It’s more of a pattern recognition thing after blowing the 29 pt lead

It’s a big enough lead to win most of your games. There’s a reason nobody other than the Knicks has a winning record when being down that much.

Nobody has. Thats why OP’s example is of a 22 point lead and the 29 point deficit they overcame gets all the attention not the other 10-15 points they overcame in every other game.

That’s facts.

I was more highlighting the 53-31 run over an 18 minute span. It’s very similar to what the Knicks did multiple times in these finals.

the finals were not the modern NBA, it was a 90’s throwback with the amount of physicality allowed. The scoring was way down and every point and basket was excruciating difficult for both teams. I was actually saying that’s what made these comebacks MORE impressive.

Agreed. 10-12 is nothing. But in both of the WCF and Finals, the Spurs took their foot off the gas in the majority of games. Game 1 they were up by nearly 20 in the 3rd and lost. Less we forget they were up 15-0 against the Thunder and lost.

I’ve never seen a team come out so red hot and then just start spamming 3s with double digits left on the shot clock. Mitch should have yanked Fox in almost every game. And I still don’t know why the 6MOTY got so few minutes.

Seeing the stats graphic “7-0 run in 2 minutes” was so dumb to me.

modern standards shouldn’t be applied to the finals. A 15 point lead in a mid 90s scoring match is much bigger than one in the 110s.

Math is hard

I believe a 10 point lead at halftime gives you about a 65-70% chance to win the game. It is bonkers how the Knicks keep coming back.

This is also true. 15, maybe even 20 is the new 10.

It’s not in an individual game, blowing them as consistently as the spurs have this season is an outlier.

Yeah what’s more impressive is the 53-31 run

Because if you are a good team, it should be.

in the third it’s statistically significant at least, I would bet. Later in the third especially. Though even nowadays it’s can be surprising how fast it can go away compared to before where it felt like a bigger lead

Stop deflecting. The Knicks are just comeback merchants, plain and simple.

Even in the old league 10-12 points was not insurmountable either. Certainly less so now but going down 10-12 is not that bad a deficit to overcome

That and/or the Knicks love making comebacks. Don’t forget they also came back down 20+ to the Cavs in the ECF

Not really specific to just the spurs.

Knicks were the best 4th quarter team all year and it wasn’t close.

+11.7 net rating in the 4th. Next best was the pistons at +8.

Spurs were 11th at +3.2

Playoffs more of the same. Knicks 1st at +14.6, Spurs 9th at -1.8

Is it choking when you only win the first quarter and lose the other three? Or is it just getting off to a hot start that you can’t sustain against a good team?

NBA finals by quarter:

1st: Spurs +57

2nd: Knicks +29

3rd: Knicks +14

4th: Knicks +26

Not sure it’s really “choking” anymore when it happens every time as much as it is just a result of how the teams are constructed, their conditioning, and play style

The teams need to take the nba cup seriously. It is a measuring stick of where you stand.  The spurs fo should’ve gotten more vet bench help at deadline to give starters a breather and help with these runs they give up 

They simply love to choke.

The Knicks own the spurs

San Antonio women always choke to New York glizzies. 🌭

more of a knicks state than spurs

Knicks are the best comeback team in the League

I wonder what the cumulataive stats of having a 11 point lead and losing would be. I bet it’s not like it was in the past, 11 points in the 3rd quarter is not exactly a blowout.

Young players not pacing themselves, it’s a marathon not a sprint.

Say what you want about Thibs, but he made them team with best stamina in the league, while Brunson is naturally relentles and just doesn’t give up.

And Brown was perfect in utilising it.

We held huge leads in games 1-5 and only kept 2 of them

I think there’s a psychological element at this point. When you start to believe that the other team has some supernatural edge or perhaps even divine intervention, you act in a way that fulfills your own fears.

Even Indy blew a 20 point lead at home to the Knicks last year. It’s just a footnote in that series for obvious reasons.

Yeah, we had basically six players who were consistently playable in the Finals (Wemby, Harper, Castle, Champagnie, Vassell, Fox*). We got very little out of Johnson, Bryant couldn’t stay on the floor, and Kornet is Kornet. No wonder everybody’s shots kept hitting the front of the rim every fourth quarter. Contrast that with NYK who legitimately could give their 8th and 9th guys meaningful minutes.

it’s poor coaching more than choking imo. you can hold onto a 29 point lead by game pace control alone.

To be honest 32 miles per gallon is pretty good fuel efficiency for a vehicle that big 

I completely forgot about them winning the NBA cup. It’s wild how historic of a year it is for them. Even more so when you begin the playoffs down 2 games to the Hawks.

It’s only been three years that it could happen, it’s not that wild lol

It kinda felt like the Knicks strategy was to essentially let the Spurs burn themselves out early (hence the early big leads) then kick it into gear when the Spurs are too tired out to keep up.

Idk about holding back plays, but there is an argument that the Knicks consciously chose to allow the Spurs to punch themselves out of games. Wasn’t there some stat that the Spurs were the best first quarter team in the league this year or something?

Seemed like Brown basically told the guys to let them blow their loads (pause) and then we punch back to end the game.

There’s a channel on Youtube called Hot Hand Theory that does very in depth analysis of the Xs & Os of this series. My key takeaway is that Mike Brown is very willing to adjust and use different lineups. This, along with some poor play / bad luck for the Knicks in the first half (foul trouble, turnovers, Spurs hot shooting) led to the same pattern over and over again.

For the difference is that Knicks now what to run when the going gets tough and the Spurs don’t.

There is a reason why young teams almost never win. Think of how many minutes the Knicks core has played together in crunch time. Yes, we all know Brunson will have the ball – but everyone else knows their role, they know what to do if he gets trapped, they know his spots, they know when to crash for a potential rebound.

Spurs looked scared in the clutch and during blown leads. Yes, Fox is a veteran – but how much clutch experience do Fox, Wemby, Harper and Castle collectively have? Jalen, Josh and OG have been playing together for two years now.

I think he said “They don’t play a brand of basketball as sophisticated as the Miami Heat or the Thunder. But their physicality is top in the league, so it’s a very tough team to play against”. Which he probably meant that the Knicks play a lot of Iso ball instead of teamplay, which I feel you would agree back in December the Knicks relied heavily on Brunson Iso ball.

There’s a lot to be annoyed at Wemby with after these playoffs but the fact that he’s willing to answer questions in his second language, when too many players avoid it even though they speak good enough English for fear of being misinterpreted, is very admirable.

I can’t fault him for choosing the wrong words at times.

I was pleasantly surprised to see it. Still doesn’t feel real.

an entire season of this??? HNNNNGG

Fox in the knickhouse

Probably knew that forcing Wemby to the outside on defense and make everyone bump into him while he tries to roll to the basket is key to gassing him.

This is basic tactics vs playoff rookies. Make it feel like the subway when the door opens but they are furthest from the exit when it comes to the paint.

If they are outside shooters, make them fight to the best screens, wait until they are gassed and keep making them defend lesser players with fresh legs.

They’ve had it all playoffs at the very least. They routinely let go of double digit leads that they got early. The worst example pre finals was when they started a game 15-0 vs the Wolves and ended up losing by like 10

Between the Spurs tendency to blow early leads, the Knicks ability to come back from the largest of deficits, the fatigue factor, the experience factor and NYK overall being a bad matchup againt San Antonio, I’m shocked as many people picked San Antonio to win the finals as they did.

And I’m saying this as someone who was supporting them in the finals wholeheartedly

DoMiNatED. AbSOLutELY doMINaTEd.

All season, unless you watched ever game most wouldn’t know that…

If the Spurs played the first half of game 4 the entire game they’d be the greatest team of all time. But if my aunt had wheels she’d be a bike

Their defense is great but their shooters get gassed due to no bench and Wemby gets gassed due to bad conditioning. So by the time it’s the 4th quarter, they can’t score any more points.