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Somebody somewhere probably made some money betting that Julian Champagnie (15) and Dylan Harper (12) would lead the scoring in the first half.
Despite the name, Champagnie is not French like Wemby. He’s actually from Staten Island, which gives us our second reference of the evening to What We Do in the Shadows.
Brunson (11) and Towns (8) lead the Knicks in scoring, but they’ve had to fight for every point. Brunson is 5-for-15 from the field. Towns is 3-for-9. Jose Alvarado has a neat stat line – seven minutes, seven points.
Rebounding is nearly even: Knicks 27-26.
Halftime: Knicks 48-55 Spurs
Fox picks Brunson’s pocket at midcourt and breaks away for a dunk.
Knicks miss, and the Spurs hold for the last shot of the half. They give it to … Champagnie. Again. Corner 3. He has 15 points.
Bridges tries a heave from three-quarters of the way down the court, but Wemby is there to block it, which only gets the crowd that much more excited.
Knicks 48-50 Spurs, 0:57, 2nd qtr: Towns continues his tough play, snagging a rebound and getting fouled. He gets the honor of being the first Knick to make a free throw, 23 minutes into the game. He makes both, then goes back and gets the defensive rebound at the other end.
Knicks 46-50 Spurs, 1:14, 2nd qtr: Cross-court pass from Wemby to Champagnie, who hits another 3.
Bridges drives and dishes out to Alvarado. He drains a 3.
Champagnie is open in the corner and hits his fourth 3 of the game.
Knicks 43-44 Spurs, 2:24, 2nd qtr: Bridges throws a pass somewhere into the crowd.
Keldon Johnson hits his first 3 of the game to put the Spurs in front.
Brunson misses a 3. Wemby misses a Caitlin Clark-range 3. Why would he take that shot with so much time on the clock.
Landry Shamet makes a nifty move at the arc and hits a 3. Knicks lead again.
Wemby is fouled. Hits both free throws. That last 3-point attempt aside, he doesn’t have many flaws, does he?
Knicks 40-39 Spurs, 3:39, 2nd qtr: And another drive from Brunson, and the Knicks lead.
Harper races down the court to restore the Spurs lead.
Bridges hits a jumper. Knicks back in front.
Knicks 36-37 Spurs, 4:53, 2nd qtr: Brunson seems fine. He drives, misses, then tips in his own rebound. He drives again, spins, eludes Wemby and scores again.
Matthew Bentham checks in: “I can’t say I know much about the sport, but the last time I was Texas my brother-in-law took me to San Antonio to watch a Spurs game. It was incredible and my big takeaway from the experience was that watching it on TV is a very poor substitute for being there – it’s so much louder than you would ever imagine. ‘The Jackals,’ the Spurs fans who are more like soccer fans than any other American sports fans I’ve seen, were particularly impressive. Go Spurs! And Go Wemby!”
If you think that’s something, check out a college basketball game sometime. Getting into Allen Fieldhouse (Kansas) or Cameron Indoor Stadium (Duke) isn’t easy, especially because the latter holds less than 10,000 fans.
Knicks 32-37 Spurs, 5:52, 2nd qtr: Robinson tries a tip-in dunk but misses. De’Aaron Fox drives to put the Spurs up four.
Brunson answers, but he hurts his ankle and is screaming at referee Scott Foster.
Basketball has not yet adopted the soccer tradition of not taking advantage of an opponent’s injury by keeping the ball in play, so the Spurs score again. Knicks call timeout.
Knicks 30-32 Spurs, 7:11, 2nd qtr: How’s Mitchell Robinson’s hand? Looks OK on this play, converting an alley-oop from Hart over Kornet, who fouls him.
That’s the first Knicks free throw and a chance to tie, but Robinson misses.
Carter Bryant has entered for San Antonio and makes one of two shots.
Knicks 28-31 Spurs, 10:20, 2nd qtr: The Spurs win the challenge and gain possession.
Jalen Brunson is back in the game.
Knicks 28-31 Spurs, 8:03, 2nd qtr: Wemby hits two free throws. The Spurs are 7-for-8 from the line. The Knicks are 0-for-0, a 0% mark.
Alvarado gets two for the Knicks. Anunoby gets a steal, but the Knicks can’t convert.
Then there’s a miss. And a miss. And another miss.
But the Knicks may finally get to the line as Wemby fouls Towns. The Spurs, outscored 9-4 so far in the quarter, will challenge the call.
Knicks 26-29 Spurs, 9:58, 2nd qtr: The Knicks are playing decent defense, and they force Wemby to launch a low-percentage long-range 3. But the rebound eludes them, and the Spurs get another chance. They miss that one, and Miles McBride hits a 3 with Wemby running at him.
Anunoby steals one from Wemby. Towns drives past Wemby again as he did in the first quarter, but Wemby recovers with a block. Jose Alvarado gets a shot and does the smart play – getting the ball immediately on the glass so that Wemby’s block is called for goaltending. Phew. What a sequence.
As I type, Castle and Towns trade baskets, and Towns beats Wemby on the dribble again and shields the ball well this time.
Stats
The leading scorer in the game didn’t start. It’s Dylan Harper with 10 for San Antonio. Champagnie has six (two threes) and Wemby has five. The leading San Antonio rebounders are Champagnie (five) and Castle (four). Wemby only has one.
OG Anunoby leads the Knicks with five points. Josh Hart has five rebounds and a block.
Knicks shooting: 8-for-24, a percentage even a weak math student can convert. The Spurs are just 9-for-25 but have five points on free throws, while the Knicks haven’t made it to the line.
Knicks 19-27 Spurs, end first quarter
Brunson is going to the locker room. Mikal Bridges alertly scores on a tip-in for a rare Knicks bucket, and neither team puts on an effective offensive show in the last minute, so New York ends the quarter on a 2-0 run. Every journey begins with a small step, right?
Knicks 17-27 Spurs, 1:27, 1st qtr: Brunson misses an awkward jumper. The Knicks star hasn’t had much success since the first shot of the game.
Champagnie hits another corner three and is fouled but misses the free throw.
The Knicks bungle things again, and we get more of the Dylan Harper show, as he hits a tough floater.
Timeout, New York – and Brunson came up limping after a player fell into his knee.
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.”
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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:
