It’s here.
After sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in an uncompetitive Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks have reached a place they have not been in 27 years. A long journey has resulted in entire generations of Knicks fans being able to experience something new.
But it certainly won’t be easy. A seven-game war out west for the right to play the ‘Bockers concluded on Saturday night in OKC, and the 2026 NBA Finals are set.
It’s the No. 3-seeded New York Knicks (53-29) against the No. 2-seeded San Antonio
Spurs (62-20) for the right to raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy in a rematch of both the 1999 NBA Finals and the NBA Cup. Is there anything better?
Season Recap
You know how the Knicks’ season has gone. After all, you’re reading this on a Knicks site, but just to sum it up.
After firing Tom Thibodeau, engaging in a long coaching search, and keying in on Mike Brown, the Knicks mostly ran back the same team, albeit with new faces Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele, while drafting Mo Diawara. It was supposed to be a deeper, offensive powerhouse, and, for the most part, it was. The Knicks started 23-9 and even got some hardware along the way, beating the Spurs in the NBA Cup Final in December. Everything was coming up New York as 2025 turned into 2026.
And then everything fell apart. Starting with a New Year’s Eve collapse in San Antonio, the Knicks lost nine of their next 11 games, capped off by a terrible effort on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at MSG against the tanking Mavs. The sky was falling, we had podcasters saying he couldn’t wait to blow up this core, we had loud calls for Mike Brown’s job, the defense was abhorrently bad, and the season was in a tailspin.
Then, they mollywhopped the Nets by 54 and everything calmed down. After going from 23-9 to 25-18, the Knicks won 28 of their final 39 games, powered by the NBA’s second-best defense over the final 2.5 months of the season. They swapped the disappointing Yabusele for Jose Alvarado and finished the season strong.
After struggling through three games with the feisty Hawks, something clicked in the heads of every coach and player on the roster. The last 11 games have seen a level of dominance so historic that they’ve broken every single point differential record imaginable. They obliterated the Hawks in the final three games, swept and demoralized the worn-down Sixers, and then broke the Cavaliers after a 22-point Game 1 comeback en route to a sweep to advance to their first NBA Finals in 27 years.
After taking a decent step forward in 2024-25 in Year 2 of the Victor Wembanyama, nobody could’ve expected the Spurs getting this good, this fast. Some lottery luck allowed them to grab Rutgers guard Dylan Harper No. 2 overall, while also adding Carter Bryant at the back of the lottery. Aside from those two, all they did was add big man depth in Kelly Olynyk and Luke Kornet, which was apparently enough to improve by 28 games.
San Antonio made a big statement early in the season, managing to be the first to derail the defending champion’s early quest at 70 wins by beating them four times in five meetings, while advancing to the NBA Cup Final in mid-December before falling to the Knicks. They spent much of the second half of the season chasing down the Thunder for the best record in basketball, finishing 30-4 in their last 34 games, but fell short due to just how hot OKC finished the season.
They endured some growing pains in a surprisingly competitive series against Portland that ultimately was only extended to five games because of a Wemby concussion. Additionally, this young group battled to six games by a banged-up Timberwolves team without Donte DiVincenzo and with a laboring Anthony Edwards. In a seven-game battle with the 64-win Thunder, they rallied back down 2-1 and 3-2 to win the series on the road.
Regular Season Series
12/16/2025: Knicks win 124-113 (NBA Cup Final)
12/31/2025: Spurs win 134-132 (A)
3/1/2026: Knicks win 114-89 (H)
The first time these two teams met wasn’t initially on the schedule, but when they both won their way to the NBA Cup Final in mid-December, a third meeting was added to the calendar in Las Vegas.
The circumstances surrounding the matchup deserve an asterisk. Victor Wembanyama was on a minutes restriction and came off the bench. Despite that, the two teams were even for much of the first three quarters, despite San Antonio often going on runs to stretch it to a 7-8 point lead before a counter by the Knicks.
Everything changed in the fourth, when Jordan Clarkson and Tyler Kolek went ballistic to punch the Spurs in the mouth and secure the NBA Cup trophy. OG Anunoby had 28, Jalen Brunson had 25, and Kolek/Clarkson combined for 29, while Wembanyama had just 17 in 25 minutes, being routinely bullied on the boards by Mitchell Robinson.
The second meeting looked like it would go in the Knicks’ favor for three quarters. 45 points in the first quarter and a 19-point advantage late in the first half had NYK rolling, but Wembanyama and company slowly chipped away until the 7’5” alien left with a knee injury in the fourth, trailing by 11.
How would the Spurs respond without their best player? Well, the December-January Knicks didn’t play a lick of defense, and Julian Champagnie capitalized by nailing a career-high 11 threes in a stunning comeback victory on New Year’s Eve in what would ultimately begin the three-week stretch from hell that rocked the boat as much as any stretch in recent memory.
Brunson had 29, Deuce McBride and Clarkson both had 20, but injuries to Josh Hart and Robinson thinned the team’s frontcourt, allowing for Wemby to score 31 in 23 minutes while Fox and Champagnie combined for 52 of their own.
By early March, the Spurs were an absolute wagon. They went 11-0 in February and were in the midst of a 30-4 run to end the season. But when they went to Madison Square Garden for a nationally televised matinee, they were blown out of the building. After the first eight minutes, the Spurs led 19-7. The Knicks closed the quarter on a 15-2 run and never trailed again, blitzing a healthy San Antonio squad by 25 points.
Mikal Bridges had his best performance of the second half of the season, scoring 25 and being a +21. Brunson added 24, while Mo Diawara splashed four threes in 15 impactful minutes. Wembanyama had 25-13 on 8-for-17 shooting. Outside of him and Devin Vassell, nobody had much of an impact.
Playoff History
1999 NBA Finals: Spurs win 4-1
This is a rematch of the last time the Knicks were in the NBA Finals, and the two franchises have been completely different since. San Antonio used this series as a springboard to a 20-year dynasty under Gregg Popovich, while it was the last gasp of the Patrick Ewing era and the second-to-last deep playoff run before 20 years of mediocrity.
The Knicks were never winning this one. As the No. 8 seed in a strike-shortened season, the Knicks were a ragtag group who stunned the world on their way here, but any chance they had to knock off the youthful Spurs vanished when Ewing tore his Achilles in the Eastern Conference Finals. As such, Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston were a solid 90% of the offense.
San Antonio won Games 1 and 2 at home by 12 and 13 points in low-scoring, gritty affairs. The Knicks failed to score 80 in either. 23-year-old Tim Duncan scored 33 and 25 in two games in which his team scored less than 90 points. That’s a baby goat.
The Knicks took Game 3 at Madison Square Garden in what is currently the most recent Finals victory by the franchise. Houston scored 34 in an 89-80 victory. That momentum was short-lived, as the Admiral and the Big Fundamental carried the Spurs to a seven-point win in Game 4.
While it was academic at that point, the Knicks nearly stole Game 5 in the Alamodome. They led by eight in the second quarter and spent the fourth quarter going back and forth. Avery Johnson splashed a mid-range jumper for the lead in the final minute for San Antonio, and Sprewell, who had 35 in a terrific game where nobody else had it, missed two different go-ahead shots from inside the arc to clinch the title for the Spurs.
Key Stats (Regular Season)
Spurs:
Offensive rating: 118.7 (T-3rd)
Defensive rating: 110.4 (3rd)
FG%: 48.3% (6th)
3pt%: 35.9% (T-14th)
FT%: 78.7% (12th)
Pace: 100.7 (12th)
OREB%: 30.6% (10th)
TOV%: 13.3% (5th)
Points in the Paint: 49.3 (19th)
Opponent PITP: 46.3 (7th)
Opponent 3pt%: 35.2% (8th)
4th Quarter Net Rating: +3.2 (11th)
Clutch Record/Net Rating: 24-12, +8.3 (7th)
Knicks:
Offensive rating: 118.7 (T-3rd)
Defensive rating: 112.3 (7th)
FG%: 47.8% (11th)
3pt%: 37.3% (4th)
FT%: 79.2% (T-10th)
Pace: 97.5 (25th)
OREB%: 32.8% (7th)
TOV%: 13.9% (T-10th)
Points in the Paint: 47.8 (22nd)
Opponent PITP: 43.4 (3rd)
Opponent 3pt%: 36.2% (20th lowest)
4th Quarter Net Rating: +11.7 (1st)
Clutch Record/Net Rating: 21-13, +20.5 (3rd)
Trends:
Knicks since 1/20: 118.5 ORtg (6th), 108.2 DRtg (2nd), +10.3 net rating (3rd)
Spurs since 2/1: 30-4, 122.2 ORtg (1st), 109 DRtg (3rd), +12.2 net rating (1st)
Coaching Breakdown
Mike Brown (NYK):
Season with team: 1st
Season as head coach: 12th
Career teams coached: CLE, LAL, SAC, NYK
Career record: 507-333 (.604)
Career playoff record: 54-42 (.563)
Best finish: 2007 Cavaliers (Finals appearance)
Mike Brown is entering the postseason as the head coach of a third different team. He’s never won a game past the Eastern Conference Finals, but he’s certainly experienced deep playoff runs as an assistant under Gregg Popovich from 2001-03 and an assistant under Steve Kerr from 2017-22, winning four championships as an assistant coach.
Brown’s philosophy is a stylistic change from former head coach Tom Thibodeau, in that he prioritizes ball movement, spacing, and a drive-and-kick to open shooters (which he calls “sprays”). He was mostly unsuccessful in increasing the Knicks’ pace, showing that the team’s slow play is rooted in the way their captain operates in the offense, rather than the scheme. His biggest success has been increasing three-point attempts, but those have slowly decreased as the season has gone on.
Defensively, Brown has been flexible in his scheme. While Thibodeau always required a true rim protector on the floor, Brown has been more willing to mix up lineups in certain areas. After starting the season with a scheme that funneled the ball towards the middle of the floor into the help, Brown switched the scheme to look to send the ball towards the sidelines after the Knicks endured a month-plus stretch of abhorrent defense, powered by other teams driving and kicking to open shooters.
Mitch Johnson (SA):
Season with team: 2nd
Season as head coach: 2nd
Career teams coached: SA
Career record: 94-65 (.591)
Career playoff record: 12-6 (.666)
Best finish: 2026 Spurs (Finals and counting)
Coaching wasn’t at the forefront for Johnson for much of his life, as he spent a full four years as a starter at Stanford before going on to play in the D-League and overseas, but he got his start as an intern at Seattle University in 2011 before coaching AAU and later landing a full-time assistant role at the University of Portland in 2015.
One year later, he was in the Spurs’ organization as an assistant for their D-League affiliate in Austin. Three years after that, he was on Gregg Popovich’s staff for a fading contender. While Becky Hammon and (briefly) Tim Duncan were considered initial heirs to Coach Pop’s throne after a Hall of Fame career, it was Johnson who emerged after Wembanyama was drafted and the two developed a close relationship.
Early in the 2024-25 season, Popovich was sidelined indefinitely with a health issue, and even though it was considered interim at the time, Johnson unceremoniously took the reins in early November 2024 as the new head coach. Since then, through good team building and some fortunate lottery bounces, he’s led San Antonio into a new golden age with exciting young guard play and a future GOAT candidate in the middle.
Projected Rotations
Knicks:
Jalen Brunson
Mikal Bridges
Josh Hart
OG Anunoby
Karl-Anthony Towns
–
Jose Alvarado
Deuce McBride
Landry Shamet
Jordan Clarkson
Mitchell Robinson
Situational: Mo Diawara, Ariel Hukporti, Jeremy Sochan
Spurs:
De’Aaron Fox
Stephon Castle
Julian Champagnie
Devin Vassell
Victor Wembanyama
–
Dylan Harper
Keldon Johnson
Carter Bryant
Harrison Barnes
Luke Kornet
Situational: Jordan McLaughlin, Kelly Olynyk
Injury Report
For the Knicks, it’s about Mitchell Robinson and his broken pinky finger. Specifically, he broke his fifth metacarpal, an injury that usually sidelines players for several weeks. Robinson, himself, missed the 2021 playoffs with a very similar injury. As of Saturday, he still plans to play when the NBA Finals begin on Wednesday, but he’ll surely be wearing a brace. Hey, at least the free throws can’t get any worse?
For the Spurs, their injury report was clean heading into Game 7, but we need to monitor the status of De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper as the series goes on. Fox missed Games 1 and 2 with an ankle injury, and his effectiveness was so-so across the rest of the series. Harper suffered a minor hamstring injury in Game 2 and played in a slightly limited role off the bench for the next five games, albeit with Fox back in the lineup, making his role smaller.
Broadcast Schedule
Game 1: Wed, June 3, 8:30 pm (ABC)
Game 2: Fri, June 5, 8:30 pm (ABC)
Game 3: Mon, June 8, 8:30 pm (ABC)
Game 4: Wed, June 10, 8:30 pm (ABC)
Game 5*: Sat, June 13, 8:30 pm (ABC)
Game 6*: Tue, June 16, 8:30 pm (ABC)
Game 7*: Fri, June 19, 8:30 pm (ABC)
