How The Finals Were Won: The Difference Between Having Answers and Hoping to Find Them
Praise be to Jay Wright
It is 2:36 AM1 in central North Carolina and after returning from venturing bars that had zero interest in entertaining the festivities of New York transients, I sit before you still processing the news of a New York Knicks title.
I have absolutely zero ties2 to the state of New York but the story of a team finally overcoming their demons never gets old. And doing so against a franchise that has been (mis)characterized as one of the most well-operated organizations in all of basketball, it is just great fantasy booking.
And while we may begin to realize that we just witnessed one of the most insufferable (albeit funny) fanbases be rewarded with a championship, it will forever remain one of the best stories in basketball, with one of the best series we’ve ever witnessed in a Finals.
In a series that has been defined by quality defense, the first quarter of Game 5 delivered. The San Antonio Spurs continued with their aggressive high floor pressure, this time capping it off with a consistent trap at the top of the zone. Richard Jefferson would call it out on the broadcast of just how difficult every catch was becoming for the Knicks.
And it was all by design from the Spurs.
What became very prevalent was just how much the Knicks were getting forced to toss the ball into the corner. It is an incredible corralling of the Knicks.
The Spurs want the game to be as predictable as possible. If they know where you are going to move the ball next, it allows them to appropriately recovery and defend when they make an aggressive trap or switch decision. It also challenged players like Anunoby and Bridges to win in the mid range, make the difficult shot or hope that the Spurs are late on a rotation..
Because the Spurs really want to make Victor Wembanyama’s life as easy as possible if he’s to survive 40 minutes of must-win basketball. When everything is able to be kept in front of him, you have a very good chance of winning on the defensive end.
Realistically, the Spurs knew they could not win the game offensively. The Knicks are simply too disciplined to realistically forfeit enough possessions for San Antonio to manufacture easy points. There were no shortcuts available. No magical adjustment. No hidden lineup combination waiting to be discovered.
The path was always going to be ugly.
And even with a 10 point lead entering the second quarter, it was never going to be enough. Especially because Jalen Brunson was already playing winning basketball.
Quickly, it felt as if Brunson knew he would have to put the team on his back, simply because the Knicks weren’t getting the separation, the mismatches, the advantages they were hoping for through pace. The tandem with Jose Alvarado that won them Game 4 was now well scouted. Especially as the Knicks would bring in their substitutions, it gave Brunson the freedom to really call his own number without harm.
He consistently proved that it was a good idea.
We were witnessing incredibly aggressive rim protection from both sides that executing just outside of the paint would do wonders. 5 out of 6 of Brunson’s first half makes came outside of the paint, all six were 10-feet or greater away from the basket.
Weirdly enough, this felt like the first time in the series where the Knicks didn’t have an adjustment into the second half.
The bench was proving to be a lost cause — Mitchell Robinson recording the first points and made field goal of the game from the bench deep in the third quarter. And despite excellence on the offensive boards from Robinson, it was proven time and time again he couldn’t consistently be fruitful in long stretches. Early in the third quarter, with Karl-Anthony Towns being out drawing his fourth foul 15 seconds in, he would have a critical reckless flagrant foul that turned a foul point deficit into a ten point deficit in one possession.
But you would — maybe wouldn’t — be surprised that the Spurs didn’t create separation once again in the third quarter. Despite shooting 55% from the field, 40% from deep in the third quarter, 10 points from Dylan Harper, 7 points from Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs were only +2 in the 12 minutes. That also shouldn’t feel mathematically possible with the Knicks shooting 38.5% from the field during that span.
Jalen Brunson just finds a way, the individual creation is just too strong.
I had never seen so many fans happy to be down 65 to 72 entering a fourth quarter because everyone knew the collapse was coming. But the Spurs were having everything fall their way.
After scoring five quick points in two minutes, Landry Shamet would exit to injury. Towns would draw his fifth foul with just over five minutes to go in the quarter and would have to be pulled. The Spurs were catching all of the breaks they needed to survive.
They simply couldn’t execute in the half-court.
In a series he will hope to forget, Stephon Castle continued his woes, unable to create the separation or find that additional gear to create meaningful looks off the dribble.
Dylan Harper was seemingly the only player on the Spurs with any consistent self-creation but a fair amount of it would be generated through transition.
The Spurs best offensive player was beginning to feel like Devin Vassell but his best looks were coming off clean ball movement.
It became a large ask of De’Aaron Fox to do it all offensively. It isn’t to shield him of criticism but the onus of blame being thrust in his direction has felt incredibly misguided and quite frankly, nephews not knowing sh** about basketball.
I want to point out just how poor this play call is with less than five minutes to go on the side out. It is a double high-screen set from the Spurs, Vassell and Harper in the corners. As Fox breaks the half court line, the Knicks are well equipped to defend — partially because they don’t have to do much. They aren’t worried about Luke Kornet popping and they can predict that Champagnie is going to stick high as a result.
It basically feels like one of those “special plays” a youth team pulls out in recreational football and no one is sure what they were attempting to accomplish.
Maybe more concerningly was how Vassell and Harper simply do not move. They stick to the corner — which again, if you have Dylan Harper, you would much rather have him towards the top of the zone as a secondary creator even if he can execute in the corner.
Instead, it is simply a request of Fox to do something — with no help or design support. And, well, you’re going to settle for a mid range jumper against a good basketball team.
Contrasted with the creation from Jalen Brunson on the opposite end, it felt like the difference between a team with answers and a team hoping to stumble into one. Every possession for New York had purpose. Every possession for San Antonio had pressure. That distinction eventually became impossible to ignore.
The Knicks weren’t generating beautiful offense. They weren’t carving the Spurs apart with movement. They weren’t discovering some hidden weakness in the San Antonio defense. Brunson was simply manufacturing points from possessions that should have produced none.
Still, it would be close into crunch-time.
However, in a decision I still can’t quite fathom, Mitch Johnson would pull Wembanyama for one final breather while up three with 5:18 to go. And it was a decision immediately punished, with Kornet scrambling in transition, hedging to remove a corner three attempt and watching Brunson finish on the left side of the rim.
Sometimes, when playing chess, your best move isn’t the one that secures a piece but rather the one that forces a blunder. The Spurs blundered. A lot. Missed free throws a plenty — 7 on the night for the Spurs, which is somehow better than New York’s missed 8. Dylan Harper unable to finish at the rim when it mattered the most.
It always felt strange that the blame fell onto Fox’s shoulders — also funny when you read that he was +1 on the evening and only recorded 1 turnover. The Spurs never felt equipped to consistently generate quality offense in the half-court, and that reality extended far beyond one player.
Is that on the point guard you’re paying a lot of money for? Sure.
But at various points throughout the fourth quarter, it felt as though San Antonio was simply hoping somebody would volunteer to become the second creator.
Nobody ever really did.
Harper flashed it. Vassell flirted with it. Castle searched for it. Wembanyama remains a terrifying offensive player, but asking a seven-foot-four alien to simultaneously anchor your defense and serve as your primary offensive initiator in the biggest moments of a Finals game is a lot to ask of anyone.
Even aliens.
Meanwhile, New York’s offensive hierarchy couldn’t have been more obvious. The ball found Brunson. Everyone else found certainty. That sounds simple. It is simple. The hardest thing in basketball is making the game feel simple.
As the final minutes evaporated, every Knicks possession felt increasingly inevitable. Not because they were scoring every trip, but because they knew exactly what they wanted to accomplish. There was no confusion. No hesitation. No searching.
The Spurs were still playing basketball. The Knicks were playing their basketball.
Game 5 was the much required reminder that this is Jalen Brunson’s championship. Without Jalen Brunson, this title does not happen.
As much as we can appreciate the efforts and excellence of Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges — who really was the only other Knick that show up last night, Josh Hart, the Knicks needed Brunson. And they were designed to support that end-game.
Leon Rose and Mike Brown built and produced a team situation equipped to keep moving if and when the wheels fell off. Not many basketball teams in NBA history can say that.
For years, NBA discourse has become obsessed with finding the next superstar before anyone else. Every conversation begins with ceilings. Every debate becomes about who can someday become the face of the league.
The Knicks did something much less glamorous. They found a star. Then they built around him. Not around a hypothetical version of him. Not around a future version of him. Not around some grand ten-year timeline.
They built around the player he already was.
They surrounded Brunson with defenders. They surrounded him with length. They surrounded him with players willing to sacrifice touches. They found enough secondary creation to survive the inevitable traps and enough shooting to punish mistakes. Most importantly, they built a roster that never required Brunson to be anything other than himself.
The result was a basketball team that always knew where its answers were located. Half of the league spends years trying to discover that answer.
The Spurs may eventually get there. In all likelihood, they will. Wembanyama remains one of the most terrifying players the sport has ever seen. Harper looks every bit the future star. Fox, Vassell and Castle remain an enviable collection of talent — although people may take second looks at Fox and Castle now.
As the final seconds disappeared and the confetti began to fall, it became difficult not to appreciate the absurdity of it all. A franchise that had spent decades being mocked. A fanbase that became an internet punchline. Away from an arena that seemed destined to become a monument to nostalgia rather than new memories.
Now champions.
The funniest part is that Knicks fans will spend the next several months being completely unbearable. They’ve earned that right.
Because after decades of heartbreak, bad ownership, failed rebuilds, questionable trades, regrettable signings, coaching changes, lottery disappointments and every other form of basketball misery imaginable, they finally got the ending they wanted.
Sports are ultimately stories. Some are tragedies. Some are comedies. And every once in a while, the script writers get one exactly right.
For one night, New York wasn’t waiting for the other shoe to drop. For one night, the Knicks were champions. And for the rest of us, we got to watch one of basketball’s longest stories finally find its ending as the Spurs scurried into the locker room wondering if their personal story was just a chapter in someone’s else book.
Hi, current me is editing this at 9 in the morning. Just wanted to provide that transparency.
Technically, I have ties to western New York.