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Knicks vs Spurs: The NBA Finals We Didn’t See Coming
Two franchises took wildly different roads to the same stage. The New York Knicks are back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, having swept the Cleveland Cavaliers out of the Eastern Conference without dropping a game — and they’ll have had nine days of rest by tip-off. The San Antonio Spurs got here the hard way, surviving a seven-game war with the top-seeded, defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder and closing it out with a Game 7 win on the road. Game 1 tips Wednesday, June 3 in San Antonio, where the Spurs hold home-court advantage. It’s a rematch of the 1999 Finals — San Antonio won that one in five — old-money New York against the league’s most electric young core. The projection model has already picked a side: it makes the Spurs roughly a 64% favorite in the opener.
The Matchup That Decides It
Jalen Brunson vs. Victor Wembanyama. New York lives and dies by Brunson’s pick-and-roll surgery — he hunts switches, gets to his spots, and bends defenses to his will. San Antonio’s entire defensive identity is the seven-foot eraser waiting at the rim. If Brunson can drag Wembanyama away from the paint and punish him in space, the Knicks’ offense hums. If Wemby can stay home, protect the rim, and still close out to contest, the Spurs choke off the one thing New York does best. Whoever wins that chess match wins the series.
Our Pick
Spurs in 6. Home court plus the best player in the series is a hard combination to bet against, and Wembanyama’s two-way ceiling tilts the close games. The Knicks are battle-tested and rested, and they won’t go quietly — but San Antonio’s length is the kind of problem you can’t scheme around in a week, and the Spurs just proved they can win the biggest game of the series on the road. Game 1: Wednesday, June 3, 8:30 PM ET on ABC.
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