The New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in Game Five of the NBA Finals to win their first NBA Championship since 1973. Despite building a 16-point lead, the Spurs allowed the Knicks to storm back in the fourth quarter in a 94-90 loss. It’s the first time in franchise history that San Antonio lost the Finals on its home court.
The Spurs’ offense struggled all game, but particularly in the fourth quarter. San Antonio scored just 18 points compared to the Knicks 29 points in the final frame.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well from the field, but New York had the best player in the building in Jalen Brunson. The Knicks’ star guard had 45 points on 14-27 shooting from the field.
San Antonio’s starting backcourt was ice cold, as De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle combined for 13 points on 4-25 shooting from the field. They got a boost off the bench from Dylan Harper, who led the Spurs in scoring with 25 points in 31 minutes. Victor Wembanyama started the game on a roll, but couldn’t find his footing in the fourth quarter, finishing the game with 19 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 blocks on 7-19 shooting from the field.
In this young core’s first postseason, they took their run all the way to the NBA Finals. With one of the best players in the league in Wembanyama, a solid young supporting cast, and plenty of assets to work with, San Antonio could be fighting for a championship in the years to come.
Observations:
- The game took on a familiar form. The Spurs got up big in the first quarter by playing elite defense and moving the ball well on offense. As the game went along, and the physicality of the Knicks started to set in, the Spurs got away from what made them successful. The ball movement stopped, and their defense couldn’t keep up with their lack of offense.
- In the biggest game of the season, the Spurs needed more from their starting backcourt. Fox and Castle never found a rhythm. Neither of them got clean looks at the rim, and their shots completely abandoned them. To make matters worse, they didn’t get their teammates involved either. Fox finished the game with 5 assists, and Castle finished with 4.
- Wembanyama is going to be the focus for a lot of people coming out of the loss. He was absent for a lot of the fourth quarter offensively, going 1-5 from the field during the final frame. Wembanyama didn’t get many clean looks at the hoop late as the Knicks sold out, leaving other Spurs open to make sure he didn’t have easy lanes to the basket. He passed out of a lot of shots late as he struggled to create his own shot.
- Once again, San Antonio didn’t seem to have the advantage in front of their home crowd. The Spurs got BOOED when they took the floor. The post-game celebration was filled with Knicks fans. It seemed to play a factor for most of the series.
- One player who donned the Silver and Black this season won a ring: Jeremy Sochan.
