That didn’t take long.
While the 2026 NBA Finals may yet deliver a classic match-up between a young team with designs on reaching its destiny, like, yesterday, and an older, more seasoned group trying to reverse six decades of history, the trajectory of the series has already bent in unexpected ways.
By coming into San Antonio and grinding out a convincing 105-95 win over the Spurs on Wednesday, the New York Knicks not only stole Game 1 with a 24-point swing in the second half, coming back from down 14 in the third quarter, they did it while not even playing that well.
The well-oiled juggernaut that had won 11 straight playoff games against the Eastern Conference and posted an unprecedented +19.5 net rating on the way looked rusty at points against San Antonio, as might be expected coming off an eight-day layoff. They shot just 41.5 per cent from the floor and 30.6 from three, and the 105 points they scored was their lowest output of the playoffs. But it hardly mattered.
They stumbled briefly as the Spurs used an 9-0 run sparked by a Victor Wembanyama triple late in the fourth quarter to go up by one with 1:52 to play, but the Knicks got a quick three from Jalen Brunson and another jumper from their catalyst to finish the game on their own 11-0 run.
When the game was there for the taking, the Spurs looked young, especially Wembanyama, the emerging superstar who wasn’t really able assert himself at either end when required. He finished with 26 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in his NBA Finals debut, but shot 7-of-21 from the floor and coughed up six turnovers. The Knicks were happy to allow the versatile seven-foot-five big man to demonstrate his perimeter skills to only limited effect.
By falling behind 1-0 on their home floor, the Spurs surrendered any momentum they may have gained from eliminating the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Now they have to find a way to blunt the Knicks' 12-game post-season win streak or risk heading to New York down 2-0
Game 2 is Friday (Sportsnet and Sportsnet+, 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. PT). Here are some takeaways from the opener:
Brunson gets the SGA treatment?
Perhaps the biggest single reason the Spurs made it to the Finals was that they were able to execute a game plan that contained two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Thunder star was held to 17 points per 100 possessions below his season average with his efficiency falling off a cliff.
A 55-per-cent shooter during the regular season, he converted just 40.1 per cent of his looks against the Spurs. The percentage of points he scored in the paint dropped from 40 per cent during the regular season to 26.5 per cent against the Spurs.
Why?
“There’s a guy on their back line that’s a little bit different from everyone else’s,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the Finals.
Meanwhile, the Spurs' Stephon Castle has emerged as one of the NBA’s best perimeter defenders in his second season, making even getting to the hoop a problem.
So how would Brunson handle the attention the Spurs could provide, given the under-sized Knicks star doesn’t even have the advantage of Gilgeous-Alexander’s six-foot-six, lanky frame to work with?
It didn’t go well in the early going, or most of the game for that matter. Brunson was 7-of-22 with four turnovers through the first three quarters.
But he got rolling in the fourth quarter. The presence of Wembanyama and the Spurs' athletic wing defenders suddenly didn’t seem to bother him, in part because the Knicks set their offence up quickly, giving Brunson a chance to go against scrambled defences. Because they did a good job getting Brunson isolated on Justin Champagnie for a couple of key possessions. Brunson scored 13 of his 30 points in the last eight minutes of the game.
Anunoby, the Wemby stopper
Since there is no one as long and tall as Wembanyama that can bother him in the paint and very few bigs that can handle him on the perimeter, perhaps the best style of player to guard him is one quick and agile enough to feel comfortable when the centre squares up, but big and strong enough to prevent him from feeling comfortable in the paint.
At six-foot-seven and 240 pounds, OG Anunoby seems well-designed for the job. According to advanced tracking data, among players who have guarded Wembanyama for at least 100 possessions in his career, Anunoby has been most effective, holding him o 18.3 points per 100 matchups.
Interestingly, the former Raptor didn’t spend too much time, if any, directly matched up with Wembanyama in Game 1. Instead, Karl-Anthony Towns drew most of the assignment, leaving Anunoby free to help, having some success disturbing Wembanyama on spin moves.
For the most part the strategy worked because the aggressiveness Wembanyama showed at the rim and in the paint for key stretches against the Thunder didn’t materialize. When confronted with Towns' bulk, the slender Wembanyama chose to play most of the game as a giant two-guard offensively.
He wasn’t all that effective by his standards as his shot wasn’t falling. Meanwhile, the Knicks were collapsing on him in the paint, willing to exchange free throws (he was 12-of-13 from the line) for lob dunks. The Knicks have to be encouraged that they were able to get a sub-par game out of Wembanyama without resorting to using Anunoby on him, a wrinkle they can now keep in hand for when they might need it.
Like father, like son
Maybe when your father already has five NBA championship rings, playing in the NBA Finals isn’t that big a deal. Dylan Harper certainly made it seem that way.
The Spurs rookie guard turned 20 three months ago, but he looks like he’s channeling the experience his father Ron Harper earned winning three titles alongside Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls from 1996-1998 and alongside Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000 and 2001.
Harper has been a sparkplug off the bench. He was the Spurs' best player in the first half – apologies to Champagnie, who scored 15 of his 16 points in the first half, raining down five threes. But it was Harper who lifted the Spurs after they started the game slowly.
He drove and earned a three-point play, stole a Brunson pass, got fouled and made the free throws, and then knocked down a three. He had 12 points and was +12 in 16 first-half minutes.
His driving lay-up against Mikal Bridges early in the third quarter gave the Spurs a 14-point lead. It was the high point for the Spurs, but Harper’s comfort level in the Finals environment gives the Spurs something to be encouraged about heading into Game 2.
All Hart
The Spurs' defensive game plan against the Knicks was fairly straight forward: Have Wembanyama nominally cover Knicks forward Josh Hart but realistically ignore him. Since Hart came in to the game shooting just 30 per cent from three in the playoffs he's one of the few Knicks the Spurs feel OK about leaving open – so Wembanyama can roam the paint and defend the rim.
For the most part, it worked: Hart was 1-of-5 from the floor and 0-for-3 from deep and there was a statistic on the broadcast that through the first three quarters, the Knicks were 3-of-14 with Wembanyama as the contesting defender.
But Hart made the Spurs pay in other ways as the six-foot-five Swiss Army Knife/hustle machine finished with 15 rebounds, six assists and four steals and was +22 in his 27 minutes. The Spurs will need to pay closer attention to him going forward.
Big KAT
The best big man on the floor for either team was Towns, whose elite perimeter shooting forced Wembanyama to guard him away from the basket. He had early success driving the ball past the Defensive Player of the Year.
Towns also feasted on the boards whenever the Spurs used a guard to defend him or when Wembanyama was drawn away from the basket to defend the ball or trying to block a shot.
Towns finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and four assists without a turnover. Four of his rebounds were on the offensive end. He played with a level of aggression Wembanyama will have to match if the Spurs are going to win Game 2.
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