Kornet replaced Wemby with 5:27 left in the quarters. The Knicks led 14-10. Yes, the Spurs have outscored the Knicks 12-3 without the player expected to be the best player in basketball over the next 10 years or so.
Knicks 17-22 Spurs, 2:33, 1st qtr: Harper hits a long two … no, wait, it’s three, as replay confirms. Shamet answers for the Knicks to end their drought, but Champagnie hits from the corner, and the Spurs suddenly can’t miss.
Mitchell Robinson has entered the game and gathered a rebound for the Knicks, who have understandably just called timeout.
Knicks 14-16 Spurs, 3:49, 1st qtr: Luke Kornet has replaced Wemby, and while he won’t be chasing down his teammate for MVP honors anytime soon, he proves to be a defensive menace.
Dylan Harper snares an errant Knicks pass and is off to the races, drawing a foul. He hits both free throws.
Another bad Knicks pass, an alley-oop broken up by Kornet, sends Harper into open space again. He scores and draws a foul, then hits the free throws. That’s a 9-0 run, and the Spurs lead.
Knicks 14-11 Spurs, 5:00, 1st qtr: Stephon Castle, another of the Spurs’ young stars, gets a friendly bounce on a jumper. After some back and forth, Castle gets under the rim and draws a foul from Hart, his second in quick succession. Castle hits two free throws, and now the lead is just three.
Knicks 14-7 Spurs, 6:15, 1st qtr: Towns faces off against Wemby at the top of the arc and then pivots past him like he’s Messi against a traffic cone. Easy layup, even against a player with the wingspan of a cargo plane.
Knicks 12-7 Spurs, 7:28, 1st qtr: Things are messy. A scramble for the ball somehow ends up with Hart racing down an unguarded free throw lane for a layup. On his next trip down, he tries again with Wemby at the rim, and that’s a bad idea. Block, then a 3-pointer for the Spurs superstar.
De’Aaron Fox misses a wide-open corner three for the Spurs. Karl-Anthony Towns scores for the Knicks, and the Spurs will take a timeout. It’s not quite getting away from them early, but they could use a moment to settle down.
Knicks 6-2 Spurs, 10:20, 1st qtr: Referee Scott Foster is mic’d up. He yells like an auctioneer before throwing the ball up.
And we’re off. Knicks have possession, and Jalen Brunson drains a 3-pointer. Wemby hits a pullup jumper. The Knicks come back with Josh Hart winning a rebounding battle and tossing out to OG Anunoby for a corner three.
The national anthem is being performed by Tori Kelly, who waits a couple of seconds before starting and is gesturing as if something is wrong with her microphone. Sounds fine when she starts singing.
Let’s see what the Spurs have put together for their pregame … it’s set to the Kendrick Lamar song DNA and involves way too much pyro.
Everyone’s still trying to catch up with the classic Chicago Bulls intro. That had to be good for about 10 points a game. I think I’d want to hide under a chair if I was on the visiting team.
Are we actually about to start? I guess the 45-minute countdown a while back was … a test? Well, OK. Here we go.
From the inbox …
Ron Stack predicts Knicks in six: “I’m sure I saw the 1970 series although I was very young and don’t remember it. But as a New York sports fan from Long Island I remember consecutive disappointments from the Mets and Jets, as well as the Knicks and Rangers (no love for the Yanks or Giants and I had some beef with the Islanders that I can’t remember).
“I say Knicks in six because it sounds cool, but either they solve Wemby or they don’t. If they do, they can win it in five. If they don’t, they can lose it in five. I loved the series with OKC but I don’t see this as a battle of equals fighting it out in Game 7.”
******
Mac Milling: “Yes! ‘Relentless’ will also be Nandor to me. Three of my favorite shows of the last decade are all Waititi-adjacent – What We Do in the Shadows, Our Flag Means Death, and Reservation Dogs – which is odd, because Thor Love and Thunder is perhaps my least favorite film in that span.”
Knicks coach Mike Young on Spurs coach Mitch Johnson: “He’s light-years in front of me. He’s a way better coach than I was when I was a young guy.”
Unsurprising stat
The team that wins Game 1 of the Finals wins the series 69.6% of the time. Being one game closer to victory certainly helps. There’s also the matter of home-court advantage – the winner of Game 1 is either already taking advantage of the advantage or has negated it.
A clock on top of the basket is counting down from 45 minutes. I’ve forgotten the advanced math I learned in high school, but I’m getting the impression we won’t have tipoff at 8:30 p.m. ET. Pretty sure 45 > 12.
In a pregame interview, the awe-inspiring Spurs center Victor Wembanyana (I’ll be saying “Wemby” from here on) refers to his team as “relentless.” Does anyone else immediately think of Nandor from What We Do in the Shadows upon hearing that word?
Injury report
The Spurs are healthy.
Knicks center Mitchell Robinson has a broken right pinky but has dressed for the game and is available.
The waiting is the hardest part
The last time the Spurs won the NBA championship, Kawhi Leonard was the Finals MVP. The team had veteran leadership in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The No. 1 song was Happy, by Pharrell Williams. Others in the top 10 included John Legend, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande.
That was the scene in 2014. It’s been a little while, but these names are all familiar to most people over age 20. Certainly people over 30.
The last time the Knicks won the NBA championship, the Finals MVP was Willis Reed. Their leading scorer was Walt Frazier. The other All-Stars were Dave DeBusschere and Bill Bradley. People under age 35 probably don’t even remember when Bradley was a legitimate presidential contender, let alone an All-Star in the NBA. All in the Family and Sanford and Son were TV ratings juggernauts. Tony Orlando and Dawn had the year’s top song, Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree. The Vietnam War was still going.
You get the point. It’s been 53 years. Technically, the Knicks have won the NBA championship in my lifetime, but I was too young to remember. I only know about the Knicks of 1970 and 1973 from DeBusschere’s book, The Open Man: A Championship Diary. (I was in a couple of classes with his daughter in college and didn’t make the connection until after graduation. I am not smart.)
So sentimentality will surely favor the Knicks here. Those who want to see the official start of the Wemby era will favor the Spurs.
Let me know who you’re supporting and why. No judgment here.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how are writers see the series ending:
Your winner will be …
Knicks 4-2 Spurs. I’ll be the first to admit that I did not think the San Antonio Spurs would be this ahead of schedule. As impressed as I was with their first two rounds of play, I still thought they were a year away, and predicted that the conference finals were their ceiling. I stand corrected: they’re really, really good, and Wembanyama looks like the best player on Earth. But New York present a unique challenge, with far more ball handling and shot creation than the Spurs have faced thus far (they came up against an Oklahoma team missing two of their best in that department in Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell). The Knicks are on a heater the likes of which I’ve never seen in an NBA playoffs, and it’s been largely written off as the spoils of the weaker East. But they’re for real, and primed to play spoiler to the Spurs’ magical ride from lottery to finals. San Antonio will win at least one, if not several titles in the Wembanyama era. But this year, my money’s on the Knicks. Claire de Lune
Knicks 4-1 Spurs. The Knicks will frustrate Wemby, they will share the ball in a way the 1970s pass-first Knicks would relish. Towns will continue to unwind all the soft parts of his game. Anunoby will get to the basket with determined physicality. Mikal Bridges will slash and drain from mid-range. Brunson will take over down the stretch and Robinson, bad pinky and all, may even hit a few foul shots. As Nikola Jokić once said: “When is parade?” David Lengel
Spurs 4-2 Knicks. A Knicks win won’t surprise – they fared well against the Spurs during the regular season, they’re fresher, and they’ve been more dominant in the playoffs – but Wembanyama is transcendent and his supporting cast fits perfectly around him. After watching San Antonio overcome the Thunder in Oklahoma City, it’s too hard to bet against them knocking off anybody else. Owen Lewis
Spurs 4-3 Knicks. In our preseason predictions, I picked the Knicks to clinch an NBA finals berth, although I didn’t think they’d do it in such a dominant fashion. But the Knicks’ uncomplicated journey to the finals could be both a gift and a curse: after enduring a rigorous seven-game series against the defending champions, the Spurs are more battle-tested than New York. Their defensive discipline will halt the Knicks’ surging offense, and Wemby will be the series’ biggest X-factor. By the time the title is decided, it will be clear that the Wembanyama era has arrived. AR Shaw
You can read more detailed series predictions here:
