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When the book is written on this N.B.A. season—imagine a Dostoyevsky novel—there will surely be a long disquisition on Game One of the Finals, in which the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs on the road and demonstrated the value of experience, and a chapter on Game Two, a game that seemed to contain a dozen different games, each one more desperate and improbable. And when the story is told of the Knicks’ second-straight win over the Spurs, by a score of 105–104, it will probably feature the usual protagonists: Victor Wembanyama and his sesquipedalian limbs, Jalen Brunson and his unparalleled sense for the moment, Karl-Anthony Towns (Karl-Anthony Towns!) and his powerful versatility. It was Wembanyama’s heroics in the second half that dragged the Spurs back into the game, and Wembanyama’s gaffe in the closing seconds that lost it. Brunson, smothered by the Spurs’ tenacious defense, missed shot after shot, but—clutch as ever—tied the game at 104 with an off-kilter jumper, then was in the right place to make the game-winning play when Wembanyama threw the ball away, and scored the game-winning point. And Towns, whose movements were mesmerizing, was the fulcrum.
But, please, let there be a section on Mikal Bridges.
It is Bridges, after all, whose stint with the Knicks sometimes seems like a microcosm of the franchise. In 2023, the team traded four unprotected first-round picks to the Brooklyn Nets—along with a top-four protected first-round pick from the Milwaukee Bucks, an unprotected pick swap, a second-round pick, and the veteran Bojan Bogdanović—to get him. His appeal was obvious: he was a relentless defender, an excellent shot creator, and had a certain gravity on the court. He ha
the Spurs, by a score of 105–104, it will probably feature the usual protagonists: Victor Wembanyama and his sesquipedalian limbs, Jalen Brunson and his unparalleled sense for the moment, Karl-Anthony Towns (Karl-Anthony Towns!) and his powerful versatility. It was Wembanyama’s heroics in the second half that dragged the Spurs back into the game, and Wembanyama’s gaffe in the closing seconds that lost it. Brunson, smothered by the Spurs’ tenacious defense, missed shot after shot, but—clutch as ever—tied the game at 104 with an off-kilter jumper, then was in the right place to make the game-winning play when Wembanyama threw the ball away, and scored the game-winning point. And Towns, whose movements were mesmerizing, was the fulcrum.