For a lot of the season, the concept of being topped Japanese Convention champions has felt virtually ceremonial. Like a title handed out as a formality — a tribunal providing to the reigning champion Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder earlier than they feast on their subsequent opponent en path to back-to-back NBA titles.
That assumption wasn’t baseless. The Thunder’s absurd 24–1 begin tied the Golden State Warriors for the very best 25-game opening in NBA historical past, a statistical sledgehammer reinforcing the notion that everybody else was merely taking part in for second.
Then one thing occurred over the weekend. One thing small, however seismic.
The Thunder misplaced. They misplaced of their highest-pressure recreation of the early season. They misplaced whereas absolutely wholesome. And so they misplaced to a San Antonio Spurs workforce that had Victor Wembanyama on a minutes restriction.
Instantly, the mathematics modified. Not only for December. However for April. Could. June.
The loss cracked the phantasm of inevitability. It reopened a door that many across the league had already sealed shut. Perhaps Oklahoma Metropolis isn’t impervious. Perhaps this season isn’t preordained. And perhaps — simply perhaps — profitable the East not looks like a hole prize.
Which brings us to the Knicks.
If beating the Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic to succeed in the NBA Cup Remaining is proof of New York strolling the stroll after years of championship discuss, then Oklahoma Metropolis failing to even attain the ultimate is proof that the mountain isn’t unclimbable. The Thunder stay the gold customary. However they’re not untouchable.
And if a Western Convention workforce can knock them off — even in a single-elimination setting — then the Knicks’ title hopes aren’t theoretical anymore. They’re actual.
On Tuesday, the Knicks gained’t face the preseason favourite. They gained’t face the league’s regular-season juggernaut. They gained’t face the workforce chasing historical past.
They’ll face the very best out there workforce. That workforce is the San Antonio Spurs. And are available June, it could possibly be anybody.
For now, the Knicks have an opportunity to hold one thing tangible. No, an NBA Cup banner isn’t the final word objective. And sure, on this franchise’s sadly comical historical past, it’s going to sit subsequent to Atlantic division banners fairly than championship ones.
However banners matter on this constructing — and the Knicks haven’t had many alternatives so as to add new ones over the previous half-century.
To do it, they’ll should clear their hardest check but.
The Spurs aren’t any fluke. An 18–7 begin, a semifinal win over the reigning champions, and sustained success regardless of Wembanyama lacking half the early season all level to a workforce forward of schedule. They’re younger however disciplined. Explosive however organized. A mix of expertise and IQ that also carries the fingerprints of the Gregg Popovich teaching tree, with Mitch Johnson steering the ship.
They’re formidable. However they’re not Oklahoma Metropolis. And that issues.
The Knicks don’t have a single clear reply for Wembanyama. Nobody does. However with OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Mitchell Robinson, they’ve choices. Miles McBride (ankle) and Landry Shamet (shoulder) are sidelined, which complicates matchups towards Stephon Citadel, Dylan Harper, and De’Aaron Fox on the perimeter — however Bridges and Anunoby simply handed back-to-back postseason stress checks towards elite wings final spring.
After which there’s Jalen Brunson. New York’s trump card. The nearer. The participant who has the final phrase after everybody else has spoken. Brunson dropped 40 towards Orlando with the season’s strain dialed all the way in which up, as a result of strain has a means of sharpening his recreation fairly than dulling it. His factors are up this season regardless of his time on-ball being down.
The stakes gained’t get greater than this — no less than not till the playoffs.
Tuesday’s NBA Cup Remaining is the Knicks’ largest recreation for the reason that final time they stood on the point of hanging a championship banner. That was 25 years in the past, and it’s been greater than twice as lengthy for the reason that Knicks truly gained all of it.
The Knicks solely had a puncher’s likelihood coming into this season. Theoretically, they nonetheless dp. OKC will stay the favorites to go back-to-back even after their loss to the Spurs, as a result of anybody can beat anybody on any given night time. Profitable 4 out of seven towards these Thunder could possibly be the closest factor to a basketball impossibility.
So was beating them on Saturday night time. And with the reigning champs out of the image, one can solely think about what it’d appear like ought to they be clear from the deck in July.
That appears like an actual likelihood, and if the Knicks can seize it — starting in Las Vegas, if they will get out of dodge with the {hardware} intact — it might not simply validate their December run.
It’d foreshadow one thing a lot greater ready later down the highway.
“Being in an environment like this, it’s a great experience for all of us, especially having the feel of a single-elimination game,” mentioned head coach Mike Brown. “There was no, ‘Hey, let’s go get them tomorrow,’ or, ‘Let’s figure it out.’ Everybody kind of hangs on to that during the course of the game,”
