The Finals — The First Game
History. We are witnessing history 19,383 days in the making.
And then some.
Because the last 53 years have been anything but kind to Knicks fans. For 27 years, we have been begging for revenge.
Finally, another shot. Finally, an opportunity for glory. Finally, a chance to raise a trophy and uplift the city to a level unseen since 1973.
And, just like in 1999, the New York Knicks have been pinned against the San Antonio Spurs.
Special players are often referred to as “unicorns,” but Victor Wembanyama is more of an alien. There has never been anybody like him in NBA history, and perhaps there never will be. He stands at 7’4 with an eight-foot wingspan, and at 22 years old, he is the NBA’s first-ever unanimous Defensive Player of the Year.
However, one man has enough heart and hustle to prevent an alien invasion, and his name is Jalen Brunson. At 6’2, though, it will take his entire team for David to defeat Goliath. Can the prince slay the dragon? Perhaps, but he will not be able to do it alone.
If the Knicks want to win the NBA Finals, every player must contribute. That means Karl-Anthony Towns cannot fade, and OG Anunoby cannot slack defensively. Josh Hart must muscle his way up every mountain, and Mitchell Robinson must persevere through his broken pinky.
On Thursday afternoon, when Robinson’s injury was reported, his odds of playing in the Finals were completely unknown. Now, he is expected to play tonight. Along with his teammates, he got a lot of time to rest, although Mike Brown said Robinson didn’t suffer the injury in a game or during practice.
Robinson practiced with a black bandage on his shooting hand because of a procedure to repair his fifth metacarpal. The reality is that the Knicks need Robinson. He might be the only player on this team who can contain Wemby, especially around the glass.
During the Knicks’ NBA Cup title win over San Antonio, Wembanyama came off the bench, but Robinson helped limit him to 18 points. However, the Knicks’ 124-113 defeat of the Spurs on December 16 wasn’t noted in either team’s final record; the teams split their two other matchups.
On December 31, the Spurs won 134-132 after a triumphant fourth-quarter comeback. On March 1, the Knicks destroyed the Spurs 114-89, and Wemby’s 25 points weren’t enough.
How the Knicks defend Wembanyama will be a key storyline of this series. Wemby thrives in the paint on both sides of the ball, including 3.5 blocks per game this postseason. He also limits opponents’ shot attempts in the paint, which could hinder Brunson, a crafty lane driver, and reduce the number of assists the Knicks collect.
“They’re very physical,” Brunson said of the Spurs. “The way they play, they’re able to pressure on the perimeter. Obviously, having Wemby down there on the weak side creates havoc. So, they’re multidimensional. They have a lot of different ways they can beat you on both sides of the ball.”
This postseason, the Knicks have averaged a league-best 53.3 points in the paint. Critics have predicted the Knicks will lose this series because their three-point shooting won’t compensate for interior offense.
But this year’s Knicks team is nothing like last year’s. This team has won 11 straight games and hasn’t lost in 41 days. They have put up historic offensive and defensive numbers.
Like San Antonio, the Knicks possess the size needed to find other ways to score — even in the paint. Towns and Robinson can set screens for smaller players, and Towns can drive to the paint independently, even against Wemby.
One player who has been key to the Knicks’ postseason success is Mikal Bridges. He was invisible when the Knicks fell behind Atlanta in the first round, but the timing of his resurgence aligned perfectly with his team’s historic 11-game run. This leads one to believe the Knicks cannot win the Finals if Bridges reverts.
Bridges is the only player on this team with significant Finals experience (Jordan Clarkson barely played with Cleveland in 2018, and Anunoby never played with Toronto in 2019). In Game 2 of the Finals with Phoenix in 2021, he scored 27 points, putting the Suns up 2-0. Then, they lost their next four games.
Bridges vowed never again to take a series lead or the opportunity to play in the NBA Finals for granted. Towns, who lost in the conference finals twice before this season, said something similar.
“I don’t think anybody who’s made the Finals would say they don’t feel like a winner, and I also think that when you get an opportunity like this, you have to maximize it. You never know if you’ll get another chance. You never know what life has in store for all of us. These opportunities are very few and far between, and you’ve got to make the most of them.”
It isn’t just the collegiate championship pedigree of Brunson, Bridges, and Josh Hart, or the fact that several players have reached the Finals before, that gives the Knicks the experience advantage; it is the adversity they have faced. Wemby is a tremendous player with otherworldly potential, but he hasn’t faced NBA-level adversity.
That isn’t to dismiss the Spurs’ achievements this postseason. Their seven-game defeat of the defending-champion Thunder was marvelous. In fact, there are many reasons to argue the Spurs are more talented than the Knicks. Honestly, they probably are.
But the Knicks have grit. They are a battle-tested crew. Their stars wouldn’t be stars without adversity. Every player on this team, from Brunson silencing those who claimed he was too small, to Towns losing his mother at a young age, to Hart’s family’s house burning down when he was a kid, has an inspiring story that has shaped their NBA career.
Last year, every member of tonight’s starting five experienced adversity together as they lost in the conference finals to Indiana, including a historic choke job in Game 1.
Everything these players have done in their lives was for the opportunity to win a championship at the highest level. Finally, they will have that chance.
“I think all experience is gonna help us in this moment,” Towns said. “This is what a culmination of life’s work and basketball comes to: playing in the NBA Finals. All of us are gonna have to tap into that reserve of experience, whether it’s Jalen with winning in college and winning a national championship, or with me, with the failures I had in my career, with not getting to the finals or in college, not winning it all.
“We’ve all got to tap into that experience we have, so we can put ourselves in the best position to win.”
Let the Knickerbocker Revolution commence!
Game Information
Teams: New York Knicks (RS: 53-29, 22-19 Away) at San Antonio Spurs (RS: 62-20, 32-8 Home)
Time: 8:30 PM
Networks: ABC, ESPN App (Pregame and Postgame on MSG, Gotham Sports)
Venue: Frost Bank Center — 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, San Antonio, TX 78219
Monday Line: SA -4.5 (ESPN Bet)
