Monday 25th May: Issue #10

Last night the city of New York erupted into a crazed frenzy. The nickname ‘The City That Never Sleeps’ came to life last night as thousands of Knicks fans poured into the street to jump off cars, drink alcohol and sing Frank Sinatra. His song, ‘New York, New York’ echoed across the Big Apple because the New York Knicks have made it across the hump. They are going to the NBA Finals.

What happened?

The New York Knicks are headed to the NBA Finals after completing the sweep with their demolition of Cleveland last night. Right out the gate, Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs to some resistance in the First Quarter with Cleveland jumping to an 8-2 lead an Mitchell scoring 12 of his 31 points in the first but it just wasn’t enough for New York’s relentless offense and Cleveland just couldn’t stop it and the game was getting out of hand by the middle of the second quarter. It was a clear talent distinction between the two teams. KAT led the way with 19 points and 14 rebounds, while OG and Mikal combined for 32 points with 17 and 15 between them. Jalen Brunson took the backseat with 15 points but the 4th quarter was all garbage time and it was good to see the bench get touches in a close-out ECF.

What does it mean?

Simply put, it means everything. The Knicks have been a joke since as long as I can remember. From the Kevin Knox on draft day, to picking Frank Ntilikina the Knicks have made mistake after mistake but now with Leon Rose behind the scenes, Mike Brown at the helm and Jalen Brunson as the star of the show it finally is working. The Knicks are on an 11 game win streak and have gone 30 consecutive days without a loss. You can argue that Atlanta was too young, and Cleveland and Philly were tired after their 7 game series, but no matter if the Knicks got lucky or not, they are getting hot at the right time and they are going to the NBA Finals.

Who’s a better matchup for the Knicks; the Thunder or Spurs?

If you look at the numbers from the regular season the answer is clear. When the Knicks faced the Spurs this season, if you include the NBA Cup Final, the Knicks went 2-1 against them. A winning record. When you check their record against OKC it was 0-2. So, if you only look at the numbers from the regular season, your answer is clear, but it’s the NBA Finals it’s more than just numbers. With the Spurs Karl-Anthony Towns presents a clear defensive problem against Victor Wembanyama as he can space out to the perimeter and use his shooting and playmaking to dominate from that position (That’s why Wemby guarded Josh Hart more than KAT this season.) While if you look on the other end All-Defense wing OG Anunoby might be the best possible option to guard Wemby if you don’t have a big. Finally, the Spurs would be a much more compelling matchup. Knicks head coach Mike Brown has several connections to San Antonio when he coached them to an NBA championship as an assistant coach in 2003 and lost to them in the Finals with Lebron and the Cavs in 2007. This would also be a rematch of the last time the Knicks were in the final in 1999 with instead of Tim Duncan as the rising star you have Victor Wembanyama. The issue for the Knicks with the Thunder is that OKC is the best equipped team to guard Jalen Brunson. They have a fleet of on-ball stoppers such as Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso who could be a pest to the all-star point guard. The Thunders depth also out-match New York’s which could prove to be a problem for Mike Brown’s second rotation. So, when you look at all these factors, while the Knicks would be the underdog in both of these series, San Antonio offer a much better matchup defensively and on offense for the Knicks.

Bye-Bye Cleveland:

Cavs Season Grade: B

While the Cavs did win 52 games in the regular season and were good enough for the 4th seed and also advanced to the ECF for the first time in the Donovan Mitchell era getting swept and getting walked over like that is embarrassing. They also went to Game 7’s in both of the first two rounds and weren’t dominant in either. So, while the Cavs did have success on paper, the eye test shows just how average they were if we ignore their post-season run.

When is Game 1?

The Game 1 of the NBA Finals is on the night of Wednesday June 3rd in either San Antonio or OKC depending on who wins their series. Knicks will certainly be the underdog no matter who they face but it the winner of the championship certainly won’t be decided by that series.

Knicks 130 - 93 Cavs (4-0) Highlights

Canadiens 2 - 3 Hurricanes OT (1-2) Highlights

MLB

Dodgers 5 - 3 Rockiers

Mets 2 - 7 Reds

Astros 9 - 0 Rangers

Yankees 4 - 3 Royals

Orioles 9 - 7 Rays

Nationals 10 - 2 Guardians

Blue Jays 2 - 8 Marlins

Carolina beat Montreal 3-2 last night after OT and have completed the turn-around to take a 2-1 advantage and regain home ice. Game 3 started with Shayne Gostisbehere scoring a snapshot to take a 1-0 lead early in the first. The the Canadiens equalized with a Mike Matheson goal only before Carolina quickly regained the lead with a Taylor Hall snapshot less than a minute later. The Canadiens then equalized for the second time with a Lane Hutson goal to send the game to OT. In OT it was all Carolina with the Hurricanes finally finding the net with an Andrei Svechnikov winner. The Canadiens won Game 1 6-2 in dominant fashion and looked unstoppable, two wins later the almighty Hurricanes have completed the comeback and flipped the momentum. Montreal are at home for Game 4 on Thursday at 1am UK time and have dropped to 44% favorites. The Cinderella run isn’t dead yet but it’s slowly burning out. Game 4 is a must win game for Montreal.

I was listening to an episode of ‘First Take’ last night when Mad Dog said that this game decided who wins the NBA Finals. That’s the magnitude of this game. The two best teams in the NBA matching up in a fiery Game 5 in OKC with the series tied 2-2. Two of the best players in the NBA; SGA and Wemby. The team that wins Game 5 when it is tied 2-2 wins the series 82% of the time. From what I see it, this game decides the NBA Finals because it is going to be super difficult for a team to come back from a 3-2 deficit when you look at who would be holding the lead.

Keys for OKC:

Can the Thunder fight through their injury problems? Jalen Williams seems to be out for a while with a hamstring injury and Ajay Mitchell is definitely out for a while with his calf injury. With these injuries the Thunder are missing a clear number 2 on offense who can score the basketball while also creating for teammates. The Thunder were 11-10 without these two playing in the regular season which is dreadful if you look at their season record. If someone on the OKC bench can step into that role to fill those shoes and they play with the same intensity as Game 3 it is going to be super hard for San Antonio to beat them.

Keys for San Antonio:

The way the Thunder won Game 4 is they played like the more desperate team. The played with urgency, physicality and pure competitiveness, all spear-headed by the most competitive player in the NBA, Victor Wembanyama. If the Spurs play like they want it more on both sides of the ball, I believe they will win this game. If Wemby plays like he has been who says the Thunder can’t be beat.

My prediction:

Spurs 109 - 104 Thunder