Neuf de moins
2026 NBA Finals, Game 4
tv off - The universe can be a cruel, cruel place. Having to endure two of the most devastating cut your heart into a thousand pieces with dull scissors and then put those pieces in a blender with the lid off but still turn it on and turn it all the way up to watch the now even smaller pulverized pieces splatter against the walls and ceiling losses in NBA Finals history in 13 years is so incredibly arduous but having to endure two of them in six days? That is just plain sadistic. I want to scream and cry and punch the air and curl up in a ball and clench my teeth and go for a run and pull my hair out and disappear in South America and smash a ceramic mug and float out into the ocean and write 16 bars for a diss track and snuggle with my cat and drive on the autobahn and binge-watch Friends and break a window with a brick and sleep for a day because more than anything, I just want to forget. My emotions are such a stew of anger, embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, befuddlement and disappointment but the star of the dish is indisputably sadness. As understandable as it is given our youth, It’s just so heartbreaking to watch us lose our composure and allow an inferior opponent to not only create their own luck but also continue to be this staggeringly lucky over and over again. The karmic injustice of the idea that we are not yet living in a universe where the ball is bouncing towards results that punish the wicked is excruciating. I refuse to submit to the despairing notion that we won’t be living in that universe soon so I suppose the comfort of knowing the sequence of events leading to its actualization has to begin now means exoneration from this unbearable pain is forthcoming. But forthcoming provides no relief from the barbarity of the moment. There is no way to alleviate the suffering just yet so I have no choice but acceptance. The pain is momentarily inescapable but thankfully there is an elixir that can help with its management. That elixir is hope and hope is a commodity I possess in abundance. I have faith that the ball will start bouncing towards results that reward the virtuous and in so doing, we will flip this series on our opponent in the exact same manner as they flipped the last game on us (but on the largest possible scale) and the satisfaction of experiencing jubilation take the place of misery (and knowing they are experiencing the reverse) makes the temporary suffering worth enduring through in order to eventually get to live in a better, more just universe. It’s the hope that saves me.
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Let me start by saying this is not De’Aaron Fox’s fault. He made the most mistakes in crunch time including one of the most inexplicable decisions in NBA Finals history but Victor Wembanyama also made mistakes in crunch time and so did Dylan Harper and so did Devin Vassell and so did Stephon Castle and so did Mitch Johnson. Keldon Johnson, Luke Kornet, and Julian Champagnie also made second half mistakes. All of the cumulative mistakes were equally costly. (There were also some officiating mistakes that cost us but unlike Knicks fans…) We had such a margin for error with a 27 point halftime lead, it took a perfect storm of self-inflicted wounds for the San Antonio Spurs to lose Game 4 of the NBA Finals 107-106 to the New York Knicks but that’s exactly what we conjured up. After we matched our biggest lead of the game—29 points at 81-52 with 9:40 left in the third—we could have literally picked one or two of the possessions later in the quarter where we took three point attempts early in the shot clock and instead dribbled out the 24 seconds for a violation and with that alone, we would have won the game. Unfortunately, from the 9:40 mark of the third quarter on, we collectively (Mitch and the coaching staff included) fell into the seductive trap of relaxing in the comfort that a mistake here or there was no longer existential because we were playing with such a massive cushion and because of our immaturity in that area, the mistakes compounded possession after possession until all of a sudden, their cumulative impact was existential. It was a hard lesson but (despite the outside noise) a valuable one that we will learn and grow stronger from going forward to not only finish this season out on our own terms but also to build the proper foundation for the dynastic run we intend to have over the next ten to fifteen years. The bottom line is blaming De’Aaron Fox for what was clearly a collective failure is such a sophomoric reaction. Declaring him fully responsible and calling for him to be benched, traded, investigated for fixing the game, etc. is just plain lazy scapegoating. There’s no question he had a terrible second half. And do I wish he was the type of point guard who would have instinctually attempted to dribble the clock out until he got fouled up one in the fourth with the shot clock off? Of course. But, for better or worse, that’s not how he’s wired. He’s instinctually wired to go for the kill shot and his Swipa mentality has provided us a lot more better than worse this season. We wouldn’t be here without it. De’Aaron Fox is still going to play a major role in determining which team gets to lift the Larry O’Brien at the end of this series and yes, he had a rough night out on the prowl on Wednesday but he’s still a stone cold killer. Anyone who underestimates his capability to out-Brunson Jalen Brunson to decide the 2026 NBA Finals does so at their own risk.
We know we are more talented than our opponent and our deficit in this series is of our own making and that serves as the original position for why it is surmountable. If we start to legislate a performance worthy of the stage we are on for 48 minutes per night (rather than in fits and starts), all of human society will benefit from this series concluding with the crowning of the proper champion. There is no justice for anyone if history records New York breaking a 53-year title drought because San Antonio beat ourselves, least of all Knicks fans. Thankfully, the opportunity to put history back on its proper course still lies before us and the path to actualization can be found by reincarnating the beautiful game. Wednesday’s player of the game Dylan Harper, his iconoclastic ride or die partner Stephon Castle, and his iceman Unc De’Aaron Fox + Devon Vassell, Julian Champagnie, Keldon Johnson, Luke Kornet, Sean Sweeney, and Mitch Johnson all have to give of themselves to create the harmony for its manifestation but the two phoenices most central to rising it from its ashes are Victor Wembanyama and Gregg Popovich. The Alien is not only the best player in the series, he is the best player on the planet 👽 Greatness, however, must be earned and he’s three wins away from ending all argument that he’s not also already the greatest player on the planet. It’s there for Wemby’s taking and if he brings the same unrelenting focus and execution to elimination games in this round as he did while facing elimination twice at the hands of the defending champs, there is absolutely nothing the New York Knicks can do to stop him. Give them credit. They have a collection of talented players (including a couple of special ones in OG Anunoby and Jalen Brunson) who play tough-nosed basketball and play really well together as a team but even the Oklahoma City Thunder had no answers when Victor played with pique concentration and desperation. The Knicks are not in the position they are in because they have unique answers for stopping a generational force, they are in the position they are in because they haven’t had to face it yet by Wemby’s own making. The big variable in the feasibility of the Spurs becoming the first team in Finals history to come back from an 0-2 hole at home that conventional wisdom is ignoring is the level of dominance Victor reached while facing elimination against the Thunder and the reality that that is a level New York is not equipped to overcome. He’s about to go there again and remain there for the rest of these Finals. He’s too competitive to expect anything less. Circling this back to reincarnating the beautiful game, I think the aspect of Wemby’s game that when fully unleashed will finally break this stubbornly unflappable opponent is his playmaking. As soon as Wemby starts using the threat of his scoring to unlock all of the dynamism of his teammates so that he is dictating the game on the offensive end with the same dominance with which he is dictating it on the defensive end, not only will he be able to conserve some more energy for crunch time but forcing the opponent to come to the realization that they have no answers for this version of The Alien will become demoralizing, especially for a team feeling the pressure not to squander their once in a half-century lighting in a bottle opportunity. The parallels I drew in Sept de moins haven’t come to bare but I think it’s because (knowing what we know now) it wasn’t my most astute observation about where Victor is on his journey. He doesn’t yet have the seasoning to win this title with the precision of a 28-year-old Michael Jordan in 1991. He’s going to have to win it with the imagination of a 20-year-old Magic Johnson in 1980. He’s going to have to dazzle.
The person most capable of helping to unlock Wemby as the hub for a reincarnated beautiful game was not in New York City this week but he is with the team back in San Antonio for Game 5 tonight. This of course is the mentor of the 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021 & 2022 title-winning coaches, the 2025 title-winning general manager and both of the coaches in the 2026 Finals, five-time NBA championship and one-time Olympic gold medal-winning coach Gregg Popovich. It’s easy to forget that Mitch Johnson—while ultra talented like his franchise players—is also incredibly young and is also learning on the job. Mitch is 39-years-old in his second year as a head coach and first playoffs going up against a 59-year-old in his twelfth year as a head coach and eighth playoffs in Mike Brown, someone with previous Finals experience. Johnson has done a fantastic job in leading us here but experience makes a huge difference in coaching the NBA Finals. Last year, 65-year-old 2011 title-winning coach Rick Carlisle led an overmatched Indiana Pacers team to a star player’s catastrophic injury at the beginning of Game 7 away from defeating 40-year-old Marc Daigneault’s vastly more talented Oklahoma City Thunder. Without taking away from the phenomenal job Mitch is doing and with complete confidence that he is learning and growing through this experience just as much as his franchise players, it needs to be mentioned that this wasn’t the plan. The plan was for Coach Pop to be coaching these upstart next generation Spurs supernovas through their first playoff experience and that was taken away from him in a sudden and lamentable way. Had this (often) cruel universe afforded him the opportunity to finish his coaching career on his own terms, he would be coaching in his seventh Finals right now and his impact would be incalculable but there’s no question that one of the greatest sideline game managers of all-time would at minimum have this series tied at 2-2 and more realistically would have the Spurs up 3-1. While he’s been robbed of having the type of real-time direct impact on what’s happening between the lines as he used to with a clipboard in his hand, the good news is that El Jefe still gets to have an impact on helping the beloved franchise he has devoted 32 years of his life to in overcoming our biggest Finals deficit ever. Every time Pop has spoken to our players after we’ve faced adversity in the 2026 postseason, we have responded. Not just with demonstrating the appropriate fear and playing with the appropriate focus but also with making the proper tactical adjustments. I expect nothing different in Game 5 and I predict the tactical adjustment Pop will help Coach Mitch make will unlock an overpowering dynamism in our offense that will expose the Knicks as a paper tiger and that we will soon fondly refer to as the beautiful game 2.0. It starts tonight in our third ever NBA Finals elimination game. If we improve our record to 2-1 tonight in Finals elimination games, we earn the opportunity to play to improve our record to 3-1. If we win that one, we earn the opportunity to play to improve our record to 4-1. If we win that one, we finish the season out on our own terms. With the help of our good ole reliable banner-raising institution of a former head coach and current president of basketball operations, Victor Wembanyama and the #BlackAndSilver will face elimination from here on out and they will do so prepared to shock the world.
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Faith is a glimmering sparkle out on the horizon. I cannot surrender my certitude that our journey is not ending when I can see the flickering light out in front on the path a week’s distance away. We have now endured more adversity than has ever been overcome but we accept and embrace the challenge and step forward towards the redemptive journey’s end that is still ours to pursue. We will never lay down. Our ability to harden through struggle and take another stride forward after every single time we’ve been knocked back on our heels gives us the strength to know we can stay the course and we will persevere. I still believe.
Featured Image Source: Texas Public Radio
Headline Image Source: NEWS4SA
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2026 NBA Finals, Game 3
Dream On - Welcome to the 2026 NBA Finals, Spurs basketball. I think I can safely speak for all San Antonio fans in saying we are glad you finally decided to show up. Considering it came on the heels of having just endured three days of all-consuming emotional anguish, that may have been the most satisfying non-series clinching San Antonio Spurs playoff win I have ever experienced (and I have experienced all of them since 1990). Our 115-111 victory over the New York Knicks in the circus that was Madison Square Garden on Monday night was a remarkable demonstration of resiliency. Down 0-2 after squandering both of our first two home games in the series and entering the biggest city in the United States (as it was bursting with more excitement and electricity than it had experienced at any other moment in recent memory) to play in the world’s most famous arena, conventional wisdom suggested that the atmosphere inside MSG was going to be too overwhelming for the second-youngest NBA Finals team in history and we would consequently let go of the proverbial ropes and merely serve as bystanders for the coronation that was going to take place this week in basketball’s Mecca to crown the home team champions for the first time in 53 years. Instead, Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle became the first teammates age 22 or younger to each have at least 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists in an NBA Finals game and the San Antonio Spurs finally hit the necessary clutch shots down the stretch to win the composure battle over the veteran Knicks and send the New York faithful home stunned and spiraling. And what a gutsy display of clutch shot making it was to behold. First, Steph drained a 26-foot dagger three (after Vic threw him the ball with the shot clock running down) while we were nursing a four point lead with 1:53 left to play. After Castle’s triple extended our lead to seven, the two teams traded empty possessions before Mikal Bridges got fouled with 59.6 seconds left. Bridges went 1-2 from the line to cut the lead to six but we came up empty again after that which led to another clutch shot by Jalen Brunson in the final minute of the third consecutive Finals game when he drilled his own three with 33.7 seconds left to cut our lead three at 111-108. This led to our second clutch shot, this one courtesy of De’Aaron Fox. The 2023 clutch player of the year nailed a 15-foot step back “iceman” jumper by De’Aaron Fox to put us back up five with 12.2 seconds left to play. Somehow, New York responded again. OG Anunoby hit a corner three with 9.4 seconds left to chop our lead back down to two. This led to a timeout and a critical inbounds play. We got the ball into Fox who toed the sideline while getting it back over to Steph who received the expected foul with 6.8 seconds left. The 2024 Rookie of the Year calmly walked up to the line and drained two of the most pressure-packed free throws in franchise history to extend our lead back to four at 115-111 and effectively put the game to bed. Game 3 on Monday at MSG was a tough-as-nails gritty road victory that was as impressive (and possibly more given the spectacle) as the Game 7 road closeout victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Paycom Center two Saturdays ago to dethrone the defending champs. While Victor was spectacular (as expected) in bouncing back from his colossal error at the end of Game 2 on Friday and was objectively the best player in the game for the first time during these Finals, the player of the game was Steph because of his season-saving clutch shooting in the guts of game to hold the Knicks at bay. The version of the Spurs that marched through the playoffs to the Western Conference championship finally arrived on basketball’s biggest stage on Monday to the delight of Spurs fans everywhere and I think the consensus on our side heading into Game 4 is we have finally shaken the Finals jitters and also figured out how we need to play the Knicks and as a result, we are cautiously optimistic we can dig out of the hole we created for ourselves as soon as tonight.
Meanwhile, New York fans have spent the past two days losing their collective minds over the refs and calling for Wemby to get a retroactive flagrant foul for dislodging the fist-full of jersey that Jalen Brunson had with 4:44 remaining in the first quarter. They need to get over that quick and start coming to acceptance that they never were the superior team and as a consequence there never was going to be a coronation. The championship they’d presumptuously been celebrating for three days prior to Game 3 was never theirs to celebrate. It’s a dangerous game to count your chickens before they hatch. This series was always going to be a dogfight. A dogfight on the court, by the way, Knicks fans. It is one thing to be losing your collective minds over the officiating on social media, it is quite another that some of you are assaulting random strangers in the streets for supporting a different basketball team than you. The city of San Antonio welcomed you with open arms, gave you tips on things to do while in town and great places to eat and in return, we can’t even feel safe to wear a Spurs jersey out in public in NYC without fear that we might encounter physical violence? What an absolute disgrace. Those of you who are blaming the Game 3 loss and the shattering of your seven straight weeks of good vibes solely on Donald Trump need to do some serious soul searching. On our side, we’re just going to be over here cheering on our amazing players, staying confident in our belief that we have to better team, and munching on our popcorn while we watch you meltdown, crash out, and continue to bring more and more bad karma on yourselves with each and every passing hour. I won’t lie, observing your overconfidence and premature celebrations after being gifted Game 2, I knew this is exactly how y’all would react. I predicted it in the last post but thank you, nonetheless 🙏 We need all the luck we can get in order to be the first team in NBA Finals history to comeback from 0-2 at home so keep doing everything you’re doing to self-sabotage the lighting in a bottle you were able to capture during the 13-game win streak. Keep doing all of it and more except stop assaulting Spurs fans on the streets of New York immediately. Seriously, what is the matter with y’all? I know I can’t say act like you’ve been here before when you haven’t since the Clinton Administration but start learning how to take your losses with some class because, and I hate to be the one to break it to you, there’s almost certainly more of them coming before this series is over. /advice-to-Knicks-fans
In other news, we have a plot twist. Guess which one of our favorite conniving characters from earlier in the postseason is back to make a cameo in the Finals, y’all? Apparently after getting eliminated by the Spurs on May 15th, The Sniveler (Chris Grinch—err, I mean Chris Finch) has been busy behind the scenes training a fellow NBA head coach (and a former Jedi Padawan of Gregg Popovich) in the Sith dark arts of working the refs in the postgame news conference. New York Knicks head coach (and assistant to Coach Pop on the 2003 Spurs title team) Mike Brown has officially been recruited and converted to the dark side by our reigning ref-working world champion. There has been a lot of ridiculous noise for Spurs fans to be annoyed with coming out of the camp of the Eastern Conference Champions as well as and especially from their fanbase during these Finals but Mike Brown taking a page directly out of the Sniveler’s playbook by having a 5-minute temper tantrum during his Game 3 postgame presser about the 24-8 San Antonio second half free throw advantage may very well take the cake. Come on, Mike. You’re so much better than this. You know damn well the only hope you have to slow down the greatest player in the world is to foul Wemby 75 times a game and when you know damn well that is your strategy, you cannot complain that the refs called more fouls on you than they did on us in the second half. Just like OKC and Minnesota in the past two series, you are mostly being allowed to guard Wemby by playing football. If the officials were calling these Finals games by the letter of the law (or even giving Wemby the same whistle as Brunson), you would lose every game by disqualification because your entire team would foul out. If you don’t want us to shoot more free throws than you in the second half, go ahead and try to guard Wemby straight up without fouling him constantly and let’s see what happens By the way, the level of cherry picking of information the New York Knick’s coach was presenting with this rant was enough to even make the Sniveler blush. I guess the fact that the Knicks were afforded a 16-8 free throw advantage in the first half and used it to help build their seven point halftime lead is irrelevant so long as the aggrieved party gets to be aggrieved. The biggest shame of it all is that Mike Brown knows better than anyone that the reason we won the game is because our defense was spectacular in the second half. We were the more aggressive team throughout the night (the more aggressive team almost always gets the better whistle) and we flat-out outplayed New York full stop. For Mike Brown to attempt to tarnish that rather than tipping his cap to the organization that helped him make his mark in this league is classless and a real shame but at least he made his Sith Lord Chris Finch proud. By contrast, I’m really pleased with the way that San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson has represented the Pop coaching tree well throughout these playoffs (and especially after our two brutal Finals losses at home). Coach Mitch has never once complained about the refs after a loss and has consistently given due credit every time the opponent has outplayed us. We always have and always will consider Mike Brown to be a part of our Spurs family but I guess somewhere in between Sacramento and New York (perhaps on a pit stop in Minnesota) he lost sight of our Spurs values and gave into the temptation of the dark side. Drats! The Sniveler strikes again!
To end on a more positive note, as we start getting mentally prepared for another super intense emotional clash tonight in Game 4, I just want to acknowledge how super fun it was to watch the Spurs play an NBA Finals game again in Madison Square Garden on Monday and how much of a privilege it is that we have gotten to be the road team each of the last two times that basketball’s Mecca has hosted the NBA Finals. There is nothing else quite like watching basketball at MSG. I can attest to this from personal experience. On December 12th, 2017, I checked off one of my bucket list items when my partner Jenn and I attended an NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden during a vacation trip to the Big Apple. The Knicks defeated the Lakers in overtime that night 113-109 behind a 37 point, 11 rebound effort by Kristaps Porzingis (aka The Unicorn). It was an awesome game between two of the league’s most prestigious franchises but as you can see in the headline image for this post, I was in the world’s most famous arena for the first time (and only time so far) of my life supporting the San Antonio Spurs even though we weren’t even playing in that night’s contest. (Jenn, a native New Yorker but is also a Spurs fan took more of a “when in Rome” approach.) Even though that experience happened eight and a half years ago, I’ve been holding this nice thought in my mind that the aftershocks of my Spurs fandom energy being in that special building are still reverberating to this day and as a result, I was there in spirit cheering on San Antonio on Monday and I’ll be there in spirit cheering on San Antonio again tonight. We face another stiff test in as hostile but also as special an environment as we’re ever going to find but if we play our brand of basketball the right way again tonight in Game 4, we will put ourselves in position to even this series heading back home for Game 5. If that happens, look out. I will likely never in my life be able to afford to purchase tickets to watch the San Antonio Spurs play an NBA Finals game in Madison Square Garden but my Spurs fandom energy is going to be in the building tonight for free. And I’ll be rooting on the #BlackAndSilver to win Game 4 tonight with everything I’ve got watching from my living room at home while visualizing the sights, sounds, and smells of that sacred place like I’m right there sitting court side with the tv off.
Featured Image Source: Aerosmith.com
Huit de moins
2026 NBA Finals, Game 2
I Am a Rock - The 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs have made a lot of history during this magical journey that has taken us from thirteenth place in the West last season to Western Conference Champions and playing in The Finals right now. On Friday night, we squandered a second consecutive opportunity to end New York’s double-digit playoff winning streak by losing Game 2 to the Knicks in heartbreaking-fashion 105-104 at Frost Bank Center. If you’re reading this you already know what went spectacularly wrong (by our own making) at the end of Game 2 and as a result of our inexplicable loss of composure in the biggest moment of the season so far, we are down 0-2 and now face our biggest series deficit of this entire postseason. As a consequence, in order to redeem what is (in it’s immediate aftermath) one of our four most gut-wrenching playoff defeats of all-time (and get Friday’s loss erased from that infamous list), we are now going to have to make some more history by becoming the first team to win a championship after dropping the first two games of the NBA Finals at home. (If you’re curious about the other three most gut-wrenching playoff defeats in Spurs history they are: 1) “The Ray Allen shot” in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat 2) “Manu Fouls Dirk” in Game 7 of the 2006 Western Conference Semifinals against the Dallas Mavericks 3) “Point Four” in Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference Semifinals against the Los Angeles Lakers.) I remain steadfast in my conviction that coming back to win this series after blowing the first two games at home is exactly what we are about to do. We have no choice. It cannot be written in the annals of league history that the New York Knicks were the best team in the year of our basketball gods 2026 because it’s simply not the case. Give Jalen Brunson credit, he has made clutch shots down the stretch in both games in San Antonio which has allowed the Knicks to earn this 2-0 series lead + three opportunities at home to get the two remaining wins they need to secure the title. That being said, neither of these games would have been close enough for Brunson’s clutch shooting to be decisive if we hadn’t been consistently beating ourselves for too many of the minutes leading up to crunch time in both games. We should have won both of those games by double digits. The only reason why we didn’t is because our collective youth has still not fully adjusted to the pressure of playing on this stage. Our collective youth is yet to shake loose from its Finals jitters. Obviously, part of being the best team in the league is having more composure on basketball’s biggest stage than your opponent and the more experienced Knicks have outperformed us in that regard by a wide margin during the first two games. If they continue to outperform us in having more composure on the Finals stage, they will indeed win this series and if that were to happen, I will tip my cap and acquiesce that the New York Knicks were the best team in 2025-26. But we aren’t even close to that scenario becoming reality. This is not a series that feels like one team is heading home for a coronation. This feels like a series where the other team has taken some tough home losses but is finally getting comfortable on this stage and is on the verge of figuring out the first team and figuring them out for good.
The Spurs have won at least one of the first two road games in every series so far this postseason. If we can keep that streak going for a fourth consecutive series, I like our chances to flip the composure edge the deeper this series gets. New York hasn’t played under any real pressure since the first week of the postseason back in April. We’ve been swimming in pressure for over a month. Anyone who believes it’s a foregone conclusion that just because the Knicks were able to get both of the first two games in our building they are going to sweep us now that they will have home court advantage for the next two in Madison Square Garden is severely underestimating our ability to perform under pressure on the road. We have proven for seven weeks now that we have a resilience as a group and hostile road environments have not been a barrier to us reaching our highest possible level of play, a level that I have yet to see evidence that our Finals opponent is capable of matching. If I am correct and the Spurs are finally comfortable on the Finals stage and I’m also correct we have figured some things out about how play New York, it doesn’t matter how much the Big Apple wants to celebrate in the world’s most famous arena this week, the Knicks are going to have to come back to San Antonio on Saturday with more work to do and while experiencing pressure for the first time since late April after going down 2-1 in the first round to the Atlanta Hawks. Give them credit, winning 13 playoff games in a row means you don’t have to face adversity but it also means it’s that much more unpredictable how you will respond when you finally end up facing some. The Knicks have been riding this incredible wave of momentum and good vibes that has them projecting as world beaters but keep in mind, they were a very erratic team over the course of the season. New York had a stretch in January where they went 2-8. It may only take the simple act of the Spurs winning one road game to snap New York’s winning streak and the Knick’s unfamiliarity with experiencing adversity could unleash the Mr. Hyde undisciplined, disconnected, uninspired version of this team (you know, the version of the team that lost to the lowly Dallas Mavericks 114-97 at home on January 19th) that deep down, every Knicks fan knows is still inside their shiny seemingly infallible Dr. Jekyll.
One thing is for sure, if the Knick’s 13-game winning streak has in any way been the result of the basketball gods bestowing good karma on the city that never sleeps, that is reportedly about to come to a screeching halt in Game 3 due to the expected attendance in Madison Square Garden of Knick’s fan Donald Trump. If he does attend, it should be assumed that all of the momentum the president’s favorite basketball team has been riding for the past seven weeks is about to dry up faster than one of his single (and ready to mingle) supporter’s Tinder matches as soon as they make the mistake of adding “maga” to the bio on their profile. An NBA franchise cannot both invite a would-be authoritarian ruler (who is hellbent on eviscerating 250 years of American democracy for his own personal glory and enrichment) to be a guest in their arena so he can cheer on their team and also continue currying favor with the basketball gods. The two things are mutually exclusive. It’s gonna be some sweet poetic justice to watch the gods’ disapproving wrath for the Knick’s decision to host a tyrant rain down on the Big Apple from the basketball heavens like Zeus unloading thunderbolts during the Titanomachy. New York City is about to find out how much damage the “Trump Effect” can have in the basketball deity polls and the court of karmic opinion. When you add on top of it the additional bad karma the Knicks will receive from the record-setting astronomical prices fans are being asked to pay for tickets to attend the first NBA Finals games in Madison Square Garden this millennium—prices that are precluding most real fans from attending the event and rendering entry to these games to be a golden goose accessible only to the rich and famous celebrity bourgeoisie and elbow-rubbing corporate elites or in other words, ensuring that the unfettered late stage racial capitalism of Trump’s America is working spectacularly well at only benefiting those who it is intended to benefit, New York’s karma goose is cooked. When asked by White House correspondents on Air Force One about everyday Americans being priced out of purchasing tickets for Games 3 & 4 this week in Madison Square Garden, our (somehow) sitting president said, “They can watch it on television. It's sort of semi-free to watch it on television, but that's the way life goes. Now if the game wasn't a big, if the team wasn't a big success, you could go very easily. But that's the way life is." What an out-of-touch and heartless comment by a spoiled-rotten despicable excuse for a human being. To make matters worse, Trump’s insistence on making himself a part of the story for the most captivating Finals matchup this decade placed further undue burden on the proletariat by forcing the cancellation of the real Knicks fan’s outdoor MSG watch party due to it being logistically infeasible to accommodate both that and the Secret Service security protocol to get the sitting POTUS in and out of the building. This man’s utter lack of concern for the welfare of the hardworking American people knows no bounds. It is now the duty of every patriotic American to root for the San Antonio Spurs to rally and help ensure that this would-be despot and his fellow elitist Knicks fans experience soul crushing disappointment in the next two weeks. (I guess for Donald himself, it would just be regular disappointment since he has no soul to be crushed but it will be satisfying nonetheless). If you believe in the restoration of democracy and that there should be no kings in America, it is your duty to join the national proletariat in making “Go Spurs Go” ring from sea to shining sea so forcefully it pleases the basketball gods and spurs them (pun intended) to manifest a colossal karmic storm to be unleashed down on Gotham for the next few days in the form of an epic series-evening comeback by the visitors that spoils their party and rains on their parade. Even for those in the Knicks-repping conflicted NYC proletariat, there is still time to put your country first as well as stand in solidarity with the working class (not to mention stick it to the president personally for cancelling your watch party). There’s plenty of room still over here on the right side of history. The New York Knicks are the party of Donald Trump, filthy-rich celebrities and the oligarchs. The San Antonio Spurs are for the people. And Victor Wembanyama is for the children.
Speaking of Wemby, I won’t lie. Watching him make such a massive mistake on Friday night at such a critical moment with the entire world watching was agonizing. I literally shed tears of sadness in reaction to a Spurs loss for the first time since the Ray Allen shot in 2013. Attempting to recover this weekend from the disappointment of climbing all the way back from 14 down in the final six minutes of the game (an extraordinary comeback fueled by player of the game De’Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell, Dylan Harper, and Wemby himself) only to squander it away in the end because of Victor’s ill-timed calamitous error (an error with the potential to be immortalized in infamy for the rest of time in the annals of basketball history) has been emotionally challenging. The extra travel day off to sit with it between games hasn’t helped. Objectively, when I ruminate on the basketball that has been played so far in this series, our situation being in an 0-2 hole is concerning but at the same time, all of the evidence points to us being up against an opponent we can easily handle by just regressing back to the mean with our level of play. We have had crunch time leads in both games after playing some of our worst basketball of the season. Meanwhile, it has taken consistent shot-making under duress (often with the shot clock about to expire) just for New York to force two 50-50 games and even then, it still took clutch shots by Brunson at the end of both games to punish us for our struggles to the tune of two home losses in a series that could easily be 2-0 the other direction and with all things being equal would most likely be tied 1-1. Objectively, I know we are more than capable of walking this thing down and we have proven for this entire playoff run that we have the ability to dig deep to find what we need in order to play our best when our backs are against the wall. I think what has made recovering from our Game 2 loss this weekend so emotional is knowing how costly it can prove to be to throw away a Finals game like that combined with the historical weight of now having to become the first team to ever comeback from losing the first two Finals games at home combined with what a blemish that turnover could prove to be on Wemby’s legacy. It has been a lot to process. The good news is if we come out focused tonight and play our brand of basketball the right way, we will take the first of four steps towards erasing all of that heaviness and replacing it with the sheer joy associated with the realization of what has admittedly become (here on the Monday afternoon before Game 3 as we’re peering up from this 0-2 series hole) a distant and improbable dream. All of the pressure is now squarely on the New York Knicks not to choke this series away. They are expected to win this thing now, especially by their delirious fan base. The #BlackAndSilver have the opportunity to play pressure-free basketball in Games 3 & 4 in the world’s most famous arena and see what happens. Victor Wembanyama, specifically, has the opportunity to make lemonade from the lemons of his massive mistake by asserting himself as the best player in the series moving forward. As I stated earlier, the calamitous error has the potential to to be immortalized in infamy for the rest of time in the annals of basketball history and provide a permanent blemish on Wemby’s legacy but the key word is “potential,” it is not yet set it stone. It also has the potential to be a remarkable part of the origin story for how he became the greatest basketball player of all-time, a seemingly unrecoverable self-inflicted bout with adversity that he accepted as a teaching moment, learned from immediately and persevered through to capture his first NBA championship during his first trip to the playoffs in defiance of the sizable odds and the weight executing a comeback which has no precedent in history. The circumstances over the past six days that have brought us to this moment in time where our dream of winning this series is now distant and improbable are in the past and we can’t change them, for better or worse. But to give my perspective as an eternal optimist, the distance and improbability stands to provide so much depth and enrichment to the realization of this dream and make it substantially more rewarding. In the end, isn’t it the distance and improbability that makes the fulfillment of every child’s hoop dreams so rewarding from the moment they first touch a basketball? The headline image for this post is a photo of me holding a basketball in a shooting position as a two-year-old while looking up at the distance and improbability of making the attempt on a 10-foot regulation basket and defiantly dreaming that I can make it (circa 1980). While that shot was, of course, impossible for me at the time, I stuck with basketball throughout my childhood and eventually got to the point where I could realize my two-year-old self’s original hoop dream very easily as well as realizing many other hoop dreams that came after throughout my basketball journey (see photo circa 1995 below). And while the dream of an NBA title currently feels distant and improbable, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs still have an opportunity in front of us this season to realize one of the most sacred of all hoop dreams that every child has at some point soon after they first touch a basketball. Starting tonight, I know we are going to apply the lessons provided by the adversity we have faced so far in these Finals and use them to help us stare down that distance and improbability and defiantly dream on.
#GoSpursGo
Featured Image Source: MSN
Sept de moins
2026 NBA Finals, Game 1
Still D.R.E. - On June 2nd, 1991, Michael Jordan lost the first NBA Finals game of his career at home. Magic Johnson and the more experienced Los Angeles Lakers defeated Jordan and his Chicago Bulls 93-91 at Chicago Stadium. His Airness scored 13 points in this fourth quarter to erase a seven point deficit to start the frame and take a small lead down the stretch only to blow it in the final moments. The narrative in the media after that game was the Bulls were too overwhelmed by basketball’s biggest stage and experience was going to win out. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls did not blink and proceeded to win the next four games straight to capture the 1990-91 NBA Championship, their first of six titles. 35 years and one day later, Victor Wembanyama lost the first NBA Finals game of his career at home. Jalen Brunson and the more experienced New York Knicks defeated Wemby and his San Antonio Spurs 105-95 at Frost Bank Center. The Alien scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to erase an eight point deficit with six minutes left in the frame and take a small lead down the stretch only to blow it in the final moments. The narrative in the media after this game will be the Spurs are too overwhelmed by basketball’s biggest stage and experience is going to win out. Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs will not blink and god help every single overconfident spoiled obnoxious rich Knicks fan who is buying up tickets in San Antonio as well as the ones who are spending even more money to secure tickets inside of Madison Square Garden. I’m really going to enjoy watching Victor Wembanyama watching Knicks fans watching history repeat itself.
* * *
While it is obviously disappointing to drop Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals at home (and have a blemish now in what was previously a 6-0 record in opening games of NBA Finals series in franchise history), my confidence is still unwavering that we will win this series. Nothing about what happened on Wednesday night set off any alarm bells for me that the Knickerbockers are the better team. Everything that contributed to us taking an L is correctable. Let’s start with the fact we shot 32-89 from the field (36%). New York is a solid defensive ball club but our horrid shooting night was much more about us than it was about them. Our offense was generating all kinds of good looks the entire night, we were just missing them. Case in point, we underperformed our expected effective field goal percentage by 10.1%, our worst such underperformance of the playoffs and second-worst of the entire season. The play that epitomized our inability to knock down good looks in a nutshell was De’Aaron Fox missing a nine-foot pull up in the paint (a shot he makes in his sleep) after getting himself wide open off the two-man pick and roll game with Wemby down two points with 1:31 left to play in the fourth quarter. This missed opportunity to put the pressure back on New York to regain another lead was the most costly of numerous examples of us just missing good shots we normally make. I chalk this up to “first NBA Finals game ever” jitters affecting multiple players throughout the night. That being said, Fox going 3-13 (0-4 from deep) was unquestionably one of most glaring correctable components of our Game 1 performance and that needs to be fixed immediately. I have complete confidence that it will be fixed immediately and he will silence the naysayers once again in Game 2. He’s a gamer. Every time the chirping has started this postseason he’s had response to silence the noise because that’s what gamers do. Also, I don’t think it’s mentioned enough how commendable it is that De’Aaron has continued to grind these games out one after another without ever once using his high ankle sprain as an excuse in the games like Wednesday night where he hasn’t played up to his normal standards. He just puts his head down and goes back to work the next game. Last time I checked, we have been eliminated from the 2026 playoffs exactly zero times due to our veteran star struggled in a close out game while attempting to perform on one leg. De’Aaron Fox will be ready tonight. He’s gonna ball out in Game 2.
In a game that we lost by 10 but led 95-94 with 2:16 seconds remaining, we gave up 10 offensive rebounds for 23 second-chance points. In fact, on the very next play after Wemby sank a free throw to to give us that 95-94 lead, the Knicks looked discombobulated by our lockdown defense and OG Anunoby was forced to settle for a deep three but we neglected to box out Jalen Brunson who tipped it to Mikal Bridges and then drifted to the corner where Bridges gave it right back to him for a wide-open dagger corner three. That was a needless second-chance opportunity we gave New York’s best player and he capitalized on it to swing the momentum for the last time in the game. We didn’t score again after that. Giving up too many second-chance points in the first five games almost cost us the last series. But in Game 6 & 7 with our backs up against the wall facing elimination, we dug in with our attention to detail and had the discipline to correct that correctable which ultimately played a huge role in us outlasting the champs. The “playing in the NBA Finals for the first time” jitters will be gone tonight. We understand the urgency of every game from here on out so I expect us to play with the discipline to correct that correctable for Game 2 and for the rest of the series. Speaking of something we regressed on in Game 1 of the Finals, an important correctable we can also look to our experience playing OKC for lessons moving forward is we cannot turn the ball over five more times than our opponent again in this series like we did on Wednesday when we lost that battle 13-8. We gave the ‘Bockers five extra possessions and lost by ten. (Damn straight I just gave the Knickerbockers a sardonic nickname, we’ve got to deal with these pestiferous interlopers for another two weeks, after all.) Failing to protect the basketball is a correctable we have corrected more and more the deeper we have gotten into each series. Once again, with the stakes of ever game so heightened in the Finals, I fully expect that timeline to get sped up for Game 2 and for the turnover issue to get corrected this night and stay corrected for the duration. Speaking of turnovers, we obviously still need to talk about Victor’s performance. He had six of them, including one in the guts of the game that all but assured our fate. The play was a microcosm of Wemby’s frantic, sped-up night. There’s no question that the “playing in my first Finals game” jitters affected him more than anyone else on our team. Given that he’s the greatest player in the world, that’s recipe for disaster and it certainly was one. It jumped out of the television screen how amped up The Alien was to showcase his talent for the first time on basketball’s biggest stage and seeing him make so many “I want it so bad” mistakes was adorable but Vic had his worst (full) game of the playoffs and that is the number one correctable that needs to be corrected moving forward. The WCF MVP had decent top line stats with his 26 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks, two assists, and a steal but he shot an abysmal 6-21 from the field including only 2-9 from deep. Combine the terrible shooting with the aforementioned six turnovers and it all adds up to the type of performance where you’ve gift-wrapped Finals victory for your inferior opponent on your own home floor. Based on what I saw from the ‘Bockers on Wednesday night, they are going to need three more performances like that from the best player in the series to have any chance of raising a banner in October. Unfortunately for them, they’re not going to get any more. You can take it to the bank that that correctable is getting corrected. Every single time this postseason that Victor has failed to live up to expectations for a game, he has responded with the fury of a thousand suns. I expect tonight to be no different. I expect The Alien to put on such a dominant performance in Game 2 that it will demoralize a team that had been on a 12-game winning streak to the point that they forget how it will ever be possible to win against him again. I’m so excited to watch the alien abduction tonight of all of the momentum New York has been riding for these past twelve playoff games.
To end on a positive Game 1 performance note, Dylan Harper was the player of the game. Our 20-year-old prodigy rookie guard became the youngest player in history to score in double-figures in the NBA Finals. Dylan had 16 points, eight rebounds, one assist, and one steal in his Finals debut. His electric performance was reminiscent of Magic Johnson’s 16 point, 10 assist and nine rebound performance as a 20-year-old rookie against the Philadelphia 76ers in his debut during the 1980 NBA Finals. Harper may very well have pushed his rebound and assist stats closer to equaling Johnson’s had he played more minutes but San Antonio Spurs coach Mitch Johnson only played Dylan 28 minutes (and had him on the bench with the game in the balance during crunch time) whereas Magic played 40 minutes in his debut in 1980. Mitch’s rationale for keeping his highest performing player of the game on the bench to close was that it had nothing to do with not trusting Dylan in that spot but rather he just felt good about sticking with the group who had walked down the ‘Bockers from eight behind in the fourth to take that one point lead with two and a half minutes left. Who’s to say if having Harper on the floor down the stretch could have changed anything about giving up the offensive rebound and Brunson three that flipped the lead and the momentum for the final time but either way, I have a sneaking suspicion that Coach Johnson will have Dylan Harper in the closing group if/when we have another clutch game down the stretch in these Finals. With all of the formalities out of the way, I’m filled with nothing but excitement to watch Game 2 tonight and confidence that we will win it handedly. Just like Wemby, I’m not worried in the slightest about Wednesday’s setback. Despite us giving that one away in the end + having to deal with the annoyance of the six to eight percent penetration of the New York fans (especially the celebrity ones) celebrating in the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio (our house), there is so much still to remember and celebrate about the pageantry of Game 1 and the accomplishment of having this next generation of Spurs players take that stage for the first time. Fear and anxiety will not be part of the equation for me while watching Game 2 tonight. Also like Victor, I have visualized us rolling this inferior opponent tonight and that’s exactly what I expect to happen. I do not harbor the slightest bit of concern that this good (but not great) New York squad is going to not only ride a six-week hot streak to the Eastern Conference championship but is also going to ride it to snatch away from the #BlackAndSilver what we have earned by defeating the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder eight out of twelve times this season including a Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals on the road in their building—the right to call ourselves the best team in the league at the end of the season. The absurdity of considering the scenario where the 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs slay the dragon that was the OKC juggernaut, the dynasty in the making, the team that prognosticators were saying as recently as December could set a new NBA record for most wins in a season this year only to then blow the championship round against the Knickerbockers (of all teams) provides me complete inoculation from the cognitive state of uncertainty otherwise know as doubt. As Benjamin Franklin said, “When in doubt, don’t.” Indeed, doubt will find no safe harbor in my living room or in my mind tonight while I’m enjoying watching my favorite team in any sport perform in my favorite sporting even around in my favorite city in the world. Just like Victor Wembanyama, I am a rock.
打纸老虎
Too amped from the lights
Gleaming brighter than ever
Time to settle in
And play the game the right way
For our rightful crown awaits
Written June 2026 in Aurora, CO
Featured Image Source: NBA.com
Headline Image Source: Sports Illustrated
B&S 20/20: Ecstasy at a Bachelor Party
1999 NBA Finals, Game 5
We Are the Champions - June 24th, 1999. I'd been dreaming about this night, this game, this moment for a little over nine years. To be precise, I'd been dreaming about it ever since renewing my love for the game of basketball after returning to Texas from England as a eleven-year-old in January 1990. Let me explain. While living in England in 1989 (because my dad - a college professor - was teaching abroad), I had naturally gravitated away from basketball - my first love - to soccer - my other sport - because well, you know, "when in Rome." In fact, I was so into soccer after moving back home to Texas, that when youth league basketball tryouts started a few weeks after we got back, I had no interest in trying out because I wanted to focus on soccer. My dad (who doubled as my soccer coach) had to convince me to return to my first love and tryout for basketball. I did, had a fantastic 5th grade season in my youth league, and once restored to its original place in my heart, basketball has been my unwavering favorite sport ever since. During the very same season that I was rekindling my love affair with basketball playing in my youth league in Georgetown - just north of Austin, David Robinson was playing his rookie season for the Spurs 120 miles south of me in San Antonio. Full disclosure, during the 1980s as a young tike, I was a fan of Larry Bird and Boston during the period of time that all basketball-loving Americans had to choose sides between Bird's Celtics and Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers. But after returning to Texas and basketball from England and soccer, I fell hard for this electrifying rookie nicknamed the Admiral and the team in closest proximity to my home and since the first time I ever witnessed Robinson block a shot on one end and then sprint down the court like a gazelle past his defender to receive and hammer home a physics-defying alley oop dunk, I have been the biggest die-hard San Antonio Spurs fan on planet Earth. (Being the biggest Spurs fan in the world is a title I'm proud to have held with distinction since 1990 and for those of you who are skeptical and think that your own Spurs fandom might rival or exceed mine you are welcome to look here to verify that you are in fact mistaken and that my claim to the title is more than secure, it's a verifiable fact.). So yeah, after eight well-chronicled and brutally painful Robinson-led Spurs defeats in the Western Conference playoffs (as well as the infamous 1996-97 lottery year that landed us Tim Duncan), June 24th, 1999 was a surreal occurrence, a point in time that I'd been dreaming about daily since January 1990.
There was just one small problem. June 24th, 1999 also just so happened to be the night of my older brother's bachelor party and - as the universe we exist in is never short on irony - I was the best man. How could this be? How could an event I had been dreaming about for almost a decade be taking place on the same night as one of those rare social obligations where there is absolutely no wiggle room for giving anything less than your undivided attention? Yes, the bachelor party was taking place at a gentlemen's establishment and yes, the gentlemen's establishment was going to be showing the television broadcast of the game on their TVs but this simply further complicated my predicament. Casually following along to the game while staying fully engaged in the debauchery...I mean...festivities that I was presiding over in my role as best man was not an option for me. After all, I'm the biggest Spurs fan in the world (remember?) and my team is playing in the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden up three games to one with a chance to win a championship. Following along casually was not an option. Any diehard sports fan understands this. In a game of this magnitude being played by a team that you love, the ONLY option is to give that game your undivided attention. Keep in mind, this life-altering game was taking place in 1999 not 2019 - there was no such thing as DVRs or watching sporting events "on demand" back then. Suffice it to say, I was in a pretty tough spot. You might be wondering, "Why didn't you plan to record the game on a VCR (hey kids, VCR stands for video cassette recorder...it was a thing back then) and ignore the game at the gentlemen's establishment so that you could watch the tape after and give it your undivided attention?" Well, heading into the bachelor party that was certainly my plan but as you can probably imagine, things did not go according to plan. More on that later. For now since this is a 20th anniversary retrospective post, after all, and since I did watch the game in it's entirety later that night after concluding my duties as best man and have since watched the game in its entirety at least a dozen times over the years on VCR, followed by DVD, and most recently, digitally on YouTube, let's turn our attention to the events as they unfolded in Madison Square Garden - 1700 miles away from where I was simultaneously hosting my brother's bachelor party in Austin - on this date twenty years ago.
The scene was set. The Knick home crowd at Madison Square Garden was going crazy. Each time I've watched the game, I've focused on watching the facial expression of David Robinson and Tim Duncan as they were taking the court for the opening tip. Both displayed a frenetic nervous-excited energy in their expression but balanced that with a calm, confidence deep in their eyes. Jump ball, Game 5, Spurs won the tip and history was set in motion. Both teams traded two empty possessions each before Sean Elliott opened the scoring with two made free throws. Ironically, these two free throws were the only points Sean Elliott scored the entire night. After, two more empty possessions (one each way), Allan Houston tied the game on a floating fader. From there, the Knicks got out to a 6-4 lead but also racked up a bunch of quick, cheap fouls culminating in David Robinson getting the benefit of the doubt on a Charlie Ward block-charge call to earn a dunk and three point play which gave the Spurs a 7-6 lead five minutes in. With such a low score almost halfway through the first period, it was clear that both teams came out a little tight. Shooting was clearly an issue early. The Spurs started 2-11 from the field which, despite our opportunities, allowed New York to swing back into the lead at 9-7 with Latrell Spreewell making 3-4 on foul shots after the Robinson three-point play. Both teams started to loosen up a little and find a rhythm at that point but the Knicks increased their advantage to 15-11 on a 6-4 run. New York got two Larry Johnson post scores and a Kurt Thomas jumper during this stretch but the good news for the Spurs was that Tim Duncan countered with two midrange shots (one a patented banker). Down four, Gregg Popovich called timeout with 3:13 left in the 1st. The Spurs sputtered momentarily coming out of the timeout but after going down six, Jaren Jackson followed two Tim Duncan free throws with a huge 3-pointer to cut the lead to one with 46 seconds left in the first, 21-20. Unfortunately, a Charlie Ward lay-up closed out the 1st quarter scoring giving the Knicks a 23-20 lead after one.
Two minutes into the second quarter, it was clear that second-year phenom Tim Duncan was ready to put the team on his back in order to keep the Spurs within striking distance in the most hostile of hostile environments. Timmy's stat line was up to 10 points and five rebounds a mere 14 minutes into the game. While Duncan's dominant play accomplished the goal of offsetting a deadly New York run, the Knicks were still able to methodically increase their lead to eight, 30-22, four minutes and 30 seconds into the 2nd quarter by cobbling together a 7-0 run. The Spurs punched right back going on an 8-4 run of our own (Timmy four points, Robinson two points, and Mario Ellie two free throws) to cut the New York lead to 34-30 with 3:47 left in second. The momentum stayed with San Antonio the rest of the half as the team started showing signs of the dominance that had propelled us to a 14-2 playoff record. We closed out the half on a emphatic 10-4 run that included a Tim Duncan lay-up, an Avery Johnson jumper, a David jump hook and free throw, and finally Jaren Jackson's huge second three pointer of the half which gave the Spurs their first lead since the first quarter 40-38 heading into the locker room.
The "Remember the Alamo" Twin Tower-led Spurs ratcheted up the defense to start the second half. At the beginning of the third quarter we put together a defensive spurt that included two steals, a Duncan-Robinson block of Latrell Spreewell at the rim, and another Robinson contest at the rim that led to a transition lay-up for Jaren Jackson to increase the lead to 42-38 two minutes into the third. The excitement back home in Texas started building after the Spurs got another stop that led to Jaren Jackson draining his third three of the game. All of the sudden San Antonio had 45-38 lead thanks in large part to Jaren Jackson's 11 huge points. It didn't stop there. After Mario Ellie got fouled on a transition lay up and made two free throws, all told, the Spurs had enjoyed a 25-8 run to take a nine point lead. As expected, the Knicks were not going to allow their season to slip away without a fight. New York went on a quick 5-0 run to cut the Spurs lead to four and had the ball with momentum in a pivotal moment when Latrell Spreewell swung the rock cross court to Allan Houston for an open three (which he drained) but unfortunately for the Knicks, Houston stepped out of bounds before his shot. This was a lucky break for the Spurs in a tight game and a reminder that basketball is a game of inches, if not millimeters. Despite the setback, the Knicks kept coming at us. After the Spurs got two empty trips to the Knicks one, Spreewell elevated for a massive dunk over Jaren Jackson and got fouled. He drained the free throw to cut the lead to one, 47-46 with five minutes and 30 seconds left in the third quarter. Knicks were now on an 8-0 run and Madison Square Garden was going bananas. It should be noted that Spurs point guard Avery Johnson committed his fifth turnover of the game to setup the Spreewell dunk. The floodgates continued as the Spurs missed and then Spreewell hit a baseline jumper to give the Knicks back the lead. The New York lead was now 10-0. Pandemonium in the Garden.Lucky for us, we had a counter up our sleeves in the form of a two-time champion starting shooting guard (Houston Rockets, 1994 & 1995) who was clearly unfazed by the moment having been there so many times before. Mario Ellie displayed some of his Clutch City swagger on the ensuing possession, draining a three to immediately swing the lead back to the Spurs. While Ellie's dagger temporarily silenced the crowd, the Knicks came right back with another pure Spreewell jumper. The "is the moment too big for Avery Johnson?" question reared its ugly head once again as Avery committed his 6th turnover on the next possession and Charlie Ward turned it into a transition lay-up to regain the lead. Knicks were back up two, 52-50 with three minutes and 30 seconds left in the third quarter. At this point, the game was ground to a sudden, unexpected halt due to technical difficulties. The issue was the Spurs’ basket’s shot clock stopped working. After several minutes of officials huddling, the referee's solution was to put a shot clock on the baseline of the Spurs side since, while on offense, the Spurs weren't going to be able to look up over the basket to check the clock. But since NBA players are trained to look for the shot clock over the basket, the decision by the referees put the Spurs at a huge disadvantage since our players would have to now unnaturally look on the baseline for it instead. Coach Pop asked the refs to also turn the shot clock over the Knick's basket off to make it fair and eliminate the possibility that the referees were giving New York a competitive advantage.
After further delay, Popovich lost a ridiculous decision by the refs who ultimately ruled to allow the Knicks to continue to use their over the basket shot clock while the Spurs were being forced to use the back up shot clock on the baseline floor. After all of the negotiation and delay, the Spurs had an empty trip before Allan Houston canned a jumper and increased the Knick's lead to four, 54-50. Unfazed, Tim Duncan came right back by drawing a foul and then draining a turn around bank shot. He also made the free throw to complete a three-point play. A mono y mono theme had begun to emerge as Spreewell broke the Spurs off with another baseline jumper on the Knick's next possession. Down three, a still unfazed Tim Duncan just put his hard hat on and scored the next four points with another patented angle bank shot and then two free throws giving the Spurs the lead back by one. Sprewell, clearly the Knicks go-to player at this point in the game, also showed no signs of slowing down. He hit another 10-foot fade away jumper. San Antonio responded and worked it back to a one point lead with Malik Rose and Timmy both splitting a pair of free throws each to close the third quarter. After three, the Spurs were clinging to a 59-58 lead.The referees finally evened the playing field for the fourth quarter by turning off the Knick’s basket clock and having both teams use a shot clock on the baseline floor. After the teams traded empty possessions to start the fourth, Timmy hit a world class ridiculous fading bank shot jumper to open fourth quarter scoring. Not ready to let the Knick’s season end, Spreewell came right back with quick 5-0 run on a lay-up and then a three-point play (getting fouled on a jumper and then making the free throw) that gave New York the lead back by two. At this point, there's no other way to put it: Tim Duncan and Latrell Spreewell were officially dueling with 26 points each. On cue, Timmy spun in an "anything you can do, I can do better" baseline jump hook to re-tie the game at 63 a piece. After watching the Spurs' power forward regain the upper hand in the Spreewell duel, 28-26, the New York Knickerbockers called timeout.NBC, the network that had the broadcast rights to the NBA Finals in the late 1990s, came back from this particular commercial break to what would later, for people re-watching the telecast, prove to be and eery visual. Obviously, the game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York and just as obviously, the Spurs featured a pair of seven foot all-stars nicknamed the Twin Towers. Those two things being obvious, it was a no brainer that at some point during the broadcast, NBC would come back from commercial with an areal shot of the actual Twin Towers standing tall above the Manhattan sky line. Perfectly sensible at the time, but in retrospect, this shot has proven to be quite solemn and a little spooky knowing this was a mere 15 months before 9/11. I just wanted to acknowledge that and the victims before moving ahead with my recap of the game.
Heading into the timeout, if you remember, Tim Duncan had a 28-26 lead in his personal duel with Latrell Spreewell. Well, on the ensuing possession after the timeout, Spreewell said "not so fast," when he canned a three pointer to take the scoring lead right back from Duncan, 29-28, and, more importantly giving his Knicks the overall lead back, 66-63. If you haven't caught on to our mini-theme, I guess it will be a spoiler to tell you that on the next possession, Timmy worked the Knick’s in the post swinging back the lead in the duel, 30-29, and cutting the Spurs' overall deficit back to a single point. What happened next? You guessed it. Sprewell came right back with a turn around jumper. 31-30 in the duel, 68-65 Knicks on the score board. Bob Costas and Doug Collins, NBC's broadcasters for the game, shrewdly invoked the duel between Larry Bird and Dominique Wilkens in th 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Given the back and fourth between Duncan and Spreewell, this was a nice comparison, the major difference being, however, Duncan and Spreewell weren't matched up regularly guarding each other as Bird and Wilkens were in 1988. So, sure, was the comparison less than perfect? Yes, but to witness two players carrying their teams while going mono y mono in Game Five of the NBA Finals was, nonetheless, an incredible sight to behold.
On the next possession, the mono y mono duel was momentarily tempered when one of the other eight players on the court took it upon himself to forge the audacity to attempt a shot. That player was Spurs point guard, Avery Johnson. He connected on a lay up putting San Antonio back within one. After the Knicks advanced back to their end, David Robinson stole the ball and got to the line, making the first of two and tying the game at 68. The Admiral missed the second and Sean Elliott got the offensive rebound but the Spurs small forward missed the put back attempt and the Knicks regained possession. Back down the court, the Spurs were hit with a second illegal defense (and a technical foul) but Houston missed the free throw. After inbounding again after the miss at the line, Sprewell passed out of a double team and found a cutting Camby for a bucket and an "and 1." Knicks had regained the lead by three.
The two teams then traded empty possessions triggering a timeout. After the break, David Robinson got fouled rebounding a Jaren Jackson miss. He made both and once again cut the Spurs' deficit to one point. Back down the court after Robinson's free throws, Marcus Camby once again dunked, this time on a set up from Larry Johnson. The Admiral came right back with the and 1 but missed the free throw. Still a one point game, 73-72 Knicks. Some great defense by Mario Ellie on Sprewell during the next possession forced him to pass out to a desperation Larry Johnson three that missed. On the other end, Ellie couldn't capitalize on his defensive effort, missing a fade-away jumper. Spreewell marched right back down, rose up and canned another jumper over Elliott. 75-72 Knicks. (33-30 Spree over Timmy in the personal duel.) On the next possession, Mario Ellie was ready to shoot and redeem himself for the poor shot selection on last time down. Out of the double of Timmy, Clutch City came through again as Mario Ellie drained the straightaway three. Tie ball game! The Texas night electric in anticipation.Back on the other end of the court, Timmy got cross matched on Spree (the mono y mono match up we wanted) but unfortunately Timmy fouled. Spreewell made both increasing his advantage in the one-on-one dual to 35-30. More importantly, his two free throws put the Knicks back on top on the scoreboard by 2. After the next offensive possession sputtered, Timmy attempted a desperation 3 that was way off but luckily the Spurs secured the offensive rebound and worked it back to Timmy in the post where he is fouled by Larry Johnson. Timmy made one of two, cutting the dual deficit back down to four (35-31) and the team deficit on the scoreboard back down to one.The next possession proved NBC's earlier cutaway to the Twin Towers clairvoyant in that Timmy and Big Dave combine to make the first in a series of clutch defensive plays. Robinson and Duncan blocked Sprewell at the rim causing the ball to get pinned for a jump ball. NY won the tap and the Knick’s called timeout with 2:05 remaining and New York clinging to a one point lead. After the break, Duncan once again found himself cross- matched on his mono y mono rival Latrell but this time Timmy forced Spreewell to pass out to Charlie Ward for a desperation three that didn’t hit the rim. The second year Spurs superstar once again demonstrated his all world defensive talent to force a shot clock violation and also prompting one of the most beautiful phrases in the English language...Spurs ball!Unfortunately the good guys were unable to capitalize on the ending critical possession as Robinson missed a jump hook. The Knicks rebounded the miss with 1:26 remaining. If this game, this first-ever Championship was going to be won, it was going to be won at the defensive end of the court. New York orchestrated a clever play to get Avery pinned by their hot hadn't, Sprewell in the post. Timmy doubled to force Sprewell to pass out for a wide open Larry Johnson three. Fortunately, though, Grandmama missed and Ellie rebounded to give San Antonio another chance to take the lead.As any credentialed Spurs fan knows, what came next is not only history but probably the most iconic Spurs moment for all-time: Timmy, doubled in the post, passed out to Sean Elliott. Sean pump faked and drove. Avery Johnson’s man, Chris Childs had moved out to guard Sean on the switch out of the double team so Timmy screened to hold off both Larry Johnson and Spreewell. Sean Elliott hits Avery in the corner and Avery rose up confidently to release a baseline jumper. Spoiler alert: the Little General, the point guard Damon Stoudamire had infamously declared would never lead a team to an NBA Championship, drained the biggest shot in franchise history. Spurs lead! Spurs lead! 78-77. All of the eyes of Texas are emphatically fixated on Madison Square Garden.
The Spurs were still exactly 47 seconds away from heaven at this point and the victory was far from secured. After a timeout, Sprewell, still leading the mono y mono duel with Timmy 35-31 decided to go into full hero ball mode but missed a fade-away jumper over Elliott. Avery skied in for the rebound putting us one possession closer to euphoria with 27 seconds left. SPURS BALL!!!
Needing to both nurse the clock and get a quality shot to extend the lead and provide us with some breathing room, we worked the ball into David. He elevated and missed badly but he missed so badly that the ball didn’t hit the rim. Somehow Robinson got his own rebound. With the shot clock ticking down, Big Dave fired the ball back out to Elliott who swung it over to Avery. Johnson had no choice but to chunk up a desperation 28 footer to beat the shot clock. The Knicks rebounded the miss and called timeout. While to objective of padding the lead had failed miserably, the objective of milking the clock had been accomplished. The Knicks had only 2.1 seconds left to score and send the series to Game 6. If they failed, Madison Square Garden was about to be generously hosting a party for some out-of -town guests.I wonder who would be getting the ball? Charlie Ward, the Heisman winning college football quarterback at Florida State, was chosen to inbound just passed midcoast on the New York side. The accomplished Quarterback fired a go route pass to Sprewell streaking towards the basket. Sprewell caught the ball in stride, pump faked and then realized the he was under the basket with Sean on him. He spun out baseline to the other side of the rim only to be met by the four outstretched arms of the Twin Towers of Duncan and Robinson. The intimidating defensive tandem had one more shot to intimidate. Latrell Spreewell rose up and shot a floater over the tree of arm but wasn't able to get enough on the shot to get it over them and on a trajectory to fall back to earth over the basket. Air ball. IT'S ALL OVER! SPURS WIN! SPURS WIN! SPRUS WIN THEIR FIRST EVER NBA CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!
Back in Austin at the gentlemen's establishment, performing my duties as Best Man at my brother's bachelor party had inevitably taken a back seat on my priority list somewhere around the two minute mark in the fourth quarter. My Uncle Bob, who is also a huge Spurs fan and had taken me to my first ever Spurs game against Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics in the late 80's prior to my family's move to London, and I had gravitated to the bar area at the gentlemen's establishment to watch our team try to seal its first championship on the television screen overlooking the bar--the foolish notion of thinking I could avoid the score in order to watch my VHS recording of the game in its entirety at home later that night scrapped as soon as I accidentally discovered we were SO CLOSE to REALIZING THIS DREAM down the stretch. I remember us standing there at the bar completely locked in and hanging on every possession with destiny almost within our grasp. When Avery Johnson hit the go-ahead baseline jumper, Uncle Bob and I exploded in excitement and celebration causing such a ruckus that more of our party joined us at the bar to watch the final minute. As you can imagine, when Latrell Spreewell's final shot went up high in the air to avoid the four extended massive arms of the Twin Towers it felt like an eternity before it dropped short and pandemonium ensued, Uncle Bob and I hugging and celebrating with others from my brother's bachelor party. It felt unreal. It felt amazing. THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS WERE WORLD CHAMPIONS. I don't remember much about the rest of the bachelor party. Most of the details from my brother's wedding the next day are pretty fuzzy 20 years later. But the moment my favorite team won its first ever NBA title is constantly with me. In this regard, a moment of pure joy makes me believe that time is merely an allusion. The moment the San Antonio Spurs won the 1999 NBA Championship was then, is now, and will always be.
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B&S 20/20: Twin Tower Tourists
1999 NBA Finals, Game 4
House of the Rising Sun - It must've been a funny feeling for the players on our Western Conference Champion San Antonio Spurs to walk off of the Madison Square Garden basketball court in New York City on the short end of the score board after Game 3 of the 1999 NBA Finals. After all, the 89-81 loss to the New York Knicks was the first defeat in our past thirteen playoff contests. So, in other words, winning was such a regular occurrence during our 1999 NBA playoff run, it must've been a strange sensation when the (at that time) NBA record-tying 12-game playoff winning streak came to an end. Having had so much recent success, a loss was not only overdue, it was probably also a bit of a refreshing funny, strange sensation. The loss provided a rare opportunity for the team to regroup, refocus and use some much-needed adversity to come back together as one with a unified focus for completing the mission. While on the one hand, one loss after 12 straight victories might not seem like a very big deal, on the other hand, this particular loss gave the Knicks life in their own pursuit of winning a championship. At 2-1 now, the loss brought New York within one game of tying the series with the next two games still being played in their building. Regardless of the 12-game winning steak, the Spurs were in a dog fight still to win our first championship and any kind of lapse in focus could result in us returning to San Antonio down 3-2 and on the brink of elimination. The Game 3 loss, both a curse and a gift, had given New York new life but may also have been the wake up call the Spurs needed in order to summon the focus to finish the job.
Back in MSG a mere 48-hours after the defeat, the focus was evident on the faces of the Spurs' starters as they took the court after opening introductions. After the tip, David Robinson set the tone with some early aggressive blocks. The Admiral's efforts on the defense combined with an overwhelming combined effort with Tim Duncan on the boards allowed the Spurs to get out to an early 15-8 start. It was also evident from early on that the Knicks also came to play. Sparked by an uncharacteristic 10 first quarter points by point guard Charlie Ward, New York responded to the Spurs early push and pushed back to take a 29-27 lead after one.Heading into the second, the Knick's run swelled to 10-2 before Avery Johnson hit a pair of runners to tie the game back up with nine minutes left in the second quarter. Then, after getting a stop, veteran journeyman Jerome Kersey hit a corner jumper to give the Spurs the lead back 33-31. The teams traded baskets for a few possessions until Sean Elliott got a kind bounce on a three point attempt to put the Spurs back up by three at 38-35. Tim played well down the stretch of the second quarter and his 14 first half points helped to keep the Knicks at bay in order to take a 50-46 lead into the locker room at halftime.
I don't know what Gregg Popovich said to the team at halftime, but whatever it was, it ramped the focus up to an unprecedented level as the teams retook the court for the third quarter. How do I know the Spurs' focus was at an unprecedented level? We started the quarter in utterly dominating fashion, hammering the Knicks with a 9-0 run to start the second half. Latrell Spreewell's 10 points in the third quarter kept the Knicks within striking distance but continuing his strong play as the Spurs' floor general, Avery Johnson was up to 14 points of his own for the game after three quarters. Since Duncan and Robinson were continuing to dominate the paint, San Antonio was able to add five extra points to their margin having increased the lead to 72-63 after three.
David Robinson came up huge early in the fourth when his running mate, Tim Duncan, struggled with back to back turnovers early in the frame. The Admiral made some timely buckets and free throws and continued dominating the paint with blocked shots and rebounds. Despite Robinson's brilliance, the gritty Knicks continued to hang around. Game 4 was becoming another "who wants it more" competition of wills and it was reassuring that Big Dave's relentlessness was outshining anything the other side could muster. In one critical play with the Spurs up six points midway through the final frame, Robinson forced Larry Johnson into a tough, air ball fade away. Tim Duncan snatched the rebound and fired a bullet of an outlet to a streaking Mario Ellie for a break away dunk. It was Robinson's effort that made the play possible and was appearing to be winning out in the contest of wills. Latrell Spreewell and Allan Houston, however, had a "not so fast" response. Spreewell made an incredible "force of will" tip in over Duncan and Robinson and then Houston added a patented turn around jumper on the next possession. Throw in a Charlie Ward free throw and the Knicks had cut the lead to 81-80 with five and a half minutes to play.
The Twin Towers absorbed the body blow and responded with back to back buckets of their own (Robinson first, then Duncan). Mario Ellie tacked on a free throw and the Spurs' lead was back up to six. The back and forth continued as Marcus Camby made a three point play and Larry Johnson followed with a free throw to cut the lead back to two at 86-84. The momentum would swing back to the Spurs yet again but this time, we wouldn't relinquish it. The suffocating San Antonio defense (anchored by the Twin Towers) dominated down the stretch as the Spurs held the Knicks scoreless for several straight possessions. On the other end of the court, Elliott, Robinson, Johnson and Duncan all participated in a parade to the free throw line. When the dust settled, the Spurs had made 8-10 (4 from Elliott, 2 from Duncan, 2 from Robinson, 0-2 from Avery) and extended the lead to 94-84 with under a minute to play. Marcus Camby provided a "too little too late" 4-0 run with a quick couple of buckets to bring New York back within six at 94-88 with 17 seconds left. Mario Ellie officially sealed the victory with two free throws before Camby made the game's final point on a free throw of his own when the game was out of reach. All told, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the New York Knicks 96-89 to take a 3-1 lead and inch within one victory of our first-ever NBA Championship.
The player of the game deserved to be split between two players. Here is their combined stat line: 42 points, 35 rebounds, 7 blocks. Can you guess which members of the Twin Towers I'm referencing? Exactly - David Robinson and Tim Duncan were incredible. 35 rebounds, in particular, by two players is astonishingly dominant. Since the rules of our blog series are such that I have to choose a singular player of the game, let me first single out Big Dave for individual recognition. Robinson had 14 points, 17 rebounds, and four blocks. In case you don't feel like doing the quick math, that means that Tim Duncan had 28 points, 18 rebounds, 3 blocks and oh, by the way...also three assists in Game 4 of the NBA Finals as a freaking sophomore NBA player. Yeah, I think even D-Rob would agree, Tim Duncan is the player of the game. The first player since Magic Johnson to perform at basketball's biggest stage at such a high level at such a young age, the recent Wake Forrest graduate had led the San Antonio Spurs to within one victory of their first-ever NBA Championship. Along with the 3-1 series lead came an opportunity to close out inside basketball's most storied arena - Madison Square Garden two nights later. 48 hours to glory? Or 48 hours to just another Friday night in Manhattan? Stay tuned and...
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B&S 20/20: When the Garden Was Eden
1999 NBA Finals, Game 3
Welcome to New York City - Welcome to the Empire State. Home of the World Trade. Birthplace of Michael Jordan. Home of Biggie Smalls.. How fitting a setting. The San Antonio Spurs first NBA Finals road game in franchise history was scheduled to be played in the Mecca, Madison Square Garden, the most famous and arguably most historic basketball arena on the planet. The New York Knicks, our opponents faced a do-or-die must-win scenario in Game 3 on their home floor having dropped both games to the Spurs in San Antonio and trailing the Finals 0-2. On June 21st 1999, Knicks fans packed the storied arena in hopes of rekindling the magic of the summer when the city cheered on Walt Frasier, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DuBusschere, and Phil Jackson to the 1973 NBA Championship. You know, the summer When the Garden Was Eden.
Channeling some of their storied ghosts, New York did the first day of summer justice by coming out blazing hot to take an early 20-10 lead. On this Monday evening that doubled as the Summer Solstice, the Knicks would've been primed to boat race San Antonio out of historic Madison Square Garden in the first period (right along side Spring) if it hadn't been for Spurs reserve guard Antonio Daniels hitting two improbable first quarter threes to keep us within striking distance. All told, New York, led by Allan Houston with 13 first quarter points, enjoyed an 11 point 32-21 advantage after the first quarter.
Having absorbed a powerful blow in the first, the Spurs punched back in the second. Following the lead of all-world power forward, Tim Duncan and former league MVP David Robinson, the Spurs outscored the Knicks 25-17 in the second quarter to cut the halftime deficit to 3 (49-46) and put ourselves within striking distance to take an insurmountable 3-0 series lead with a solid second half. Adding to the Knick's concern that the season might be slipping away was the fact that backup point guard Chris Childs got hurt and his second-half return was questionable. Avery Johnson had a good overall first half playing his role as floor general efficiently. Johnson would finish the night with 10 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal but the boxscore fails to do justice in conveying the impact that Avery had controlling the tempo and setting up his bigs to earn a lot of the credit for preventing the Spurs from succumbing to the energy of the Knicks and their crowd and getting blown out in the first half.
Relying on the stingy defense that had become our trademark throughout the playoff run, San Antonio started the third quarter 12-9 to tie the game up at 58. In one particular stretch, the Spurs defense forced New York into 12 consecutive missed field goals. True to form, Duncan and Robinson aka the Twin Towers led the defensive effort with pestering the Knicks into rushed shots and then gobbling up every rebound in sight. New York was able to eventually make up the three-point margin they had conceded earlier in the period and played San Antonio to even (16-16) by the end of the defensive-brawl of a third quarter. In so doing, New York was able to maintain its slight three point advantage heading into the fourth.
The tone for the final frame was set when Marcus Camby had a vicious follow up slam early in the period. The Madison Square Garden faithful were also given a boost by Chris Childs return to play in the final seconds of the third and seeing him retake the court to start the fourth. With momentum on their side, the Knicks extended the lead and kept us at bay as time on the clock (and for the Spurs to make a run) methodically ticked away. With 3:11 left to play, Sean Elliot hit a three that cut New York's lead to four (81-77) and that would prove to be as close as we would get to closing the margin late in the fourth. The Knicks held us off down the stretch by making most of their crunch time free throws.
Ultimately, the New York Knicks snagged their first NBA Finals victory in five years, winning 89-81 to cut the Spurs' series lead to 2-1. The most telling stat in explaining why the Spurs lost? Tim Duncan did not score in the fourth quarter. Even with a goose egg in crunch time, Timmy finished the game with a solid 20 points (8-16 from the field), 12 rebounds, three steals, two assists, and a block. The player of the game, however, was his Twin Tower running mate. David Robinson finished the night with 25 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks, and an assist. There was no question The Admiral could tasted his first title and wanted this game badly to put a strangle-hold on the series.
In the end, New York's own dynamic duo proved to be too much. Allan Houston finished with a gigantic 34 points and Latrell Spreewell tacked on another 24 points and five assists. Incredibly, this was the Spurs first playoff defeat since May 11th (an 80-71 home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round) and the defeat snapped the Spurs' 12 game playoff winning streak. Setting playoff winning streak records was the furthest thing from the team's minds leaving the Garden that night. The 1999 NBA Finals was now a 2-1 series and that meant it was up for grabs. The Western Conference Champions had no choice but to regroup and start a new playoff winning streak. Our first opportunity would come two days later back in the Garden and for the next 48 hours, starting a new winning streak would be the only thing on our minds.
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B&S 20/20: The Small Matter of Planning a Coronation
1999 NBA Finals, Game 2
Learn to Fly - Sixth months prior to the turn of the century (and the millennium depending on your counting), the future looked pretty bright for the New York Knickerbockers and their fans. Their longtime finals-preventing-nemesis Michael Jordan was retired and the stranglehold on the Eastern Conference he and his Chicago Bulls had maintained during all of the non-baseball-interrupted nineties was no more. With an adoring fan-base, vast resources, and playing in the biggest market in the East, the Knicks were well positioned to dominate the conference in the coming decade. More importantly, New York had been gifted a rare opportunity to own the present. Stealthily weaving together their second Finals run of the nineties by overcoming the enormous odds of winning the East as the eighth-seed (and even more astronomical odds given they lost their franchise cornerstone Patrick Ewing to injury for the season during the process), even down 0-1 to our Western Conference Champion San Antonio Spurs heading into Game 2, the Knicks were, by any measure, playing with house money with the unlikely opportunity in front of them. Sure, the walls they needed to scale were daunting. Conquering the most imposing set of Twin Towers in NBA history would be no easy feat. The Spurs were a juggernaut but admittedly, we were an unproven one and NBA history suggested that opportunities to be the first team to climb the mountain the year after a dynasty falls don't come along very often. On June 18th, 1999, only two teams still had that opportunity and the Knicks were one of them. Regardless of the talent deficit, the New York and San Antonio franchises were on equal footing as far as trying to establish a championship-winning meddle and for that reason, the Knicks walked back into the Alamodome for Game 2 with a puncher's chance to steal the final chapter of the NBA's storied century.
In order to make good on their unlikely opportunity to close the century as champions, the Knicks needed to punch their ticket back to New York with a Game 2 victory and a 1-1 series. The history of the 2-3-2 NBA Finals format demanded as much. At the time, no team that had started the Finals on the road had ever swept their three home games in the middle of 2-3-2 format. That being the case, the Knicks could only reasonably expect to win two of their three home games in New York so, already down 0-1, Game 2 was a de facto must-win for the underdogs. Should the Spurs win Game 2, the Knicks could almost certainly expect to at best return to San Antonio down 3-2 and needing to win both final road games to win the series. Considering how much of an uphill challenge that would be, there was no getting around the fact that New York desperately needed a Game 2 victory and the split to realistically keep their title hopes alive.Once the game tipped off, despite playing with the necessary desperation, New York found themselves playing from behind all night in a defensive slugfest. The Spurs jumped out to an early 20-15 lead after one quarter but the Knicks needed a late spurt just to stay within striking distance. The Spurs building a lead and then the Knicks going on a run to close the gap proved to be the theme of the night. New York held San Antonio to even in the second quarter (19-19) and went into the halftime break still only down five. The Spurs outpaced the Knicks by two points in the third (17-15) to increase our lead to seven heading into the final frame. In the fourth quarter, San Antonio put New York away with a dominating 24-18 fourth quarter performance that put the Knicks exactly where they knew that couldn't afford to be...down 0-2 in the NBA Finals heading home.
The final score was an eye-popping 80-67. (That's right, the New York Knicks scored a putrid 67 points in an NBA Finals game.) The player of the game was once again Tim Duncan. Timmy had a monster 25 points (9-19 shooting), 15 rebounds, four blocks, and three assists. David Robinson stepped up big once again with 16 points (5-8 shooting), 11 rebounds, five blocks, and four assists. That's correct, you read that right. The Twin Towers combined for nine blocked shots to build upon one of the most dominating interior defensive Finals performances in NBA history. While Latrell Spreewell (26 points) and Allan Houston (19 points) led the charge in keeping the Knicks within striking distance for most of the game, neither shot the ball efficiently (.364 & .450, respectively) and could never find enough holes in the Spurs interior defense to keep pace with San Antonio's offense. Finally, I want to make a special note to recognize Spurs point guard Avery Johnson. By the numbers, Johnson's performance was quite pedestrian (eight points and five assists) but the numbers simply don't do justice to Avery's masterful floor game. All night he made sure Duncan and Robison got the ball in their preferred spots and controlled the pace of the game in such a way that eventually allowed the Spurs defense to grind the Knicks to dust. Taking a dominant 2-0 lead in the series and extending our playoff winning-streak to a then record 12 straight games, it was starting to look and feel like the San Antonio Spurs being crowned 1999 NBA Champions was simply a matter of time.
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B&S 20/20: The Hillary Step
1999 NBA Finals, Game 1
Get Ready for This - Throughout my childhood growing up in Central Texas, I had regularly dreamed about this moment. As far as moments go for a city and its fans, this one was huge and luckily, the city of San Antonio had a building huge enough in its own right to handle it. 39,514 success-starved, exuberant Spurs fans packed themselves into the Alamodome on June 16th, 1999 to be a part of history. Unfortunately, as many times as I had imagined participating in this historic event throughout my childhood, I was not one of them. While I had just completed my sophomore year in college at Trinity University in San Antonio, after the Spring semester I accepted a summer job back in Austin and I was working a demanding schedule that did not afford me the time off to make it back to San Antonio to take part in my beloved Spurs historic moment. If my memory serves me correctly, I watched history unfold in a pool hall with some work friends in Austin. Even though I wasn't there in person, it was still surreal seeing my Spurs, perennial regular season overachievers and playoff underachievers, host the first game in the NBA's showcase event of the post-Chicago Bulls dynasty. (More on that later.) When Spurs legend George Gervin strolled to center court to toss up the ceremonial jump ball that commemorated the Spurs being the first former ABA club to reach such a milestone, it started setting in for me that my childhood dream was becoming a reality. The San Antonio Spurs were finally about to play in the NBA Finals.
Going into the series, we were heavily favored over our opponents, the New York Knicks. Because of the lockout-shortened season, the Knicks came into the playoffs with a more talented roster than their seed (eighth) reflected. They were able to use that talent to become the first 8-seed in league history to advance to the NBA Finals, dispatching the higher-seeded Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, and Indiana Pacers to grab the Eastern Conference crown. Nonetheless, with franchise cornerstone Patrick Ewing sidelined due to injury for the series, the Knicks entered the series as one of the biggest underdogs in Finals history. It didn't help the Knicks title hopes that not only were they facing the 1-seed from the West but the Spurs were marching into the Finals boasting a 10-game playoff winning streak (our last loss against the Timberwolves in Game 2 of the first round). Despite the long odds, New York came out sharp in the first quarter taking an early 27-21 lead after one. The Knicks were led to the early lead by Allan Houston draining midrange jumpers and Latrell Spreewell making aggressive moves into the paint. Not to be overshadowed, Tim Duncan hit the first shot of the series, a signature bank shot from the elbow and established himself early as the best player in the series. By the second quarter, San Antonio had settled into form taking an eight-point lead (45-37) into the locker room. The second half was more of the same of what the Spurs showed in the second quarter, playing the Knicks even in the third and then outscoring them 18-14 in a defensive masterpiece of a fourth quarter. The outcome of the contest was never really in doubt in the second half. When the dust settled, the Spurs were leading their first-ever NBA Finals one game to none with a commanding 89-77 victory. Another thing was clear one game into the series. A player had emerged to grab the best basketball player in the world title that had been vacated by Michael Jordan at the beginning of the calendar year. And that player's debut on the NBA Finals stage demonstrated a similar dominance to His Airness' debut.
On June 2nd, 1991, after years of Eastern Conference playoff disappointment, Michael Jordan finally had his first opportunity to showcase his talents in the NBA's premier showcase, the NBA Finals. His Airness did not disappoint that night putting up a jaw-dropping 36 points (14-24 shooting), 12 assists, eight rebounds, and three steals in a hard-fought two point defeat for his Chicago Bulls against Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers (93-91). Jordan's Bulls would go on to win the next four straight and his first championship, followed by five more chips over the next seven seasons. Fast forward to the end of the decade and the title of best basketball player alive was up for grabs following Jordan's retirement on January 13th, 1999.
In a similar demonstration of dominance on basketball's biggest stage to the player from whom he was snatching the mantle, Tim Duncan produced an epic NBA Finals debut. En route to earning player of the game honors, Timmy had 33 points (13-21 shooting), 13 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks. It seems weird in retrospect given that Michael Jordan's NBA career began in 1984 and Tim Duncan's ended in 2016 that these two "Finals debut" performances were a mere eight years apart.Another key performer in the Game 1 victory was David Robinson. After 10 years of playoff disappointment as the Spurs "number one" option, the Admiral graciously accepted a new role in the lockout shortened 1999 season as the team's second option and defensive anchor. It paid off in a big way because not only was this game Tim Duncan's NBA Finals debut, but it was also Big Dave's NBA Finals debut as well. While not the legendary Finals debut of his younger teammates, Robinson had a fantastic all-around game with 13 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, three steals, and three blocks. By the way, the Twin Towers combined five blocks in Game 1 does not do justice to how dominant the tandem was on the defensive end. They were dominant on that end of the court, disrupting numerous other shots while leading the way in limiting the Knicks to 31-81 from the field (.383) and only 77 total points.Finally, journeyman Jaren Jackson gets an honorable mention for his 17 point (6-13 shooting), two rebound, two assist, one steal performance. Jaren proved to be an important offensive spark plug off of the bench, hitting timely jumpers including an improbable, off-balance triple in the corner.
After the game, I remember leaving the pool hall in Austin beaming with confidence and bouncing off of the walls with anticipation. My long suffering, underdog, small market San Antonio Spurs were just three wins away from an NBA Championship. I remember being all smiles as I drove home to get some sleep that night after the game. I couldn't wait to see what would happen 48 hours later in Game 2. Friday night couldn't get here fast enough.
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