The New York Knicks are on the verge of doing something that has not happened in New York basketball since the Nixon administration. They are two wins away from a championship, and they did not need to leave Frost Bank Center to grab a commanding 2-0 series lead.
Game 1 was a 105-95 win, with Jalen Brunson scoring 30 points and dropping 13 of them in the fourth quarter alone. It was the kind of performance Knicks fans have been waiting on Brunson to deliver on the biggest stage, and he did it on the road in the Finals. That kind of clutch play has been the Knicks’ identity throughout this run.
Game 2 was tighter. The Spurs led for much of it before the Knicks closed it out 105-104. Victor Wembanyama had a chance to win it at the buzzer but missed. He also coughed up a turnover in the final minute that Brunson turned into the decisive play. It was the kind of inexperience moment you forgive a young star for, but the Spurs do not have time to absorb many more of them.
This was also the 12th straight playoff win for the Knicks. That ties them with the 1999 Spurs and 2015 Warriors as the only teams in NBA history to win 12 consecutive playoff games. That is the company they are now keeping.
The Spurs are in trouble for an obvious reason. No team has ever won an NBA Finals after losing the first three games. None. Zero. Going down 3-0 to a team this deep, on the road in Game 3, is functionally the end of the series.
The Knicks return to Madison Square Garden on Monday for their first home Finals game since 1999. The building is going to be loud in a way it has not been in over a generation. President Donald Trump is expected to attend, security is going to be tighter than at any game this season, and the city is going to be a wreck.
The 1973 championship feels like something out of a different sport. Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Phil Jackson. None of the people on this current roster were alive when that happened. The drought has spanned 53 years.
It ends, most likely, this week. The Knicks are deeper than the Spurs. They have more veterans. They have better playmaking. They have Mike Brown coaching circles around Mitch Johnson on the other bench. Every advantage points one direction.
The only thing left for New York is to actually finish it. Two more wins. They have done the hard part by winning twice in San Antonio. Now they just need to take care of business at home.
Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson all have a chance to add their names to a list that has been frozen in time since 1973. The Knicks will not let this opportunity slip away easily. The Spurs are going to need a different version of themselves entirely to make this a series.
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.
