2026 NBA Finals Knicks vs Spurs

Who wins the series?


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Mainstreet

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Not quite the same but Steve Nash only started 79 games over his first four seasons before becoming a regular starter. And even then, he was a long ways from the star he became.

Yeah, he had to make his way to Dallas to become a star.
 

Phrazbit

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i think the great wemby catches the dirty player label at some point - elbows - cheap shots - almost took brunson out tonight

Wemby took a lot of cheap shots in this series. Brunson went at his knee, Jose tried to injure him about as obvious as I've seen twice in game 4. He's got guys putting him in arm bars, dudes stomping on his feet in the lane. He's such a physical freak that the refs just kinda let people flat out wrestle him in the paint.

Like... come on... this is 10 times worse than that close out... this isn't even basketball.

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Neither is this.

This is one of the dirtiest sequences I've ever seen and I cannot believe Jose didn't get a flagrant for it. First he tries to trip Wemby, then he's grabbing Wemby's leg, trying to pin it, so he can deliberatly buckle it with his weight, he does it twice and the second time with no remotely imaginable pretext, he isn't boxing out anymore, it's like a wrestling move at that point.

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If Jose had succeseed in his quest to blow out Wemby's knee the conversation would instead be 'why isn't the league looking out for this trash and instead a star player is put in spots where he starts retaliating?'

It was a chippy series, a fun series (despite it only being 5 games) and the Spurs shot themselves in the foot repeatedly. But I came away from this whole playoffs feeling like Wemby has a target on his back. The Thunder and Knicks repeatedly tried in severely injure him. I find plays where dudes are trying to blow out a guys knee far far more grotesque than an elbow or a shove.
 

Phrazbit

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So I guess the Knicks are not firing Mike Brown.

Mike Brown coaching the Knicks to a title is absolutely mind blowing.

I don't recall all the opinions I shared about Mike Brown on this forum so I'll just flat out say it... I thought he sucked.

The Knicks were an uninspiring 3 seed who had a tough fight against a crap Atlanta team, then faced the Sixers because Boston imploded... but only after Emiid got so beat up he couldn't move. Then they got Clevelend, and the Cavs no showed the series... even coming into the finals I felt like this was still Mike Brown stumbling his way into a good situation.

Then he coached a team to an NBA upset that is rare... 2019 Raptors? 2011 Mavs? 2004 Pistons? This is a huge upset.
 

Russ Smith

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I've always liked him but he had a horrible series. I can excuse some of it because of the ankles but man the number of wide open 3's he missed was insane.

7-28 from 3 in the series and 4 of those made were in one game. 1-8 today and almost all of them were wide open.

With Harpers' performance they have to hope someone is willing to deal for Fox in the offseason, he has a big contract. I suppose they can hope he comes back healthy he had a good regular season but was playing hurt and man did he suck in the series
 

Russ Smith

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Wemby took a lot of cheap shots in this series. Brunson went at his knee, Jose tried to injure him about as obvious as I've seen twice in game 4. He's got guys putting him in arm bars, dudes stomping on his feet in the lane. He's such a physical freak that the refs just kinda let people flat out wrestle him in the paint.

Like... come on... this is 10 times worse than that close out... this isn't even basketball.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

Neither is this.

This is one of the dirtiest sequences I've ever seen and I cannot believe Jose didn't get a flagrant for it. First he tries to trip Wemby, then he's grabbing Wemby's leg, trying to pin it, so he can deliberatly buckle it with his weight, he does it twice and the second time with no remotely imaginable pretext, he isn't boxing out anymore, it's like a wrestling move at that point.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

If Jose had succeseed in his quest to blow out Wemby's knee the conversation would instead be 'why isn't the league looking out for this trash and instead a star player is put in spots where he starts retaliating?'

It was a chippy series, a fun series (despite it only being 5 games) and the Spurs shot themselves in the foot repeatedly. But I came away from this whole playoffs feeling like Wemby has a target on his back. The Thunder and Knicks repeatedly tried in severely injure him. I find plays where dudes are trying to blow out a guys knee far far more grotesque than an elbow or a shove.

Yeah at the end there when he comes forward and literally grabs and tries to lift the knee that's as you said a wrestling move single leg takedown.

There's lots of stuff the NBA has to fix. I still don't get how they determine when and when not to call lane violations on FT's. one of the biggest plays of the game tonight was the offensive rebound by Mitchell Robinson. If you watch the play Wemby is in early but the reason he's in early is the entire series Robinson has been in early and getting rebounds. So he goes in early and then Robinson just pushes him under the basket and gets the ball. Some contact is allowed absolutely but this was as the announcer said he walked Wemby back under the rim and got the board. If you don't go in early he beats you because he always does, if you do go in early he just shoves you under the rim.

But the Knicks won because they played so well in the last 2 minutes of every game. I think tonight was the first game of the series where the Spurs didn't have a lead with under 1:40 left in the game.

SA has a chance to be really good for years, it probably hinges on Fox either he gets healthy and gets back to where he was with the kings(less minutes less shots of course) or they somehow move him.

Also Keldon Johnson had a terrible series which really hurt them too
 

Adrian

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Mike Brown coaching the Knicks to a title is absolutely mind blowing.

I don't recall all the opinions I shared about Mike Brown on this forum so I'll just flat out say it... I thought he sucked.

The Knicks were an uninspiring 3 seed who had a tough fight against a crap Atlanta team, then faced the Sixers because Boston imploded... but only after Emiid got so beat up he couldn't move. Then they got Clevelend, and the Cavs no showed the series... even coming into the finals I felt like this was still Mike Brown stumbling his way into a good situation.

Then he coached a team to an NBA upset that is rare... 2019 Raptors? 2011 Mavs? 2004 Pistons? This is a huge upset.
I agree.
 

Adrian

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I've always liked him but he had a horrible series. I can excuse some of it because of the ankles but man the number of wide open 3's he missed was insane.

7-28 from 3 in the series and 4 of those made were in one game. 1-8 today and almost all of them were wide open.

With Harpers' performance they have to hope someone is willing to deal for Fox in the offseason, he has a big contract. I suppose they can hope he comes back healthy he had a good regular season but was playing hurt and man did he suck in the series
Spurs fans would celebrate like 1999, if a team takes Fox off their hands.
 

Chaplin

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Is it because that dude is a sore loser or are New York fans just horrible winners?

Gotta be both, right?
 
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BooksOrangePlanet

BooksOrangePlanet

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choose one

A) an extra $100 million dollars
B) a chance at a championship

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