The Spurs lead for 173 minutes (72% of the time) over the 5 Finals games.
Trust me, I know
đ I know, you know, my cardiologist knows
I havenât had the heart to tell my cardiologist
Brother, my blood pressure shot up every damn game.
I just got my labs back, blood pressure is still boomin
I’ve watched all but 1 of the championships we’ve won live and now have watched 2 heartbreaking finals losses, why can’t we lose by just getting blown out or something lmao.
2013 collapse got softened because of 2014 but 2026 collapse I’m hoping the same will happen because holy shit even before the collapse happened I was not comfortable with the 29 point lead at all, that shows how bad we are at maintaining leads.
We got all the talent and skills to get a lead but we didn’t have the IQ and personnel to maintain it in crunch time.
Iâm a Cavs fan, and trust me getting blown out or swept doesnât feel any better. Itâs just as embarrassing lol.
Trust me I get it and it’s a very spoiled fan take of mine and I realize it but I just think I’d rather accept an inevitable defeat where we lose badly rather than close series and we just choke away multiple games.
Although yeah I do get what you mean not being competitive in the finals at all would suck in a very different way but its just my personal preference that if I watched a finals loss I’ll take the dagger straight to the heart quickly with getting outmatched rather than the slow suffocation that we did in this one lmao.
Like it’s BAD when I saw a 29 point lead and still didn’t feel safe or thought the game was in the bag.
Honestly, i think the issue was endurance. The Knicks are built to burn you down, especially Wemby. You have KAT, who is a threat to score from all parts of the court. He was keeping Wemby moving constantly. Mitch is the strongest person on the court and battling Wemby all game. And then you have OG who is just a supreme athlete.
The Spurs were extra cooked because the Knicks basically played the minimum amount of games and the Spurs were coming off a brutal 7 game WCF.
The Spurs play as hard as any team in the NBA, which is part of why they took such big leads. But they couldnt keep it up.
The Knicks did a great job of slowly building towards this. And when they got their opportunity they absolutely seized it. They learned and improved from the playoff losses that came first. Hoping my Spurs do the same.
the playoffs just exposes you, matchup by matchup. Harrison Barnes was a starter when the season began, he was DNP-ing in the Finals, a guy who played in 2 Finals and won 1 (and as a Warriors fan, he shit the bed in the 2nd Finals so maybe they were on to something lol)
Fox is getting a lot of blame (and honestly mostly deserved), but the Spurs win this title if Kornet could give them ANYTHING positive in that series. Wemby wore down in every game, and he did so cuz the coach had to keep his rests short cuz Kornet’s minutes were disastrous. Mitch could at least have tried Biyombo or Plumlee or even Kelly Olynyk, not saying they would automatically be better, but DAMN try SOMETHING, clearly Kornet wasn’t working, maybe in this matchup they might have unlocked something different. Richard Jefferson was on the call in the Finals, and in 2016 when Kevin Love got a concussion the Cavs went to Jefferson and his speed/athleticism played a difference in the comeback.
Mitch Johnson as much as any one player cost them the series, he didn’t tinker with his bench, he stuck with Fox/Kornet, he didn’t call timeouts to kill runs/momentum. his inexperience showed. extra-tall big men have a short shelf life in the NBA historically, people expecting Wemby to be in the Finals every season is wishful thinking, it was a miracle he made it through a playoff run unscathed. you HAVE to seize your chances when you get them, they’re going to rue this lost opportunity
Hope for you guys to win it next year, I enjoyed Castle, Harper and Wemby. Also, Knicks had relentless stamina these playoffs, not just the Spurs that suffered from their honey badger like toughness. They won by not losing.
Yeah the Knicks roster is fucking good, great even, Brunson could shoot like 0/1000 in the first 3 quarters and I would still fear that man in the fourth quarter, KAT is a beast and was the perfect type of big to negate a lot of his impact on both ends and OG is OG, feel like dude could’ve put up a 360 full court shot and I’d expect it to go in thats how good he was in this series
Just like that time we almost beat Nuggets without winning a single game.
Spurs up 1-0 morale victories
LMAO I had completely forgotten about the moral victory bit and “If I’m the Nuggets I’m treating this like a loss, I think the Lakers found something by putting Hachimura on Joker”
Like Chris Broussard saying Spurs outscoring the Knicks but the final score says otherwise lol
Fuck Darvin Ham. That mf was just watching the game courtside, not doing shit
He’s watching just like the rest of us!
“Hold up, this game kinda fire”
Contest without foulling
https://imgur.com/2yiCgqO
This was a close gentlemans sweep
Analytically yesÂ
Turns out final score not mins lead is the most important team stat in basketball
Thanks Magic
All this says to me is that the spurs couldnât sustain the effort they had through full games vs the Knicks which had slower starts but maintained the same level of play all game.
Even game 5 Spurs looked gassed at the end and the simple seemed hard for them.
Conditioning for 100 games esp at max effort through a max of 28 is not easy. Knicks vets def showed their experience in these tight games.
Knicks have had at least two conf finals back to back before breaking the ceiling. All that experience def came together.
They will learn from this. Playoff basketball is unreal effort and mental toughness esp when you can see the same opponent through 7 games each round.
The main problem is a lack of basic understanding from their coaching. When you have a big lead you should adjust your strategy to take more time off the clock and limit opponent possessions, instead they just kept doing what they did. Itâs basic basketball, something that felt common in earlier eras, but in this day and age of looking for the âgood, efficient shotâ teams have completely forgotten that score and time left are also factors into what makes a good shot.
Thatâs easier said than done itâs hard to turn off what got you the lead in the first place imo. They WERE executing well through the early parts of the game. High effort etc. But near the end can see these guys were gassed and making SMALL mistakes. Which is why Im sure of course they wanted to try to limit them to one shot etc, the spurs half court defense was always getting back and they limited a lot of stuff from the Knicks, but the Knicks kept attacking possession to possession.
The reality is a lot of the young guys for the spurs dont have go to moves to get a bucket like vets do and they def need more conditioning for a long ass season to minimize the small mistakes that swing a high stakes game. Most of their young core never had 90+ games before and a long season like that will kick your ass. Like you can see the difference between how Fox tried to get to his spots( which is why I think Mitch ran some plays for him to try and get a bucket) vs wemby,Harper etc. A lot of the guys more were staying in corners, waiting for passes playing the team game they are used to.
It worked well for them for most of these games playing a solid team game. But to get a bucket was missing for most of their young core Vs you can see Brunson knows what he wanted to get etc. Iâd say the spurs was probably the best defense the Knicks saw and it showed a lot but they made small mistakes that pretty much messed up every game they had. This probably the most competitive basketball these guys have seen in their entire lives.
Also the Knicks were doing the small things, played perfect down the stretch like even the 29pt comeback so many things had to go right. They played the games within the game well played in spurts that helped them a ton and the had a coach willing to put more guys into the game. IMO Mitch was afraid to play guys like Barnes and some other vets for some reason like those guys help calm the other guys on the floor a lot as well vs Mike brown throwing guys in to see what he can get for a couple mins.
I think the large leads made the spurs to comfortable, they werenât pacing themselves through out the whole game and the small mistakes became massive for them down the stretch. I do agree they(the spurs) stuck with their game all game and bit them but also guys need to develop more to get to their spots, and have go to moves.
LaMarcus Aldridge really had a great breakdown of this recently when he was saying first thing for a guy like wemby he needs a few signature moves that he knows no one can stop. Itâs the winning stuff that guys like Dirk, MJ, LeBron, Hakeem etc all have those go to plays when you NEED a bucket. It def will come but yeah.
Spurs could have gotten intentional shot clock violations in the whole second half of game 4 and probably won. Itâs not hard for a coach to instruct his team to run set plays designed to use more clock; to stop shooting quick threes. Also slowing down the game allows you to conserve energy, so if they were gassed then continuing to play fast is even more stupid.
Exactly. For example, Fox’s decision to go for the score makes sense in the first half but not with a 1 point lead and 12 seconds left in game. The Spurs played with no situational awareness. Winning by 20 or tied, early first quarter or seconds left in game, they treat each possession exactly the same. If 3 pointer is open, take it. No adjustments to base instincts at all.
I feel like it was very common knowledge in earlier eras, teams knew to slow down the game to protect a lead, they knew to immediately exploit a size advantage and run post ups. Feels like thatâs just not there with too many players and coaches nowadays.
Except for game 1, the Spurs were like 1-2 plays each game away from winning. Those are the margins it takes to win a championship. Grabbing a rebound out of bounds, fouling Brunson needlessly on grenade 3 pt attempts, missing late clutch free throws, throwing the ball of Castleâs back, Fox not running the clock out. The only big coaching gaff I noticed was on the OG tip-in, not having Wemby in the paint. They had him way outside the 3 point line guarding a shooter and had no bigs protecting the rim.
You donât lose a 29 point lead over a few plays. Thatâs an entire half of bad strategy and coaching. The problem wasnât missing shots, the problem was taking quick shots. Consistently losing big leads is not because of a few timely plays, it speaks to a coaching issue.
Spurs pretty much only won (or tied in game 1) the first quarter of every game, and lost the rest of the quarters. So thereâs a completely different angle that shows the Spurs werenât really a better team with some coaching gaffes. Knicks won the vast majority of quarters, just happened to come out slow.
Ultimately the Spurs were gassed and making simple mistakes. Yes there were a few possessions where they had a quick trigger on a 3, but thatâs not why the Knicks came back down 30. Knicks have been pulling off these big comebacks in the playoffs for a few years now; did it a few times to my Celtics too last year. I think itâs more of a function of the Knicks just being a better team but starting slow and finding a consistent level after the first 20 minutes. Spurs also came out white hot in a few of these games but itâs not sustainable over 48 minutes. Teams donât just change their whole identity in the middle of a game. When youâre in the middle of a finals game itâs not reasonable to just change from a youthful run & gun team to a slow possession oriented, methodical style. That will just result in quick turnovers, confusion, and completely ineffective offense.
This roster wasn’t supposed to compete for a championship, it was a year meant to get a feel for the playoffs before making actual moves. The lack of a true PF and bench depth that you can actually use in the playoffs was the real difference maker imo.
I don’t get why people don’t just search the thing they’re about to post to see if the exact thing has been posted or not. Though this is always fun to see so whatever lol
To be fair have you ever used reddit search?
Exactly lol you’ll get random posts and comments from 5 years ago mixed in with some ads.
The search function is terrible
Itâs only even sort of useful if you are looking for a specific key word
To be fair if you use Google and Reddit to youR search you will find more and faster.
Never use reddit to search stuff on reddit, googling whatever you want to search “+Reddit” and even “+the specific sub” usually gets you way better results than whatever the fuck is the abomination reddit calls a search option
Cuz you gotta pile on.
It’s first time I’ve seen it.
This is a misleading stat. The Knicks outscored the spurs in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters of the series.
Nobody is misled by the stat. Everyone is aware the Knicks ended up winning
I think the point is the Spurs dominated the first with a ridiculous effort and took leads. Then they gassed themselves out and lost the rest of the quarters. It was a poor strategy.
So even though the Knicks were behind, they won most of the quarters and won the series.
Not that any of this matters. Only the final score
Why lead many minutes when few do trick?
Very famously, the Patriots held the lead for 0 seconds of the 28-3 game. They were down the entire game, tied it to send it to overtime, then the game instantly ended when they got a TD in overtime
That’s why the narrative of pundits like Chris Broussard made me laugh. The Spurs are outscoring the Knicks. Lol ok but we’re the one winning games meaning we outscored the Spurs.
I mean the narrative is super simple. Spurs were the better team most of the game, just young and inexperienced. Knicks played great in the 4th because they were older and been through it before. What’s not to understand?
Because when you look at the games as a whole (aka what matter) the Knicks were the better team 4 out of 5 games.
> Spurs were the better team most of the game, just young and inexperienced.
Demonstrably false. The knicks were the better team in the series.
Spurs were the better team for the first quarter lmao. Where are you getting this most of the game shit?
Knicks were the better team.
They held the Larry OâBrien championship trophy for zero minutes.
Part of it was choking, you can’t explain losing when you’re up by 29 otherwise. But part of it was also the Knicks gameplan. It’s clear that the Spurs want to start quick, take advantages of those early Wemby minutes while he’s still fresh and then hold on to dear life during the non-Wemby minutes. Rope-a-dope’d the Spurs, got them tired by the end of the game so Jalen can take over and make those runs the Knicks are now famous for.
That’s what happens when you get 15+ point leads in the first quarter every game. You know what it also means? They beat you by more than that amount for the rest of the game time.Â
They know how to TAKE the lead, but they don’t know how to HOLD the lead. And that’s really the most important part of the lead.
I read this in “Jerry Seinfeld car reservation” voice.
Spotted them 15+ leads every game and still won in 5. Belt to ass in the final 3 quarters of every game
“At the end of the game, the team with the most points on the board is going to win.” The words of John Madden are pure facts.
It’s a good strategy don’t you think?
the final analytic win
Where was this in the Thunder series, honestly insaneÂ
This did happen in the Thunder series. We jumped out to a double digit lead in every game we lost to the Thunder that series (well maybe not game 5, I honestly canât remember about that one). And then in the close games we won we also jumped out to an early double digit lead those games too.
Also the Thunder eventually threw in the towel in those games, whereas the Knicks didnât
Tbh I donât think The Spurs beat a healthy Thunder team in 7 games. To go 7 without having your second and third best player is crazy in itself.
I’d even argue that Ajay Mitchell would’ve been enough to get by them.Â
Spurs didn’t have health the full series either. But I still think healthy OKC cleans up the Knicks easily. Wemby just absolutely sonned Chet.
The thunder gave up every time they were down 15-20 points in the 4th. Literally they sat their starters so they could rest.
So analytically, they are the NBA Champions? When is their parade?
This series was the plot of Rocky III. Let the Spurs come at you with max energy in the beginning and they are completely gassed by the end of the game.
They literally used full court press for the entire game 5 times in a row.
And when the buzzer hit 0:00 they didn’t 4 out of five games.
led
First time Iâm seeing that wow no one is talking about this
And yetâŚ
Yeah Iâd rather just get demolished than lose like that lol
They did get demolished in the 2nd half and 4th quarters of most of these games.
Idk man, our game 1 vs the Knicks doesnât feel any worse than games 2-4 lol.
It’s funny how a 48 minute game works huh
Knicks led when it mattered, 00:00
Oh wow this hadnât been pointed out yet
knicks won 80% of the games
i stayed up watching most of these games on the west coast and honestly every time the knicks made a run i thought theyd finally flip it. the spurs just have that poise man never seen them panic once
The field goal percentage chart for the Spurs this series is damning. Almost 60% in first quarter average and like 35% in the 4th.
People are very fixated on this seems to me that this indicates their play styles wasn’t sustainable for 48 minutes since it happened every game. It’s like a sprinter and a long-distance runner racing each other. The sprinter is going to get off to a big lead but the long-distance runner is just running at a pace that will maximize their performance for the full race.
Itâs literally the tortoise and the hare.
Itâs coaching, experience, and preparedness. One team looked like they had been building to this for a long time fixing mistakes as they go and the other looked like they were trying to just wing it.
Who cares? They lost in 5.
This is their version of âanalytically..â
This series reminds me of the nuggets/lakers sweep where the lakers would lead the whole game and then the nuggets would just cook them in crunch time
Is it really a lead when the other team has you exactly where they want you?
So analytically, they won.
Moveable object (second half Spurs) vs unstoppable force (Knicks down 20)
They played balls to the wall shutdown defense and it worked…but it also gassed them by the 4th quarter. The intensity of their press on brunson, pushing him out against the halfcourt line on every possession, running the shot clock below 15 by the time the possession truly started was a strategy the Knicks had not seen and worked until it didn’t.
The Spurs simply needed more depth to pull it off.
*led not lead
I watched the Los Angeles Kings beat the NY Rangers 4-1 in 2014 while leading for a grand total of 14 minutes and 32 seconds. Shit happens.
Knicks sent Spurs packing in 5 games, I call that a ass whopping
Who gives a shit. Stop glazing them. Knicks in 5!
closest a 5 game series could get without really being competitive
They were the better team, but the Knicks were better experienced, conditioned, and coached. Just goes to show talent and skill isn’t everything
They were the better team they just lost 6 out of 8 games to the Knicks this year.
No disrespect to the Knicks, I’m a firm believer that NY beating them in five is a huge fluke and robs the Spurs of truly accomplishing what theyâre capable of. I’ve spent the last few days in pure disbelief and it just doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve spent the entire regular season watching the Spurs play great basketball it’s just not fair.
If the Spurs lose again I will face that the Knicks deserved the win, but I am just 100% sure it was a fluke and does a big disservice to the Spurs and the NBA.
Thatâs the energy around hereâŚ
Generational choke artists. Build Fox a statue at the Garden omg.
Found a way to choke. Embarrassing
Only game 4. The rest you were simply outplayed.Â