The 2026 NBA Finals get back underway Friday night at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, and the Knicks have a chance to do something the league has not seen in years. They can go up 2-0 on the road in the NBA Finals.
Game 2 tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC. The Spurs are favored by 5.5 points. The over/under sits at 214.5. Las Vegas is treating San Antonio like a team that should win comfortably at home, which makes sense. Game 1 was the kind of upset that has the entire basketball world recalibrating.
The Knicks took Game 1 by a 105-95 final. They erased a 14-point third-quarter deficit. Jalen Brunson dropped 30 points with 13 in the fourth quarter, including the dagger jumper that sealed the win. New York is now 12-0 in this postseason, which is one of the wildest streaks in modern playoff history.
If the Knicks win Friday, they will become just the second team to ever win 13 straight in a single postseason, joining the 2016-17 Warriors. Even more important, only two teams have won the first two games of the Finals on the road and gone on to lose the championship. The 1993 Bulls and the 1995 Rockets both won Games 1 and 2 on the road and went on to win it all.
For the Spurs, this is a moment that defines whether their season ends as a coronation or a cautionary tale. They have the best young player in the world in Victor Wembanyama. They have home court. They have the experience of going seven games against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals and surviving. They cannot fall behind 0-2 at home and still be considered the favorites.
Wembanyama said after Game 1 that he was not worried. Twenty-one-year-olds are not supposed to look as composed as he does in moments like this, but he has been built for it. The question is whether he can carry an offense that struggled to find consistent secondary scoring in the opener.
Devin Vassell shot 3-of-12 in Game 1. Chris Paul looked older than he has all season. The Spurs role players let the Knicks switch everything and dare them to make shots, and they did not make enough of them. That part has to change Friday or the series is going to be in real trouble.
The Knicks adjustment that worked in Game 1 was simple. They switched everything, sent extra bodies at Wembanyama on the catch, and trusted that Karl-Anthony Towns could occupy the paint long enough for Brunson to get loose on the perimeter. It was a textbook game plan, and it executed flawlessly.
Mike Brown is in his first NBA Finals as a head coach. He is going to need to adjust to whatever the Spurs throw at him in Game 2. Expect San Antonio head coach Mitch Johnson, leading a Spurs team in transition, to come out with a different defensive look for Brunson and a different offensive scheme to free up Wembanyama for easier touches.
The Knicks are dealing with injury concerns too. Brunson tweaked something in Game 1 but stayed in the game. OG Anunoby has been carrying a heavy defensive load. Mitchell Robinson’s minutes have been limited by foul trouble for most of the postseason. None of that has slowed New York down, but a long series will test the depth.
Friday night will tell us whether Game 1 was a fluke or the start of something historic. The Knicks have not been this close to the title in a generation. The Spurs have not lost in this round since 2014. Something has to give.
Expect a physical game, a tight whistle, and a Brunson moment in the fourth quarter. The Knicks have earned the benefit of the doubt.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
