we’ve flattered ourselves to see them, lo these many years. Passing, defense, togetherness. Swagger, but an earned swagger. Emotional connection to the crowd and to the city. Is this all just building to one final bait-and-switch? A rug-pull that hurts all the more because of how unprecedentedly well the rug ties the fuckin’ room together?
Or, OR…is this it? I wrote earlier today that I have felt all season like I’m watching the middle of a story and have a sense for how it’s going to end. Is this how it feels when it’s truly about to happen? Because if it is, drink it in. Feel it, remember it. Journey over destination and all that. If it happens, it will be over in a moment. Gotta savor all the other moments along the way.
The performance itself was a story of too many heroes. Karl Towns — 18, 12, and 4. Stretches of offensive dominance. Pulled Wemby away from the rim, ran around Luke Kornet when the Spurs tried that brilliant idea. Do not put Luke Kornet on this man, Mitch Johnson, you can have that one for free. KAT played mostly excellent on-ball defense against the big Frenchman, whose 26 points came on 6/21 shooting. A clip of him shouting at the team to maintain defensive intensity during a first half timeout. Again, this is Karl-Anthony Towns. We forget how young these guys are, how incredible it is to truly see one of them grow up before your eyes.
Josh Hart. Josh HART, man. 3 fouls in his first 7 minutes, looked like bad Josh. Only 1 in his final 20 minutes. +22 and it felt like it. The Most Josh Hart Statline Imaginable: 3 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals. Everywhere on the glass, active in the passing lanes, on every loose ball. He couldn’t hit a shot and we lose this game by 15 without him.
Ogugua Anunoby. This guy. I haven’t been hanging around this parish lately so you might not know that I have been calling this guy the most underrated player in the league since basically the moment he showed up. I can’t believe people don’t see him as an out and out star. Tonight he came out…weird? Pressing? Erratic? No matter. A couple massive threes as the Knicks formally seized control of the game. Again, the passing lanes. If we win this series we’re going to win it in transition and it will be him, and it will be Hart, and it will be Deuce and Bridges. This is Stephon Castle’s nightmare. That dude is going to be an All-NBA player but he needs to tighten that stuff up fast because these guys are coming for him. He might be able to. He might not, and if he doesn’t then we’ll be dancing in a couple weeks.
Jose Alvarado. The guy completely stabilized the situation while Brunson was in the locker room; it could have gotten away right there. Ran the offense well, hit some threes. Was fearless. Went right at them, went right to the rim, let them know we can take a punch. We truly don’t win this game without the shift he put in right in that moment. That’s the season with this team — next man up, give us 10 great minutes, thanks for your service, back to your plougshare. We’ll let you know when we need you again Jose Alvarado, Tyler Kolek, Landry Shamet, Mo Diawara. That doesn’t just happen. That takes time, takes leadership, takes the kind of team- and culture-building that can’t be shortcutted. That’s not just a hoops thing, it’s a life thing. I love this team.
We got a loud DEEEEEEEUCE chant 1,800 miles from Madison Square Garden. This fanbase, man. He was +11 in 19 minutes. Didn’t shoot particularly well but got a couple of high leverage triples. Swung the ball, compressed the defense, didn’t turn it over. Knicks had 8 total turnovers on offense and 8 steals on defense — it’s tough to beat a team that washes those two numbers out.
And then there’s Jalen Brunson. He was not our best player tonight, he was not our most important player tonight. He shot 12 for 31, turned the ball over 4 times, was vulnerable on defense, refs weren’t really buying what he was selling in traffic either. The middle of the sandwich was pretty rough.
And yet:
12:00 – 1st: Karl-Anthony Towns vs. Victor Wembanyama (Josh Hart gains possession)
11:45 – 1st: Jalen Brunson makes 26-foot three point jumper (Karl-Anthony Towns assists)
Tone: set.
And yet:
7:22 – 4th: Jalen Brunson makes 3-foot two point shot
6:52 – 4th: Jalen Brunson makes free throw 1 of 2
6:52 – 4th: Jalen Brunson makes free throw 2 of 2
6:34 – 4th: Jalen Brunson makes running layup
6:07 – 4th: Jalen Brunson makes 4-foot two point shot
That’s a personal 8-0 run out of an 86-86 tie to pull ahead in the fourth. Looked to my eyes like he’d won it but then they all went cold for four minutes, gave it away, went down by 1 with 2 minutes left. Exhausted. Lid on the basket. A game that felt like a nice-to-have for a couple of hours had become a must-have, and had just as quickly been lost.
And then:
1:50 – 4th: Jalen Brunson makes 23-foot three point jumper (Mikal Bridges assists)
97-95 Knicks. Spurs didn’t score another point.
One more moment for Cap, a pull-up victory cigar with 38 seconds on the clock. 101-95. Nothing left after that but half-hearted fouling and the start of the party for the ample away contingent in the crowd after that.
It’s so tempting to look at those heroics and let it wash away the fact that the guy was 7-for-26 on the shots that I haven’t just cherry-picked above. To me, though, that would misunderstand it. These guys have each other’s backs, the Nova guys have had each other’s backs for a decade. This is what this team is, and this part of it is Brunson’s job. And it’s more than that. I don’t know if clutch is a thing, I don’t know if this man can possibly be this reliable in these moments forever.
But do you know who I would wager thinks he can? The Spurs. And the Cavs. And the Sixers. And the Hawks. And everybody else who sees the clock ticking down, sees him across the way, and thinks we gotta be PERFECT or else this Braided Babadook is going to do it again. We’ve played against these guys forever. Jordan and Reggie and Pierce and Trae, say what you will about them, you watched those games and you thought we better build a lead because if we don’t, then it’s coming.
I’ll tell you who else thinks he can: the Knicks. The story of this season has been that if you outplay them in the first half, you better finish the job. Cut off the head, settle family business. Because if you let these guys who would follow their captain to the mouth of hell believe that they can stick around, that if diving for that one loose ball, rising for that one rebound, making that one extra pass, getting that one stop, if they can just do THAT, then they’re going to give their captain a chance? And he’s going to take it? Then those things happen. And then he does it again, and they believe even more, and the next thing you know you’ve just gotta win three more of these things against a team of mega-talented 22-year-olds who are probably wondering how he did it again.
This is not over. This is so, so, SO not over. We aren’t sweeping these guys, Wemby isn’t going 6/21 again, Luke Kornet won’t be allowed to even look at KAT again. Dylan Harper won’t get weirdly marginalized again (although, if they want to, be my guest). But then, we’ll shoot better too. We’ll make our own adjustments. We’ll go home to an absolutely electric Garden, a Garden that knows that all we have to do is win our home games now and the job is done. What a thought.
Is this it? Is this how it feels?
Three to go.
See you Friday.
209 replies on “2026 NBA Finals Game 1 Recap: Knicks (1) 105 – Spurs (0) 95”
Beautiful. The game. The recap. Life. All of it.
Alan, was the TV Good tonight?
Now THIS… I can fap to!
I just want to say that when Mike Kurylo asked us to do this and told me the comments were still active and I came and looked and saw how true that was. Damn. You guys.
My heart feels extremely full tonight.
The after game walk out of the stadium with my fellow Knicks fans was euphoria and bedlam as usual. But then leaving the stadium and walking through the parking lot was totally whack, compared to leaving MSG and being in the mosh pit of seventh Avenue. These bitch ass cities cannot compare to New York. The one great thing was passing by the Knicks team buses. And seeing Kurt Thomas. Yeah that’s right crazy eyes was there. He dapped myself and my son up! But nothing matches the energy of Manhattan and New York City. Rest of the country is so pathetic. Thats probably why they hate New York so much. Oh yeah and one last thing- fuck Scott Foster.
Watched this one during my graveyard shift by a cellphone between 3:45 to 6:15.
Time is now 8:56 and my eyes are still wide open as fuck!
Adrenaline is Up!
One more time on a proper Tv before the 2nd game is inevitable!
Like watching a favourite movie for one more time!
Omg I love this place
I’ve seen some coaches have some bad games against the Knicks before, but I don’t think I’ve seen a coach actively fuck over his own team in an NBA Finals game as much as Mitch Johnson tonight.
He was running some absolutely astonishingly bad lineups out there, and the way that he chose Fox over Harper despite Harper having a great game, and Fox playing terribly…I just couldn’t believe how poorly he coached this game, especially the third and fourth quarters.
But fuck it, this team would probably have still beaten the Spurs with a coach who wasn’t actively hurting the Spurs. This team just WINS.
Spurs showed signs of a very athletic and hard to beat team especially during their “high at the 3p line pressing D” time.
BUT they showed also not being capable to use their strong cards properly by taking Crazy Tough shots that favour the opposite D.
Very inconsistent overall gave me a strong impression to believe that in this series Playing Experience matters much more than Raw Talent.
Beautiful recap, thank you.
Kevin McElroy is channeling my soul!
I love this place. I love this team.
Can we have nice things?
Do we, or anyone for that matter truly appreciate Cap’s greatness. No matter the injuries, how shitty he has played most of the game, come crunch time he’s money.
Imagine being a Minnesota fan watching Karl Anthony Towns do that after your team was desperate for answers against Wemby.
Side note: 2-3 weeks ago I pointed out that KAT for finals MVP at 4000-1 was a great bet but I never actually got around to betting it 🤦🏻♂️
No.
The TV was fucking awesome.
Ben Stiller with the beautiful glimpse of the Knicks D collectively making like Wemby on a possession where the Spurs had zero idea what to do:
https://x.com/BenStiller/status/2062437851707347030?s=20
At long last, your New York Knickerbockers are now the official betting favorite to win the NBA championship.
Just watched all of the post-game pressers. Our guys are so locked in, humble, and respectful of the opposition. Such a “root-able” squad.
And KAT makes me so homesick I could cry.
Reporter: What is it about this team when you guys are down big that you guys don’t quit?
KAT: I mean it’s something that’s in the city. You feel that energy in the city. The grit. The grind. The hard work you gotta put in to make it in this city. I think we reflect our fans and their lifestyles and what it takes to make it in New York City when we step on that court with a Knicks jersey.
(Swoooooon)
Things got really dark last night, things were closing in around me in the third quarter. I feel like a phoenix reborn right now.
This was awesome, Kevin. So great to have you guys back.
This is the poignant aspect of this run for me. I can’t still quite believe this will happen. Because it’s almost too much. This team seems lab engineered to make us fall in love with it: the little man beating the tallest dude in the sport, the goofball that all of a sudden has become their anchor, a bunch of hardworking guys that are less naturally talented than the opposing team and still find ways to deliver. How can this be real?!?
I didn’t quite stop believing, because it’s Brunson and this team has done it time and again, but that 9-0 run by the Spurs to take the 95-94 lead was really tough. But then Brunson tips the rebound, hits the corner 3, and the Spurs never score again.
Thanks Marechal. I’ve been unwavering all season on this team but when that happened it felts like “Ohhhh I see the punchline now.” Felt over and it felt painfully obvious in retrospect.
Good morning! Good morning!
This is a wonderful day, but we need to be ready to take the Spurs’ next punch. I don’t think Wemby on KAT is going to last and if Mitch Johnson has any sense he would bench Fox for Harper. Both of those moves would change the dynamic of the next few games, though I trust our guys to figure out those looks as well. Isn’t it beautiful to trust?
I don’t know. I don’t think Johnson will bench Fox for Game 2, it’s just too early and if he does that Mikal and Josh could feast on Castle’s loose handle. I think, though, that Wemby will pull an all-timer for the next game (say, 35-20-5 with 5 blocks) and we will lose. But I also think that it will be the only game the Spurs will win. They don’t look ready to withstand our guys’ sheer determination.
This is beatiful & captures what I’m feeling ATM.
What an amazing morning to wait up to! The Knicks have a lead in the Finals for the first time since 1994! I keep wondering if this is real life or if I’m hallucinating.
Kudos to Brown, I thought the game plan yesterday was pretty great (outside of the long minutes for Clarkson, but he didn’t have great choices). My main complaint from the first half, Champagnie being left open, was quickly corrected at halftime and he had two points the rest of the way. The decision to guard Wemby with KAT and let OG be the offball menace that he is – really amazing stuff.
I keep trying to imagine what Thibs is thinking seeing the Knicks win Game 1 of the finals playing 10 guys, with no starter playing more than 37 min (and only one above 35).
This team is more resilient than 1994’s.
I don’t think the Spurs are done, but check out their body language when they walk back to the locker room after the game. They shake their heads in disgust and look defeated. Not the body language of champions.
I was so nervous, both here and when we went up 8 before that.
I’ve been extremely confident in my thesis that the Spurs are too young and the Knicks will win in 4. But when I actually saw us doing what I thought we’d do, and it still looked like we could lose, I was fucking terrified. That Wemby 3 when Mitch gave him too much space clenched my butt. And then it was just free throw, free throw, free throw, free throw… It was like Scott Foster looked at Wemby and said, “I got you, kid”.
To go on an 11-0 run to end the game like that was incredible.
Tomorrow we’re going to win by 30.
Our defense overall was really good last night, save for leaving Champaigne wide open in the first half. Made things tough for Wemby and shut off penetration for the most part. Daring the Spurs to shoot is the right play. We may get burned for a few minutes, maybe even a half, but I don’t trust them to consistently hit jumpers.
What a time to be alive as a Knicks fan!
One of the constant refrains you hear from the basketball cognoscenti is that even if the Spurs don’t win a chip this year, with Wemby they’ll be winning multiple titles in years to come.
Idk getting to the Finals is hard man, just ask OKC! Sure Wemby is a generational talent and he has some nice young players around him, but this idea that the Spurs are guaranteed to be the next NBA dynasty is a little premature imo.
They’re not going to quit but what else do they got? They’re a blunt instrument. We’re a surgical knife.
We can figure them out. What are they gonna do then, become more athletic? They can’t shoot for shit, and that’s going to get even worse now that the pressure’s on them.
Yeah, unless there’s more there with Wemby, there should be no more talk whatsoever about him as a GOAT contender because he wasn’t in the same galaxy as that last night.
We all know stubborn people like Thibs. And for sure he’s thinking the Knicks would have won by 30 if they just played 4 guys 43 minutes and 6 guys total.
Was it just me, or did the Knicks half court offense do better when it didn’t start with Brunson dribbling from 45 feet out? If I had the time I’d rewatch the game and tally the stats on those possessions vs. literally anything else in the half court. Only with just Brunson on the floor.
The Thunder are going to recover and kick their ass next year.
And did you realize D’Aaron Fox has a 4 year max contract that hasn’t even started yet? He’s their 4th best player and he’s going to be making KAT money when they have to pay Wemby and Castle. Who is going to bail them out of that?
I’m sure they’ll win eventually because Dylan Harper is a stud, but they’re going to take their lumps like everyone else. That was the most premature coronation of all time.
The one thing that’s a BIT worrisome is that, unlike the Cavs, who gave the Knicks everything they had in Game 1 and just got beat, the Spurs have some obvious adjustments they can make for Game 2 that would really help them a lot, mainly being A. Tighten up their rotation. Johnson’s rotations were GHASTLY, B. Play Harper more. Fox getting ten more minutes than Harper (and all of the final four minutes) while being total ass and Harper being great was mind-boggling stupid, and C. Go to the rim SO MUCH MORE with Wemby. Wemby played on the perimeter WAY TOO much in Game 1. You would think they would actively try to get KAT in foul trouble constantly, but they instead had Wemby dribbling on the perimeter before he took fadeaways, or passing the ball around the perimeter until one of the shitty Spur shooters bricked a three.
This was the most premature coronation of all time.
I’m out on Wemby’s medium and long-term health, as well. Bodies like his typically aren’t designed for the long term. He’s gawky and doesn’t even really fall right.
As an aside, I’m so happy that “Bing Bong” isn’t back. We can just celebrate the Knicks without a dumb forced gimmick.
The KAT clip in the huddle gave me chills. That scene’s definitely going in the movie!
This whole morning I’ve been thinking about that moment. Brunson goes down. It looks for a moment that everything is lost and we’re going to be pulled back down to “LOLKnicks, you really thought you had a chance?”
But Alvarado comes in and steadies the ship for us and we weather that storm. And KAT in the huddle. Reminding the team to just focus on defense. To play together. To not get rattled. And the fact that it was KAT!
It got me thinking about Brown and Thibs. I loved Thibs and I appreciate everything he did for this franchise. But that moment where KAT was the one in the huddle talking to the team and not Brown. That right there is the difference.
Beyond all the other criticisms of thibs (minutes, uncreative on offense), the biggest thing about him is that he’s a control freak. And that can be a good thing. A stabilizing thing for a young team or a team bereft of talent and experience.
But Brown came here and he knew that these guys are all veterans. Playoff tested veterans who had just been to the conference finals. NCAA champions. Multiple all-star appearances. Olympic team players. Etc.
He didn’t need to control them. He needed to give them the respect an freedom to find this will to win and to play together within themselves. And he trusted them. He gave minutes to weird line ups. Played young guys. And he slowly implemented changes and tweaks to the offense, all the while letting them fall back on what they did well when they had to do that.
And now it’s all paying of. A team completely locked in. Full of talent but also better than the sum of it’s parts.
It reminds me a little bit of the Mavericks in 2010. Built differently but same sort of team. Just a bunch of veterans who are really good and know their role and play together. Even before that team came back from 2-1 against the Heatles. When they started running through the West in the playoffs, you just kind of knew it was their year. And even though the Mavs had all sorts of heartbreaks in previous seasons, you just felt like this year was different.
and that’s how I feel right now. It’s just different. It’s our time.
But let’s finish these kids off quick because I do feel the longer we let them hang around, the more experience and confidence they will gain.
This is our time.
thanks soooooo much: Sydney, Bobby, and Kevin for your words…
really enjoying all your writing 😊
and Mike K and BC, thank you both so very much for keeping this party going all these years…
not too shabby a thing we all got going on here, huh 😏
The Spurs and Thunder can win titles starting in 2028. After we’ve gone back to back.
After that, the world can end as far as I’m concerned.
https://x.com/big_business_/status/2062377369030083036?s=20
This was the dagger shot
Also, just want to say how freaking cool it is to have all of these old posters back here and some of the OG writers too. This community (despite all the bickering) has given me so much joy over the years. We all deserve this.
can’t wait for all the spurs to start sayin’ the exact shit the cavs kept repeating for a week:
we just need to hit our shots
yep sure, that’s right spurs, just gotta make your shots…
Aren’t you glad now that Lil’ Penny insisted on nothing less than a championship? 😊
A-yup.
this right here is one of the major themes of this year’s post season…a bunch of really skilled vets playing exceptional well together…
They were without a great all-NBA, all-defense wing, and Ajay Mitchell. There’s no way the Spurs beat them with those two dudes at full strength.
Never liked him as an actor and I’m not a fan of Severance, but man is he a great basketball camera or what?
Raise your hand if you had, when the real games are played, Karl-Anthony Towns as a better defensive center than Isaiah Hartenstein.
(/showily doesn’t raise hand).
It turns out at the end, after all the hullabaloo — much of it from me –that Mike Brown’s man-management of KAT was nothing short of masterful.
One mildly annoying thing in the reaction to the game is how, on the one hand, everyone recognizes that the Knicks shot poorly to a large extent due to Wemby, but then go on to say that the Spurs guards just need to play better – as if the Knicks wings had nothing to do with that.
The Knicks are (I’m pretty sure) the #1 defense in the league post-Dallas and counting the playoffs. This is what they do to other teams. It’s not random. Jalen Johnson disappeared. Maxey disappeared. Harden disappeared (ok, that might be a Harden thing).
I’m sure the Spurs guards might have better games, but it’s not as simple as “just attack the paint more often”. There’s a reason why they can’t get there. Look at this defense by Hart on Castle:
https://x.com/DJAceNBA/status/2062509414758674942
While I thoroughly relished last night’s game, there are definitely adjustments that both teams can make. I think we can out-adjust them because they have three fundamental weaknesses:
1) they are not a good perimeter shooting team
2) they lack size at the PF slot
3) they don’t have a true closer
I had mentioned that one big advantage that the Knicks and Mike Brown have is that the Spurs showed all their cards during the OKC matchup. They are loaded with adjustments that the Spurs haven’t seen yet.
All of that said, the Spurs will likely play a lot better next game. But we should play better as well. I would love to rip their hearts out in game 2.
I was annoyed when the Spurs came back because if felt like a combination of bad luck/refs. Wemby got a number of calls, Deuce got mugged in a layup that wasn’t called, and the Knicks missed some makeable shots. I figured maybe it wasn’t their night.
Interesting. What do you think the Knicks need to adjust? I think they had a great game plan that I imagine they’d just try to replicate in Game 2.
The Spurs, though, yeah, they definitely have some obvious adjustments they need to make.
The conundrum the Spurs have with the Wemby-on-Hart decision is that when they did that, KAT and Hart (because he wasn’t guarded) could get so many second chance opportunities, as they don’t really have size in the forward position. So yeah, it will definitely decrease their FG%, but does it decrease their PPP if they keep getting second chance points? The Knicks can revert to their 2024 offense in these stretches. And if it isn’t working, they can still go 5 out. I’m not sure that one is so easy to solve for the Spurs.
Lil Penny, just for fun: If we win it all, you should do a celebratory monologue about how, despite winning the NBA Title, we’re still not clear of the upper mezzanine. I’m not even trolling in the least.
“Interesting. What do you think the Knicks need to adjust? I think they had a great game plan that I imagine they’d just try to replicate in Game 2. The Spurs, though, yeah, they definitely have some obvious adjustments they need to make.”
I guess I’d just say that we have to be ready to adjust to their adjustments. I have zero doubt that we will do so.
I can’t wait til we beat the Pacers in next year’s playoffs.
It went from “this is the year bc Halliburton and Tatum are out” to “we need to do it again so we can beat those clowns, too.”
What was interesting in the post game interviews, the Knicks to a man noted their rust and that they didn’t play well on offense, which was true. But their D was stifling and that kept them in the game as predictably Spurs early 3 pt prowess IMHO was fool’s gold. They are not a good 3 pt shooting team.
On the other hand their guards are excellent defenders and closed out exceptionally well on the Knicks shooters and their rotations were largely excellent.
I also was impressed how well their guards did once going downhill.
Game 2 will be great.
Brian, there were definitely moments where our offense got gummed up. Spurs play up on shooters pretty good, and when OG got into the paint, he was hesitant to do his usual muscle-ing bc of the threat of Wemby. That said, I’m really confident in the team’s ability to make adjustments. Both teams could shoot better, and our shooters are better than theirs (as long as we clamp down on Champagnie).
Brunson always adjusts to being guarded by big guards.
If my counting is right, Hart had 6 rebounds and 3 steals in the last 7 minutes of this game. Insane.
It included this sequence: https://x.com/YourManDevine/status/2062532404183466477
I don’t think we need to adjust but we have a lot of adjustments we can make. We didn’t even show them OG on Wemby, for instance. And there’s plenty we can do to limit Harper next time.
We made the most important adjustment at halftime, though: stop leaving Champagnie open!
Brunson did to Carter Bryant what Wemby did to Chet.
You could tell the Spurs went into this thinking that would be a tough matchup for Jalen bc they went to it right away in the first half. Brunson made it unplayable in 90 seconds. If Johnson goes back to that for even a second he’s dumb.
Last night was my wife’s turn to put the lil guy to bed, and I told her I was gonna watch the game at work. Got home about 9:30p and she asks if I can put him down instead bc she has to finish a treats order (she has a side biz making party treats and decor). No problem.
I actually fell asleep at the same time my boy did.
I woke up at 5:30am… RESTED. Super-rare. Been binging on post-game stuff for the past hour and a half.
It is an generationally AWESOME time to be a Knick fan!
Clyde nailing a description of JB
After those Philly and Cleveland debacles where we were just smashing those teams into oblivion, I kept reminding myself that the Spurs were something different altogether. But then I *also* kept reminding myself that we don’t *need* to smash teams by 40 points, and that winning by 5-10 points (or hell, even 1 point, although my head would likely explode while watching) would suffice.
And so here we are.
1. It’s tempting to say SAS should play through Wemby more, but the guy has a finite amount of stamina and the Knicks made him work hard on both ends.
2. KAT forces Wemby to burn more energy on defense than Hartenstein did, and the Knicks also have Mitch to play the non-KAT minutes and bang around with Wemby as well. The Knicks have the personnel to throw a big strong athletic C at Wemby on every possession.
3. Pressure ratchets up immensely on SAS in game two, and the situation and intangibles really seem to favor the Knicks there. They have come out and hung blowouts on opponents pretty regularly when the opponent’s back is against the wall.
4. The Knicks have now adjusted to the Spurs’ playoff intensity after shaking off some rust, and by the end looked to have their timing back.
Hubert would have to waive his trademark rights to the term “mezzanine,” but in any event, I cut and pasted (*) the entirely wrong emoji and now I hate the comment and withdraw it and would be fine with the mods just removing it.
But they aren’t in “purgatory” anymore, that’s for sure!
(Technically, if you use Daryl Morey’s oft-cited metric of a five percent chance of a championship, at 22-1, they were actually still in purgatory as late as after Game 5 ATL. Some of us didn’t buy that for a second and jumped on the action, but if we go purely by consensus, this is a team that is probably going to win the championship that by consensus acclaim was in purgatory — again using Morey’s metric — five games into the playoffs, with a 3-2 series lead. That has probably never happened before in NBA history and, while no one’s making much of it now because the immediate events are far more important, will be something that will surely grow in legend as the years pass. The basketball world and the people who analyze with money on the line absolutely, positively, unequivocally, unambigously did not believe in this team.)
(*) For the first and last time.
Wow. Not much sleep but still energized and pumped. What a great way to start the finals. I like the teams’ focus and attitude after game 1. Immediately talking about being prepared and desperate in game 2.
Was Brunson a little under the weather? His voice sounded like it.
Imagine the Knicks win Game 2, and the conversation will be “can they sweep another series” just as they come back to the mayhem that will be MSG and NYC – with the weekend in between games 2 and 3.
Please make that happen, Knicks.
Wemby going to the basket more is easier said than done. KAT and Mitch are both so much stronger than Chet that he can’t abuse them the way he did OKC. I expect him to come out with purpose next time, just like he has throughout these playoffs whenever he has a bad game. But we also seem well built to keep him from doing Wemby things. As Benji pointed out on Macri’s postgame last night, he noted that we were going out of our way to foul him if he was about to dunk or catch a lob. No easy baskets for him.
And same with the guards. Castle tried, and Hart kept stopping him. Harper was the most effective, but even Deuce had some success against him.
I do expect Vassell to shoot better than he did (though Champagnie hopefully will not).
I also don’t see the Spurs sitting Fox significantly. We saw how Harper is prone to turnovers as the main ballhandler. So how to they play Harper more? It’s not easy given that they need Champagnie and Vassell’s shooting.
It’s not just that they are not as deep, but their bench doesn’t offer as many solutions as the Knicks’.
They have the best player, and anything can happen, but I like our chances.
Whether Wemby scores or not, going to the basket more gets KAT into foul trouble, which is obviously massive. They can afford to lose out on some bricks from three-point land early to instead spend some time trying to get KAT into foul trouble.
You can’t really do the same to Wemby on the other hand, since he’s so big, and can avoid fouling due to his length (as he can play back on you, while still being able to contest with his freakishly long wingpan), so whenever you have a situation where you can do something and the other team can’t just reverse it on you, NOT doing it is poor strategy.
Harper had one turnover to Fox’s three. And Fox’s turnovers were godawful, just careless moronic basketball from a veteran player.
I couldn’t handle that 13-point deficit in the 3rd, so I turned off the sound and blasted Black Flag the rest of the way, which only ratcheted up the intensity!
I’ve honestly never witnessed a team this resilient. We might be watching history in the making—hard to believe after witnessing our Eddy Curry/Bargnani years.
I think people are also stuck in the past when it comes to deficits. NBA deficits are basically meaningless nowadays. Teams just score so quickly nowadays and in bunches that it’s really not until the last couple of minutes that a big lead really factors in. So a 13-point third quarter deficit really wasn’t all that daunting (just like how the Knicks’ early 8-point lead in the fourth quarter also wasn’t that daunting).
Now, the eight-point lead with 29 seconds to go? THAT was daunting!
One of the most important plays I saw last night was when Mitch walled off Wemby in the paint so that Brunson could go all the way to the basket. That’s something that they need to continue…just obstructing him when he hunts blocks.
That play was AMAZING.
Beautiful recap, beautiful game, beautiful day … orange and blue skies!
Wemby’s TS% is down to .624 for the playoffs which, while certainly very good, isn’t really that fear-striking. He’s at .356 from downtown, and .558 from two land (*) — again nothing remotely special.
He makes his bones by getting to the line and shooting 89%, and his defense is obviously DPOY-caliber. And he gets some reputational love because he does it all at 7-4, but the scoreboard doesn’t give you extra points for that.
Premature coronation. He doesn’t scare me. Knicks are winning this.
(*) KAT, for example, is at .604.
Yeah, playing Wemby more is a dangerous proposition for SA because he can easily get gassed. This is where KAT plus Mitch is better than Wemby. Wemby might be better than either of them individually, but together we can play a really good Center for the entire game (as long as they both stay out of foul trouble).
Also, Mitch looked ok last night. I think he’s gonna bobble some lobs and put backs because of the hand but otherwise, he seems about the same.
Can we give an assist to Shaq for publicly calling out KAT saying he needed to be more aggressive/assertive/etc? I feel like Shaq did it in a way that big sibling or cousin would do to really help the younger one out.
This is something Clyde always talks about. When your offense isn’t there, let your defense carry you.
What I meant (but didn’t express clearly) is that when Fox isn’t on the floor, Castle (nor Harper) gets exposed as the main ball handler. He had 11 and 9 TOs in the first two games against OKC without Fox. So Fox needs to play, which makes it hard to find minutes for Harper, as they need to keep Vassell and Champagnie on the floor to have some shooting.
Wemby is a freak; take nothing away from him at this age. But last series he faced Hartenstein, who was behind Mitch on the depth chart with the Knicks, and the splinter Holmgren. He could feast on those guys.
He also faced Gobert, who is on the downside of his career at 33 and his defensive stats materially dropped off in 2026, and a mentally absent Randle.
And Clingan, on the blazers, would be third on the Knicks depth chart.
I think the Knicks unequivocally possess the toughest, most dynamic offensive and defensive center rotation in the 2026 playoffs.
No Nick on Wemby, but this will be hard for him.
Two of the biggest 3’s in these playoffs were of the fortunate variety: Shamet’s bouncer to tie up Game 1 vs. CLE and Deuce’s banker in crunch time last night. I feel like Willis is up there guiding those balls in!
hopefully by the time wemby and the spurs realize they do need to do something different, they are down 2 – 0 and heading to the garden…
The other centers didn’t really posses much of an offensive attack against Wemby for him to focus on. Holmgren should have but he was checked out for whatever reason. Wemby is going to be pushed to the limit
someone already mentioned it, but yeah sounds like Jalen has a cold or some allergy stuff going on…
I love Brunson, I would have his baby if I could, but he is not as cool as Clyde. Maybe as composed on the court.
The thing that is interesting about the Spurs is that they are actually quite small outside of Wemby. Large caveat I know but they can’t exploit any of our lineups with size. Kornet is solid but can’t play with Wemby. They lack that rugged PF type with good defense to be a secondary rim protector and offensive rebound threat. Champagnie and Barnes are their third and fourth biggest players at 6’7 and both play smaller than that.
It gives us maximum flexibility to play Alvarado or Deuce or Shamet with Mikal and OG as needed.
I also think people made too big a deal about leaving Champagnie open. There were a couple of really nice passes to find him and he hit shots in front of close outs that were fractionally too late. Overall I was ok with that. 6’7! wings can be hard to stop.
Also, speaking of which, shout out to OG. Played some terrific defense last night and hit some huge threes, including that one right in Wemby’s face. Some clutch free throws too.
Mitch’s injury doesn’t affect his strength or mobility, and it also didn’t seem to affect his ability to rebound. KAT is playing so well that you really just need Mitch to do his thing for 12-15 minutes per night.
Kind of. They don’t have any big forwards other than Barnes. But their guards are HUGE, whereas all our guards are 6’4” or shorter, and Josh is the only one who plays substantially bigger than his height.
I think Wemby was also just gassed at the end of the game being asked to do so much defensively. That’s a huge load to carry.
His drive and dunk past Mitch by the way was absolutely nutty. Looked like a Marvel cartoon.
Alan, I think big guards are good against small guards but you can’t protect the rim that way
I’d expect Wemby to be on Hart next game and to not shoot as many 3s. If they do that and we can still handle them, I’m going to start getting vey optimistic.
I was never “out” on Towns. I always thought he was a clear upgrade over Randle, but at this stage of his career I didn’t expect him to get this much better on defense. I remember when he and KP were very young players. He defended KP really well inside and outside because he kind of took it as a personal challenge. So I knew he COULD defend. He just never did it consistently. So to see him like this changes what I thought was the biggest problem with this team, which was Towns and Brunson on the court together. Towns has found some kind of new maturity level where he has realized that to win, this team does not require him to score 25 every night. It has enough other weapons. It needs him to defend well, make plays, space the floor and score when the matchup is right. Defense is the key.
I want game 2! I do not want to sweat games 3-4 in NY. Step on their throats!
If they do that after Wemby turned the ball over 6 times with minimal forays into the paint, OG and Bridges will get more steals than Swiper in Dora the Explorer.
“Kornet is solid but can’t play with Wemby. They lack that rugged PF type with good defense to be a secondary rim protector and offensive rebound threat.”
We would probably actually have more problems dealing with Kornet than we seem to be having with Wemby. Hopefully 1) they don’t figure that out, and 2) Mitch Johnson won’t be able to fathom giving Kornet minutes over Wemby any more than he can fathom giving minutes to Harper over Fox.
Yeah, this is true. And the way Champagnie finds himself open is that he is in actions that also involve Wemby rolling to the rim, so it’s in no way an easy thing to guard. But I felt that at least a couple of his shots were allowed due to overhelping that wasn’t strictly necessary (I think by Alverado and Shamet).
Bob with the Swiper reference….nice….
Wemby’s drive against Mitch was nice but in general I thought his attempted drives from a standing start 20-ish feet from the basket were barely this side of cosplay. The one very late where he coughed up the ball (I think to Hart) was particularly egregious.
I disagree. At least 3 of Champagnie’s 5 threes were dumb plays by us. We had OG on him for 2 of them, and that was a mistake because OG helped off of him. And then one was an Alvarado brain fart.
After we fixed it, he was quite easy to stop in the 2nd half.
copied over from the other thread:
also – just amazing team defense against Wemby yesterday.
Wemby had only THREE total field goals made in the restricted area. One was the blow-by on Mitch, one was an offensive rebound putback, and the only other one was the one he really could’ve been called for an offensive foul for putting his shoulder into KAT. He didn’t score in the restricted area until the end of the third quarter – that HAS to be a first in his whole career, no? Sure they fouled him a number of times before alley-oops, but FTs don’t move the crowd and momentum quite the same way.
Tough talk for a guy whose hands were on his knees in the 1Q.
They played good defense on him for sure, but part of the reason why he had only 3 made FGs in the restricted area was that he got to the line so many times.
Getting into a knockdown, drag out defensive slugfest against the team with the unanimous DPOY doesn’t intuitively sound promising, but it weirdly works for us.
We have a stout defense of our own, and when points are at a premium our guys (one in particular) are much better at figuring out some way to get the damn ball in the basket come hell or high water. When the shot clock was winding down I felt perfectly fine about the ball being in the hands of basically any Spur, whereas Spurs fans probably felt like they were watching a horror movie with the shoe on the other foot.
We also did a great job of forcing Wemby to exert energy on seemingly every damn play, and we’ve gotta keep that up. Jose specifically deserves a ton of credit for driving right at him a number of times, not caring if he incurred a few blocks in the process.
So far, so good. Do it 3 more times.
So the people who were saying stuff/slurs to Brunson at the end of the game were sitting at the scorer’s table? What are the chances they are somehow associated with the Spurs?
https://x.com/NBA_NewYork/status/2062538281158369293
I think people are also stuck in the past when it comes to deficits. NBA deficits are basically meaningless nowadays. Teams just score so quickly nowadays and in bunches that it’s really not until the last couple of minutes that a big lead really factors in. So a 13-point third quarter deficit really wasn’t all that daunting (just like how the Knicks’ early 8-point lead in the fourth quarter also wasn’t that daunting).
this is one of those things that seems like it has to be true and does contain a nugget of truth but for the most part is way, way less true than people think.
percentage of halftime 13-15pt deficits overcome by year span:
97-03 15.2% 04-10 15.9% 11-17 17.1% 18-25 14.6%
percentage of end of q3 13-15 pt deficits overcome by year span:
97-03 7.5% 04-10 5.9% 11-17 8.1% 18-25 8.3%
% of end of Q3 7-9 pt deficits overcome:
97-03 20.5% 04-10 22.7% 11-17 22.4% 18-25 22.9%
7-9 point deficit at halftime
97-03 30.1% 04-10 34.4% 11-17 31.9% 18-25 28.5%
the exception is very large leads. 21+ pt comebacks at halftime have gone up from 2-3% to ~6% and 16-20 pts leads at the end of Q3 have jumped from 1-2% to almost 4%. (and the sub-trend within 18-25 doesn’t change this). but that’s a far cry from not meaning anything.
One of the most important plays I saw last night was when Mitch walled off Wemby in the paint so that Brunson could go all the way to the basket. That’s something that they need to continue…just obstructing him when he hunts blocks.
huge play but it was a bit too effective relative to the gortat screen quality. meaning, good job mitch but i think wemby’s fatigue played a huge part here and he mostly let himself get screened. this is one of many reasons it seems so puzzling they are putting wemby on kat with hart on the floor. even the jalen/kat pick and roll — which doesn’t work great with wemby on kat bc when they blitz jalen and hit kat on the short roll, jalen can’t just slot it to kat in perfect position and kat usually take a second to make decisions and the spurs recover — is bad for them bc the recovery rotation is often wemby racing back after trapping jalen 40 ft out and that is surely a factor in what looked to me like a very tired wemby in the second half (except when going for ORBs on his own misses). a tired wemby is a different wemby.
basketball has been a business to jalen his whole life…those comments mikal made the other day about jalen coming in to nova as a five star recruit were telling…
lord willing and he is able to win a ring, no doubt it’ll be more of a feeling of relief than anything else…
you know, until next season, and jalen locks in again with that insane intentional intensity…
he may look a bit like prop joe and carry that emotionally detached vibe – he reminds me though of joe friday, intense and to the point…
Low-key great tweet by James Edwards here:
https://x.com/JLEdwardsIII/status/2062364450800226711?s=20
Thing about Wemby is that his legs are insanely long. While that makes it easy for him to cover huge amounts of ground in one or two steps, it makes it harder for him to deal with guys who can move their feet more quickly than him.
That’s why the key with him is simply staying in front of him and making him shoot over you, which is something he is not as good at right now as he will be down the road. He doesn’t hava a Kareem sky hook or a Hakeem dream shake. He doesn’t have the strength to back stronger defenders down, especially with his high center of gravity. He does have some crafty spins and counters, but nothing that a defender totally committed to just staying in front of him can’t deal with. And if he gets too aggressive in trying to show that he can go one-on-one, he is very vulnerable to getting stripped by clever weak-side help defenders, as we saw on a couple of occasions last night.
So what I expect Mitch Johnson to do is devise sets that enable Wemby to catch the ball much closer to the backet. But that’s easier said than done against our bigs, including OG, and you can bet that Mike Brown knows they will try that and is game-planning as we speak for that counter.
Strat brought up KP and there are definitely some similarities in their body types. Remember how early on, the Celtics would use Marcus Smart to defend him and KP couldn’t do anything other than put up midrangers while fading away? That continued even after KP was traded to Dallas.
Wemby has a better bag than KP did, but the concept is the same. Whoever is guarding him just has to stay glued to him and in front of him and just not back down.
BTW, in that Dave DeBusschere video I posted, it was pointed out that Dave (6’6″) did exactly that against Wilt (7’1″) in the 1970 finals after Willis went down. This is why I think OG has been so effective against Wemby. All the great “undersized” defenders are experts at this…Draymond and Rodman are the classic examples.
No shame in JB not being as cool as Clyde.
No one is as cool as Clyde.
stop letting the spurs off the hook by saying they look exhausted…
trust, if they were able to impose their will on our team them motherfuckers would all be looking fresh as some new daisies…
we were in the shit after that 3rd game against atlanta – the spurs just stepped in it now…and, it is slowing them down, the realization that their season may be ending without the 🏆, and they can’t do anything about it…
now, that’ll make you feel tired…
yep, friday captain clutch and the stay clutch crew are coming for you…
now that KAT knows he can speed past both wemby and kornet if they come to guard him on the perimeter, I expect KAT to go to the rim even more on friday…
ha, wait ’til he feels comfortable to start shooting threes…
don’t wanna say it to jinx it, but, there just may be a beat down or three coming to the spurs…
based on the previous bunch of games this post season, they seem to have a really good sense when the other team starts to break…
if we start scoring a bunch of transition baskets on them (particularly after a made basket), that could do the trick…
I said this last night, but one thing I love about this team is that during this crazy playoff run there hasn’t been one smile or celebration during or after any of the 12 straight wins. A lot of that filters down from our no nonsense captain.
They all know the mission isn’t complete.
Dave D did a fine job on Wilt in game 5 (with serious contributions from Dave Stallworth and Nate Bowman), but Wilt torched him for 44 on 20-27 shooting in game 6.
Others that are better at this than I am might offer a different view, but I wonder if the Knicks really good nail help from Mikal and OG is not the thing that prevents Wemby from rolling, together with the bigs standing the ground. Wemby’s handle is somewhat vulnerable given his length, and OG in particular is great at helping to attack that roll. I think they got a couple of deflections or steals that way yesterday, and I wonder if it makes Wemby a little reluctant to try to penetrate.
I assume they will try to catch him on the move more often tomorrow, which allows him to go to the basket without dribbling. He’s so damn long.
One other thing that has gone our way in this postseason is that we have not had to face an elite opposing coach. We’ve drawn Quin Snyder, Nick Nurse, Brian Atkinson and now Mitch Johnson.
Johnson has done a good job with the Spurs and may prove to be an excellent coach in the NBA, but it’s not like we’re doing battle with some wizened old bastard genius like Rick Carlisle or a master schemer like Erik Spoelstra.
The Spurs are a tough opponent and of course I’m not taking anything remotely for granted. We will see how Johnson adjusts. But I do think Mike Brown can hold his own against this guy.
good find marechal…
no doubt he goes looking for them again friday…ha, the knicks should pay their way to have them sitting courtside at msg…
jalen popping out that scary: okay then, let’s get in to this death stare…ha…
yeah, we need both karen and darren there at each game…
They better hope Knicks don’t catch fire from three on Friday, if they want this series to go 6 or 7. Even if Wemby scores 35, their supporting cast can’t score enough to match us in the 118+ point range.
If Friday’s game are in low to mid 100s and close, Brunson + offensive rebounds & clutch defense puts NY over the top ~65% rate on the road.
X-factor is the benches…if KJ, DP and Bryant are held under 25 again, their odds tank faster than my IQ on gameday. It’s pure negligence that their 6MOY who is intant offense of the bench only played 8 minutes on a night that their entire team scored 95 and he was a +1.
pt I agree that Wemby was tired…in fact, it was pointed out by one of the talking heads that part of the Knicks’ strategy was to make him run and move as much as possible, especially by trying to get into their offense before he had a chance to set up in the paint, but also by making him work for position on both ends. But Wemby still had enough legs to blast around Mitch for a dunk, to knock down a big 3, etc. He did sort of freeze in the paint on that late Jalen pull-up dagger on Vassell, so sure, he was tired, but so what? The strategy of walling him off/running interference can wok whether he’s tired or not. Even if he lays off Josh Hart to roam in the middle, Josh can just focus on staying somewhere between Wemby and the ball, just enough to tilt the defense for Brunson to operate in his office.
These finals are fun because we have a match-up between a group of extremely talented young guys and a bunch of very savvy guys in their prime.
It is almost like if you are building a construction project do you want to consult an engineer fresh out of MIT or a couple of union plumbers or electrictians who have been working projects for 30 years. They know how to problem solve with every work around known to man.
OG, Mikhail, Hart and the rest have been in every difficult situation on the court a 100 times before and instinctively know how to react and the logical counters.
Plus I don’t think Wemby has the grown man strength to play 40 mpg for 7 games effectively, while all the Knicks (save Mitch) can and have for long stretches during their careers. Tempered by fire.
I wonder if Sochan’s advice to try to tire Wemby out was a factor. He was clearly tired, but I wonder how much of what they were doing was designed to get him tired.
There is zero chance the Knicks will get anything approaching a fair whistle Friday. The NBA can’t afford their golden boy going down in 4 or 5.
ESPN.com:
The “pessimistic” case here is that the Knicks bad but not abysmal ORat is a much closer approximation of the “true” levels of their offense and the Spurs defense than the Spurs’ abysmal ORat is and all that will bounce back to something close to the “true” levels as the series progresses. The underlying “expected” data seems to lend some credence to that.
I’m not sure I believe that, but we shall see. It’s not an outrageous proposition.
I kind of remember Keldon being manhandled by KAT repeatedly on the boards … maybe that was why Harrison Barnes was exhumed.
Total vibe killer:
“President Trump plans to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, a source confirmed to The Athletic.”
Oh, well. We’ve shown that we can counteract anything thrown our way. ’nuff said.
The Spurs in general played like ass in the second half. The Knicks outscored them 57-40, which means they were held to 40 points. The Knicks also committed only one turnover in the second half.
We’ll see how game two goes, but the Knicks didn’t “steal” any kind of game here, they easily outplayed SAS in that second half.
If they needed Sochan to tell them the best strategy with a young 7 foot 4 inch player who sat out last season with a Deep Vein Thrombosis was to try to run him ragged, then they aren’t very smart.
“Dave D did a fine job on Wilt in game 5 (with serious contributions from Dave Stallworth and Nate Bowman), but Wilt torched him for 44 on 20-27 shooting in game 6.”
Well, Wilt was a LOT stronger than Wemby.
One fact about that series that I didn’t realize/remember is that Game 5 was played in NY on 5/4, Game 6 in LA on 5/6, and Game 7 back in NY on 5/8. And Wilt, West, and Frazier played nearly every minute of those games. How insane is that?
Did Kenny Atkinson start working for ESPN? The Spurs lead the series 1-0 in effective expected field goal percentage? Kool. Do they see a pattern other than “the Knicks are very lucky?”
Well between the makeup/hair and the bruised hand/cankles, he is kind of orange and blue, so there’s that.
I’ll be there, btw, thanks to a very generous friend who I used to split season tickets with…
Jobs not finished
Agent Orange is going to be thunderously booed. New Yorkers hated him long, long, long before he went into politics.
“One fact about that series that I didn’t realize/remember is that Game 5 was played in NY on 5/4, Game 6 in LA on 5/6, and Game 7 back in NY on 5/8. And Wilt, West, and Frazier played nearly every minute of those games. How insane is that?”
And travel was a bit more difficult/less comfortable back then, too.
At some point when every opponent seemingly plays poorly, you have to give the defense they are facing some credit.
You are probably going to have to go through 3 layers of magnotometers and pat downs to get into the building so get there early… 🙂
Analytically, we lost again.
Zach Lowe in his podcast said that the Knicks actually underperformed their wide open 3pt shot quality more than the Spurs.
Would the presence of the grifter-in-chief cause as many security/traffic/distraction issues for fans attending the game as I might imagine? Or maybe not so bad?
The snarktastic, very New York-y, SPY magazine takedowns of him (“short-fingered vulgarian”) BITD were all-time legendary.
You mean we won the 3 point stat game too?
Now I feel better. 😉
I have a basketball crush on Zach Lowe. I think he gets using stats as a tool, understands the game well, understands the human elements and puts it all into one giant solid compehensive unified theory (or something like that). Plus he’s very likeable.
I don’t think he’s going to show up.
He has too many unnecessary wars to juggle (some of his own doing and some not), a looming energy crisis and possible recession if the war doesn’t end very soon, a wipeout in the mid terms and impeachment to deal with if he doesn’t redistrict enough states fast enough, general disgust among a good portion of his supporters for betraying them on multiple issues that were key to them and way more corrupt deals for his family and friends to close on. Who has time for basketball and getting embarrassed on TV?
To make it fair, I’m gonna get a decent ticket to game 3 somehow, and run on the court to take a selfie with Mitchy 💀
Hell, I’ll bring DJT onto the court with me if he’s there
Outplayed them in the 2nd quarter as well. Truth is that the Spurs just beat the Knicks in the 1st quarter in that game.
The Knicks shot 65% at the rim. They scored 50 points in the paint (8 more than the Spurs). Truly incredible stuff given Wemby.
That’s why I’m betting he doesn’t go. Better off going to a WWE or MMA event where he’ll be cheered by his adoring fans
Sharing this because it made me squeal
https://x.com/LevAkabas/status/2062163794265055609/photo/1
“Sharing this because it made me squeal”
That’s awesome!
That is a niiice chart….and
Fuck Becky hammon
At this point, how many NY athletes ever rank above Hart for sheer quotability? Reggie. Rickey (whose tenure here was brief). Mickey Rivers, maybe. Who else?
Yogi…if you include coaches…Parcells
God, Yogi has to be number 1 by a wide margin. Can’t believe I didn’t even think of him.
Oak is up there.
I would take Michael ray Richardson over oak….
The simple fact that the only reason why Brunson isn’t talked about as an MVP candidate every year is because he’s 6 feet tall and was a second round draft pick. This dude should be in convo for top 5 player in the league but most pundits only begrudgingly say stuff like “he’s top 15. Maybe.”
The worst we’ve done since he’s arrived is the 2nd round of the playoffs. how many teams in this league would salivate over getting a guy who can take you to the 2nd round every year? Two conference finals, Eastern conference champs and now 3 wins away from a title.
Not that he cares but the pundits need to recognize. Brunson is one of the best players in the NBA. Period.
I don’t know what the question is but I am not taking anyone over Oak.
Also, upon further review, Jalen might have travelled. But I don’t care
Something I’ve had an eye on in the playoffs is that I think Wemby lowkey travels a lot and it doesn’t get called, presumably because he can legally cover so much space with 1-2 strides that it doesn’t even look that weird when he takes an extra step.
Hot gossip alert:
Dylan Harper just reposted and quickly un-reposted a tiktok comparing Fox to Harden in the playoffs. Interesting…
https://x.com/TheStrickland/status/2062618153977323923?s=20
Oooh! LOVE that the spurs locker might already be turning on each other.
Max Kellermen is the only person I’ve heard in the media who realizes what’s going on here.
Everyone is like “this Spur had a bad game” and “this Spur didn’t shoot well.” Max is like “the Knicks just had a bad game and they won by double digits on the road in the finals” (and I’d add in a game the refs were tilting the court against them).
This whole thing has been a textbook case of how prevalent hypnosis is. People can’t see what’s right in front of them right now. They think this is a normal case of road team “stole” game 1 and is about to get their asses kicked in game 2, and it’s going to be a long series.
What’s crazy is by the time they finish this sweep people will still have a hard time accepting it happened.
I’m thinking that’s a hack, but who knows?
I feel like even the Spurs are buying into this? When Wemby says “they don’t need to do anything special”, I think he doesn’t mean only that they have to play their “normal” game – it belies an assumption that they are superior to the Knicks, and if both teams play their normal games, they win. Obviously teams need to believe in themselves, but contrast that to how the Knicks talk about other teams (“we need to be our best selves”, etc). Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I thought what Wemby said was a bit strange.
It seems like lots of teams, players, media and fans don’t think highly of the Knicks, compared to other very good teams. There seems to always be an excuse why the other team lost, rather than the Knicks won. They don’t like to give the Knicks credit. Somehow the team and even JB is underrated.
“Max Kellermen is the only person I’ve heard in the media who realizes what’s going on here.
Everyone is like “this Spur had a bad game” and “this Spur didn’t shoot well.” Max is like “the Knicks just had a bad game and they won by double digits on the road in the finals” (and I’d add in a game the refs were tilting the court against them).”
Where are you still seeing/hearing Max Kellerman, Hubert? I thought that he was disappeared/canceled quite a while ago.
Marechal, I agree, Wemby sounded dangerously overconfident. Like he thinks tomorrow is going to be game 2 against the Wolves again.
Doogie, he’s got a podcast with Rich Paul that is surprisingly good. And he’s been beating two drums consistently:
1 – When a team is dominating the playoffs the way the Knicks are, they’re going to win.
2 – Jalen Brunson is the best player in basketball right now, and he’d take him over anyone in these playoffs.
It’s kind of wild people are underestimating us at this point. Is it simply because we haven’t won a title in 50 years and there’s still just residual “LOLKnicks” thinking about our team?
Like, objectively, even ignoring the recent playoff blitz of play…if you just look at our roster from 1 to 8, why would people think it’s surprising we’re really good?
2 all-stars. Are KAT and Brunson the absolute best at their positions? Probably not? Are they both top 5 at their positions? Absolutely.
OG – one of the best 2 way wings in the game. Mikal – one of the other best two wings in the game.
Hart – one of the best Hustlebunnies in the business.
Then our bench – Mitch, Deuce, Shamet – there is no team in the league that wouldn’t want one of these dudes coming off their bench.
We’ve assembled a really talented team. And plus they all now have tons of playoff experience. This same team beat the defending champs last year and made it to the conference finals. Why is there this weird resistance to admitting we’re one of the best teams in the league? Is it because Detroit, OKC and the Spurs won more regular season games?
It’s just odd. But hey, if they want to keep doubting us. Go ahead.
Maybe someone has posted this already, but the video Ben Stiller made of the defensive possession when Shamet got a deflection at the end is so good. The level of physicality of this Knicks defense is off the chart.
https://x.com/BenStiller/status/2062437851707347030
Mikal was quiet offensively, but excellent defensively (look how they don’t help on Fox’s rim attempt and Fox doesn’t even try to shoot), and hit those clutch clutch free throws at the end.
I think people can’t really get their heads around the idea of KAT as an awesome two way player. He’s been in the league a long time now, and there’s a certain stereotype of him.
Most of the world simply hasn’t caught up to the fact that KAT is playing elite basketball.
Honestly, Swift, it’s a lesson about bias and narrative inertia. People aren’t evaluating the situation from scratch. They’re anchored to a season-long belief that SA & OKC were the two best teams, so all evidence supporting the Knicks is getting ignored and all evidence supporting the spurs is getting emphasized. They also have assumptions about the Knicks, about KAT, about small guards, etc. There’s so much bias going on here it’s remarkable. I used to see this all the time when I was a trader. If I still had house money I’d have put it all on the Knicks a long time ago.
It is fascinating. They’ll probably keep doing it even if we win the title. I can hear it now.
Knicks didn’t have to play Detroit or Boston in the Eastern Conference. OKC would have beaten them. Wemby had an ingrown toe nail.
Tomorrow night’s game isn’t technically a must win for the Knicks, but it sure feels like one!
The coaching advantage in this series is pronounced… we gonna fuck these guys up
“Tomorrow night’s game isn’t technically a must win for the Knicks, but it sure feels like one!”
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. The first time that we lose a game since the latter portion of April and thereby break our winning streak is gonna feel like shit. The only antidote for that is to not lose any of the remaining games.
So let’s do that.
Is Josh Hart our version of Draymond Green?
Draymond is a better passer and has that defensive quarterback thing going, but Hart is a better shooter and finisher on the break
Both are guys who do stuff that doesn’t show up in the box score
Curious whether people think this is a valid comparison
What’s the odds on those two hillbilly knuckleheads who got into with Brunson not being in their season ticket seats tomorrow night?
I thought OG playing at the five seemed a little similar to draymomd…
next season, scoring may not be enough for the emerging claw 2.0…OG may want to start hanging around the top of the key looking to distribute too…
Brown’s been doing a ton of Draymond stuff with Josh on offense this year.
so it sounds like it started with them chirping some foul shit while OG was at the free throw line…
Josh Hart is better at podcasting.
Apparently (says some guy on twitter) the last time the Spurs were held under 100 points was on March 1st.
By the Knicks.
Nonsense.
Brunson was 5th in MVP voting 3 years ago and he deserved to be 5th. He wasn’t as valuable as Jokic, Shai. Luka and Giannis that year.
He was 10th last year and not ranked in the top 7 this year because he didn’t deserve to be ranked above the other players statistically.
It is a regular season award.
Everyone here would swap him for any of the top guys in an instant (maybe accepting Giannis due to injury reasons) but don’t ever try to tell me you wouldn’t swap him in an instant for Wemby, Jokic or Shai.
He never gets serious consideration for MVP because he doesn’t in any universe deserve it.
I think there is definitely a similarity in their “role” on the team…they are “connecters” who can score, rebound, pass, defend multiple positions, and inspire. And yes, they both do many things that don’t show up in the box score. But their games are quite different. Draymond played PF and C almost exclusively, and was a mediocre rebounder for those positions yet a decent shot blocker because of his ridiculous wingspan. He is a perennial DPOY candidate, historically great on that end. Hart is mostly a 2 or 3 with real guard skills but one of the best rebounders his size in NBA history. His nose for the ball is so ridiculously good it’s hard to quantify. I think Spo summed it up by saying “Some people get 50-50 balls. He gets the 30-70 balls.”
This is no exaggeration the most underestimated champion (*) in NBA history. (**) We unfortunately don’t have the data to prove it definitively because legalized gambling with deep markets and odds only recently became a thing, but I would be shocked if any team even close to 22-1 at the onset of the playoffs and up 3-2 after first round Game 5 has gone on to win the championship.
Dallas 2010-11 looks like the biggest *preseason* underdog at 20-1, but there’s no chance they were 22-1 on day one of the playoffs. I frankly doubt a 10-1 playoff eve shot has won.
The NBA is typically an easy to predict league, with no cinderellas and no one shining moments and no great surprises, where everyone pretty much knows who’s going to be standing at the end — and there really was nothing about this year in particular that should have deviated from that long-standing principle. But it did. It’s truly incredible.
(*) If it happens, which it probably will.
(**) I mean, realistic NBA history going back to like the early 70s. If the Rochester Royals or Syracuse Nats or whatever came from nowhere in 1951-52 or somesuch, so be it.
I don’t think Brunson gets the short shrift when it comes to regular season award voting. You can always quibble about all-NBA team placement, but pegging him in the top 15 or so in regular season impact is eminently defensible.
The case that he should be ranked higher than that overall, and it’s a good one, is that he’s a playoff riser (yes, more or less maintaining your stellar regular season production in the playoffs qualifies–the defenses are definitionally better and the schedule is grueling).
I’ve actually long believed that trying to suss out who falls into that category might be the single most important question that is still at least somewhat unanswered when it comes to player evaluation in general.
There are certain traits that intuitively stand out, e.g. Brunson’s insane ability to get off a decent look against any defense at anytime. But there are other very good shot creators who are more or less in Brunson’s regular season impact range but still experience a playoff fade. Brunson vs someone like Donovan Mitchell is a perfectly debatable question for the first 82, but at this point you have to think 30 GMs are taking Brunson overall right?
My guess is it’s some combination of skillset, mental makeup, and conditioning and we’ll likely never be able to perfectly identify it ahead of time. I’m glad we have a “you know it when you see it” guy.
we’re knicks’ homers, and despite the incredible media spotlight the team receives, it doesn’t feel like the players, coach or front office are all that highly thought of…
true to point, old team with just 2 current championships…like a .500 franchise record…
not exactly legacy franchise material…
like the team is a collection of a bunch of also ran, not even might have beens, never were…
not good enough…
it was great to see how active and engaged the knicks’ coaches were from the sideline…MB letting everyone do what they do…
was wrong about wanting rick brunson gone before the season began…he seems to be a voice many players listen to…
It’s not even close in my eyes, and never has been. Brunson lighting up Spida in the 2022 playoffs was enough for me, and that pattern has continued unabated through now, including in two more playoff meetings.
And the ability to adapt to defenses that prepare for you insanely, instead of at regular season tempo — which I guess could fall under the mental makeup prong, or even skillset. JB has a more diverse offensive game than Spida and is way more basketball intelligent (Spida’s not dumb, but JB is off the charts).
There’s just no basketball substitute for the ability to stay poised in massive-leverage possessions and create a good shot for yourself, and make it — even when the other team knows you’re going to do that. JB has that talent/X factor.
probably doesn’t hurt having a dad who’s an nba coach…and starting at it young…
even outside the house he’s had some excellent coaches…
probably a good few other players with a similar background…
not too many people get tagged as captain clutch before 30, and he may just solidify that title here in another week or so…
Close your eyes and listen to the Spurs post game interviews, you might mistake it for the Cavs.
They did their jobs. They are the better team. They just lost…
Meanwhile I just went 78-4 with a Knicks-heavy team of Westbrook, Brunson, Luka, Melo, Patrick.
Did you know you can change team and era? That was a game changer.
The Cavs were shook, though. The Spurs are extremely confident.
The Spurs are still young and immortal, the Cavs learned they were over.
Fine line between confident and delusional
How?
There’s a little button at the top right corner. You can use each only once.
My buddy went 82-0.
Westbrook
Doncic
Durant
Hayes
Chamberlain
I managed 81-1 with:
Chris Paul (Pelicans)
MJ (80s)
McGrady
McAdoo
Jokic
Also, epic quote from Josh
https://x.com/yourmandevine/status/2062603007200551396?s=46&t=0wqff4cNt-sCGcDs-uMExw
Josh Hart just said that he was surprised at the start of Game 1, after days of preparing for being guarded by Wemby from the jump, when he brought the ball up and saw that Julian Champagnie was guarding him.
“I was about to call timeout, and tell them to switch.
has anyone figured out how to go 0 – 82…
seems the more noble pursuit…maybe bring the program some joy…
I managed 82-0 with
2000s Seattle Gary Payton
80s Michael Jordan
2000s Detroit Grant hill
2010s GSW Kevin Durant
1960s GSW Wilt Chamberlain
Riding my bike home from dinner in red hook and just happened across a Sheila e concert in Prospect Park. Staying. Absolutely the best city in the world.
Nice, vincoug.
Geo, you just made this so much more interesting
We learned what we learned from Game 1, but I think Game 2 will tell us much more.
Put another way, I wouldn’t have felt much differently if we went into this series with home court. We have been eliminated from the playoffs 4 straight times with home court advantage.
So if the Spurs take game 2, it becomes a 5 game series where we have home court. except that game 7 would be in SA. That would put a lot of pressure on us to win both at home.
Whereas if we take game 2, it would be a lot like the Pacers or Celtics against us last year. It’s really hard to come back from an 0-2 deficit when both losses occured at home.
I really like our chances to win tomorrow, but I think some here are underestimating the Spurs. I don’t think we can count on beating them with our “B” game again. But getting that first win on their court while not playing especially well should bode well, given how this team goes about things.
nice, that’s some music to move your soul…and feet, and body…
pull some of the worst from those knicks 2014/15 and 2018/19 rosters and that should put you in the low teens for season wins…
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2702761856783605
I think you need Chamberlain to go 82-0, his stats are ridiculous.
My best was 81-1 with:
John Wall
2020s Harden
Alex English
Karl Malone
Wilt Chamberlain
Wonderful Recap Kevin! 😍
Let’s Go Knicks!
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