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Game 2 of the NBA Finals is tonight at 8:30 ET on ABC. This is the only game of the weekend. The finals won’t be back until Monday. I’m sure the Knicks fans will be happy with at least a split, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want the Spurs’ weekend ruined and full of panic.
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Bounce back?
How the Spurs can even the series
The Spurs definitely don’t want to go down 0-2 heading to New York. Only five teams in history have gone down 0-2 in the NBA Finals and won the championship: the 1969 Celtics (beat the Lakers in seven), 1977 Blazers (beat the 76ers in six), 2006 Heat (beat the Mavericks in six), 2016 Cavaliers (beat the Warriors in seven) and 2021 Bucks (beat the Suns in six).
But nobody has done it after going down 0-2 at home. This would be truly uncharted territory for the Spurs in their attempt to win their sixth title in franchise history. In fact, only five teams have come back after going down 0-2 at home in the playoffs, period: the 1969 Lakers, 1994 Rockets, 2005 Mavericks, 2017 Celtics and 2021 Clippers. This pretty much makes tonight’s game a must-win for San Antonio.
So how can the Spurs accomplish this? Victor Wembanyama said after the Game 1 loss that he just has to play normal. He doesn’t even have to be good, and they’ll win. He said multiple times that he’s not worried about it. He was exuding confidence and maybe even some arrogance that could rub people the wrong way. But his confidence in himself and his team has paid off to this point. Let’s go over some of the ways the Spurs can fix things and go to Madison Square Garden with a split.
The Wemby factor: His stat line of 26 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, three blocks and six turnovers while going 6-of-21 from the field, 2-of-9 from deep and 12-of-13 from the free-throw line was all over the place. Obviously, he shot horribly. You can tell by the shooting numbers! We rarely saw him put his imprint on the game, and that’s not something that’s happened a lot in the 22-year-old’s first postseason. The reason the Spurs were favored going into this season is that Wemby seems undeniable.
The Knicks denied him in Game 1. He was 4-of-12 in and around the paint, with all four of those makes happening at the rim. He got some good shot locations, but the Knicks did a great job taking away his space and comfort. And at times, it forced him to rush shots he’d normally take his time to finish with quality.
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A lot of this is a testament to the Knicks’ game plan and execution. However, I believe Wemby can neutralize a lot of that defensive effort by making quicker decisions and attacks. Two dribbles to get to his spot, rather than continuing to work in a crowd for a better shot that doesn’t exist. It’s little stuff that applies to the entire team approach, but especially Wemby.
Controlling the boards: You could look at the rebounding numbers for Game 1 and think the Spurs are doing just fine. And they almost were! They outrebounded the Knicks 54-49. They had more offensive rebounds (14-10). They had more rebounds in the fourth quarter (16-10 with a 7-2 offensive advantage). And yet, the Knicks won the second-chance points battle 23-14, and it felt like the Knicks were able to grab massive rebound after massive rebound in key parts of the game.
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Josh Hart was a monster on the boards with 15 of them. And Karl-Anthony Towns had four of his 12 boards on the offensive end. Those clutch rebounds in big moments will be the key to this. The Knicks were just quicker to the ball in those instances. It was the difference in the Spurs not extending the lead when it was 63-50 in the third and in not closing out the game.
Protect the paint: The Spurs allowed 50 of the 105 Knicks points in the paint on 25-of-42 (59.5 percent) from the field. That simply can’t happen with Wemby on your team. The Knicks did a great job pulling him away from the basket and were not afraid to attack him even when he was in there. The Knicks were smart in how they found their angles around the rim. Wemby has to erase that.
Creating for others: It was very unSpurs-like to only have 16 assists in a game they made 32 shots in. For the season, the Spurs assisted on 64.6 percent of their made shots. In the playoffs, that has dipped to 61.3 percent. In Game 1, they had a 50 percent assist rate, showing that they created for themselves as much as their teammates. The Knicks did a great job taking those opportunities away in help. It forced more isolation basketball to happen.
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Pop the clutch: Even though the Spurs have made the finals, they’ve been pretty brutal in clutch situations during the playoffs. During the regular season, the Spurs possessed the fourth-best clutch offensive rating in the NBA. They scored 122.6 points per 100 clutch possessions. That’s absurd. Only the Lakers (129.3), Thunder (124.5) and Knicks (123.5) were better. We’ve seen a steep decline during the playoffs.
The Spurs are scoring just 96.8 points per 100 possessions in the clutch. That’s a massive dropoff! And their defense (108.3) hasn’t made up for it. The Knicks, on the other hand, had a big clutch drop in offense (107.7), but their defense (89.2) has been the difference. The Spurs’ clutch offense was an issue against Portland, OKC and Game 1 of the Knicks. They have to create better shots in these situations and actually make them. A bold strategy.
The last 24
👽 World conquering. If it seems like Wembanyama is everywhere, that’s by design. Our Jared Weiss goes inside the plan to make Wemby a global superstar.
🗽 Empire State of mind. The Knicks’ run has ignited New York City. They are finally rewarding a fan base that’s madly in love with the team, Ian O’Connor writes.
🗣️ Investigation. Apparently some fans were using some vulgar language toward Brunson in Game 1. The league is investigating it.
💰 Surge pricing. Madison Square Garden tickets are through the roof for the Finals. You won’t believe the prices.
⛔ No go. Charles Oakley is no longer banned from MSG. But the former Knick isn’t interested in attending the finals because of his ongoing feud with owner James Dolan.
🏀 Game 3 guests. President Trump and NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani plan to attend Monday’s game. But they won’t be sitting near one another.
🔊 “NBA Daily.” Watch and listen to a preview of Game 2.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Finals rankings
The top players after Game 1
After Game 1, it feels right to rank the players based on their lone finals performance. We’ll try to do this heading into each game of this series, and see if it offers any foresight into who might end up as the finals MVP.
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10. Landry Shamet, Knicks: He had 13 points off the bench, including going 3-of-6 from deep. Over the previous six playoff games, Shamet was 17-of-21 from 3-point range. Somehow, going 3-of-6 decreased his recent accuracy.
9. Mitchell Robinson, Knicks: His numbers weren’t eye-popping: two points and six rebounds in 13 minutes. But he did a great job on Wembanyama in limited opportunities — with a broken finger.
8. OG Anunoby, Knicks: He didn’t really show up until the fourth quarter, but his 12 points in the final period were huge in helping the Knicks build momentum toward the win.
7. Stephon Castle, Spurs: He had a better second half (11 points on 5-of-9 shooting) than first half (six points on 2-of-7), but the Castle experience has to be consistent throughout the game. He struggled defensively late.
6. Julian Champagnie, Spurs: He had a great first half by knocking down five 3-pointers, but he was virtually non-existent in the second half.
5. Dylan Harper, Spurs: Harper also had a brilliant first half and probably should have closed the game over the struggling De’Aaron Fox. But Harper didn’t do enough to balance his halves.
4. Hart: Three points on 1-of-5 shooting, 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals, a block and zero turnovers. The quintessential Josh Hart game.
3. Wembanyama: He struggled by his standards, but he was still a big presence and the focus of the Knicks’ game plan. He could have used some help to capitalize on that attention and then found his spots better.
2. Jalen Brunson, Knicks: He was hobbled and struggled in the first three quarters. He was only 7-of-22 from the field. Then the fourth quarter happened, and he found a way to torch the Spurs. His 13 points in the fourth closed this one out.
1. Towns: KAT gave the most consistent performance of Game 1. He didn’t shy away from the moment. He didn’t shy away from Wemby. He kept going at him, even after plays in which he got stopped. He set the tone perfectly
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Rockets’ red flare
Houston’s uniforms get a serious upgrade
Remember at the beginning of this week when we saw the leaked reveal of the new Minnesota Timberwolves uniforms? They immediately made me wonder if they jumped to the top of the rankings. The uniforms were both the perfect look and a big improvement on some pretty mediocre threads by the Wolves in recent years. Well, the Houston Rockets have been suffering the same fate. They’ve had some mundane uniforms with the very basic red-and-white jerseys.
They decided to remedy that. After teasing for a week or so the return of “championship yellow” to their uniform scheme, bringing back the old “ketchup and mustard” style uniforms from the mid-90s seemed too good to be true. The Rockets delivered. They unveiled three new uniforms this week, including a pretty cool black uniform with red lettering.
These are phenomenal. The red uniforms are a 10/10. The white uniforms are an 8/10. I’m not sure I love the stripes, but I’m open to this being a 10/10. I love the black uniforms with the red. These are like a 9/10. This is the kind of rebrand fans can easily get behind without having to talk themselves into it. The Rockets also reimagined the “Dunkstronaut” logo that will be prominent on the new merch:
Bravo, Rockets. You absolutely crushed this in every way.