"They don't play a brand of basketball as sophisticated as the Heat or the Thunder, but their physicality is top in the league. So it's a very tough team to play against."
An astute observation from Victor Wembanyama, mere hours before his San Antonio Spurs fell to the New York Knicks in the NBA Cup Finals on Tuesday night.
Doubly so, considering the Big Apple ball club leaned on that trademark uber-physical style to secure a 124-113 win for the in-season tournament title.
The Knicks won in the trenches, shooting 54.9 per cent inside the paint and holding the Spurs to 48.9 per cent for a plus-12 advantage (56-44), while dominating on the glass for a plus-11 rebounding edge and 32 second-chance points.
Leveraging that gritty effort to turn what was a game they spent the majority trailing — by as many as 11 points in the second half — into a double-digit win. Punctuated by a 13-1 run and holding the Spurs to 5-of-19 shooting in the fourth quarter, which included nearly five minutes without a made field goal.
A stretch that also included a staggering 25-8 rebounding edge in the Knicks' favour, part of a fitting throwback performance in what was the first matchup between New York and San Antonio with a trophy on the line since the 1999 NBA Finals. (Both teams also shot under 50 per cent from the field. Talk about old-school basketball!)
Meanwhile, the Knicks' Cup-clinching effort not only secured the team's first piece of hardware in over 50 years but also served as proof of concept for their radical pursuit of building a winning basketball team.
From mortgaging the future to bring in difference makers like Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges, to swapping their head coach after the team's first Conference Finals appearance in a quarter-century. All of it was in search of ways to win meaningful games like they did on Tuesday.
Because, unlike the Los Angeles Lakers or the Milwaukee Bucks (the league's previous two NBA Cup champions) the Knicks haven't won an NBA Championship since VHS tapes were invented (and went extinct). New York hasn't been there and done that in quite some time, but at least fans can see — and enjoy — they're very much on the right track. Doing it in the kind of smash-mouth way that folks from the Empire State can surely resonate with.
The Knicks' NBA Cup win not only cemented their status as one of the hottest teams in the league — winning 10 of their last 11 games, even if Tuesday's result won't improve an 18-7 regular-season record — but proved they are a legitimate "battle-tested" contender as OG Anunoby described.
Exuding confidence that not many Knicks teams have been able to show in recent memory, but the kind this team has both warranted and is looking for more of.
Why?
Because "when you get that feeling of winning, it's addictive," as Towns explained.
Something that these Knicks now know a thing or two about.
OG Anuno-body could guard him
It felt right that on a night that New York willed victory by imposing itself physically, leading the way was one of the NBA's most rock-solid players.
Anunoby finished with a game-high 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting, with five triples, nine rebounds and three assists. And oh yeah, he did all that while spending chunks of the game checking Wembanyama when he wasn't cycling between defending the Spurs' many dynamic guards.
The 28-year-old's drives were punishing, threes were timely and defence was championship-calibre. Everything the Knicks wanted when they acquired him from the Raptors for the cost of two rotation players and a five-year, $212.5 million deal.
A worthwhile investment. Especially this season, as New York is now 13-4 with Anunoby in the lineup.
Meanwhile, his hot night began as soon as the opening frame, as Anunoby scored 10 points with just one miss on five shots. None more memorable than a dunk that came as part of a 9-2 run off a slick underhand feed from Towns out of a double-team from San Antonio.
Anunoby would end up with 20 points at halftime on 8-of-10 shooting en route to his season-high scoring performance, and before capping off the night with a dagger triple for his final basket to put the Knicks up eight with less than two minutes left.
Jalen Brunson's MVP case is legit
While it wasn't a fifth-consecutive outing of 30-plus points, the star guard still chipped in 25 points, eight assists and two steals, albeit on 11-of-27 shooting from the field while finishing a team-best plus-15.
At the very least, it was enough to earn Brunson the NBA Cup MVP after finishing the in-season tournament knockout phase with averages of 33.3 points and 6.7 assists on 55 per cent shooting. Earning the two-time all-star 19 of the 20 media panel votes, with the lone non-Brunson nod going to Anunoby.
And if Knicks fans have their way, there should be more hardware on the way for the 29-year-old, who entered Tuesday averaging a career-best 28.8 points to go with 6.4 assists on 60.2 per cent true shooting. Brunson has made it on the MVP ballot in each of the last three seasons but has yet to finish higher than fifth. Could that change this year?
Performances like Tuesday night should help. The star guard did most of his damage early, chipping in a handful of assists on the Knicks' first couple of baskets while the Spurs over-committed to him, yet still finding a way to finish the first half with 15 points thanks to a steady diet of layups, floaters, and mid-range pull-ups. All before orchestrating New York's late comeback and scoring six points in the final frame.
Money matters
Through the lens of NBA salaries, the $530,933 that Knicks players earned with the NBA Cup victory may not seem like much. But it's all a matter of perspective.
For Towns or Brunson, for instance, that bonus amounts to less than two per cent of their salaries — practical pennies. Still meaningful in other ways, however, like Towns donating his winnings to his children's foundation in the Dominican Republic.
Yet on the other end of the spectrum, consider Tyler Kolek, who earned nearly a quarter of what he'll make this season after 20 minutes of action on Tuesday night.
Emphasis on earn, as the rookie guard balled out to the tune of a season-high 14 points, five rebounds and five assists on 5-of-9 shooting in his 12th consecutive appearance for the Knicks.
The second-rounder finished plus-14 as his energy and secondary-creation proved vital for New York, especially down the stretch when Kolek closed out the game in place of Bridges, to offer Brunson some ball-handling relief.
He capped off that effort with four consecutive points in the waning moments of the game and a slick wrap-around assist to Anunoby on the game-securing triple.
Battle of the other seven-footers
In a game that included fleet-footed big men as talented as Towns and Wembanyama, it was bruising backups in Luke Kornet and Mitchell Robinson that stood out.
Not to say there weren't moments from KAT or Wemby, like Towns' early triples or Wembanyama's late scoring barrage in the fourth, but both spent much of the night somewhat hampered. Wembanyama entered the game still on a minutes restriction and coming off the bench due to a calf injury, and then the bug bit Towns mid-way through the third, forcing him to miss all but the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. Wembanyama finished with 18 points and six assists on 7-of-17 shooting while Towns put up 16 and 11 on 6-of-12.
All the while, Kornet contributed 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting to go with six rebounds (five offensive) and a team-high plus-7 rating as he started in place of Wembanyama. His activity up close led to plenty of lob finishes, and his effort on defence also created multiple stops.
As for Robinson, the soon-to-be UFA chipped in a game-best 15 rebounds with a whopping 10 of them coming on the offensive end, to go with two blocks and four points to finish plus-9. Undoubtedly a catalyst for the Knicks' many second-chance opportunities, like when Jordan Clarkson hit back-to-back triples off tip-outs from Robinson to spark the game-changing run.
Watch out for the Spurs
As Giannis Antetokounmpo once famously said: "There are steps to success."
The Spurs certainly took one on Tuesday, regardless of the outcome.
For major stretches, they were the more dynamic team, leveraging the egalitarian style second-year head coach Mitch Johnson has implemented this season. A style of play Wembanyama recently described as "something that’s growing to be so beautiful. So pure and ethical basketball,” after his Spurs knocked off the seemingly untouchable Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup semifinals.
San Antonio had seven different players finish with 10-plus points on the night, with all nine that checked in scoring at least one basket, led by rookie Dylan Harper's 21 off the bench. All the while, the Spurs put up 29 assists to just eight turnovers on 41 made field goals. Fox and Stephon Castle contributed all but eight of those helpers, with the sophomore guard dishing a game-high 12 assists.
It may not have been the winning formula against the Knicks, but it's been good enough to boast an 18-7 regular-season record — impressively 9-3 without Wembanyama. Expect the Spurs to make plenty of noise in a couple of months when they (presumably) make the playoffs for the first time since 2019, something every team that's made the NBA Cup Final has gone on to do.
“It's the best practice for important games,” Wembanyama said post-game. “Of course. Our focus is already on the playoffs. Playoffs are going to be the biggest time of the year, so I guess it's good that we got this experience today.”
