Нью-Йорк Никс 53 жилийн турш үргэлжилсэн аваргын цомгүй цувралаа зогсоож, NBA-ийн түүхэнд анх удаа NBA Cup болон Ларри О’Брайений цомыг нэг улиралд хүртэх боломжтой боллоо.
Дасгалжуулагч Майк Брауны хувьд энэ замнал амаргүй байв. Тэрээр Кливлэнд Кавальерс, Лос-Анжелес Лэйкерс зэрэг багуудад ажиллаж байхдаа шүүмжлэлд өртөж байсан ч Сакраменто Кингс багийг удирдах хугацаандаа довтолгооны шинэ хэв маягийг нэвтрүүлж амжилтад хүрсэн. Никс багт ирсэн эхний улиралдаа тэрээр багаа аваргын төлөөх цувралд 3-1-ийн харьцаатай тэргүүлэх түвшинд хүргэлээ.
Цувралын тав дахь тоглолт айлын талбайд болох бөгөөд статистик харвал 3-1-ээр тэргүүлж буй багууд тав дахь тоглолтод 8-9-ийн харьцаатай хожигдож байсан түүхтэй. Сан-Антонио Спөрсийн хувьд энэ тоглолтод ялахын тулд будагтай талбайг хянах, гурван онооны шидэлтийг нягт хамгаалах, Виктор Вембаньямаг довтолгоонд илүү идэвхтэй ашиглах шаардлагатай байна.
Одоогоор финалын үнэ цэнтэй тоглогчийн (FMVP) сунгаанд О-Жи Ануноби 23.8 оноо, 58.0/55.6/91.7 хувьтай шидэлтийн үзүүлэлтээр тэргүүлж байна. Жэйлен Брунсон болон Жош Харт нар удаах байруудад бичигдэж байгаа бол Виктор Вембаньяма Спөрсийн хамгийн шилдэг тоглогчоор нэрлэгдлээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
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The next time we speak to each other, we may have a new NBA champion. The Knicks are on the cusp of breaking their 53-year championship drought. It would be the first “double” in league history, with New York winning the NBA Cup and the Larry O’Brien trophy. James Dolan would have to put a banner up for both.
What a journey
Mike Brown’s adaptation should be appreciated
I’m always fascinated by the assumption that coaches are who they are for the rest of their careers. Yes, sometimes that ends up being true. Coaches can be tyrants. Coaches can be stubborn. Coaches can be limited in how they adapt. But solid coaches will find ways to adjust to whatever is best for their team.
Legendary San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is a good example of this. Did you know that he abhorred the 3-point shot? And yet, he still worked it into his game plan — early and often — because it was best for the team. He talked about it early in the 2018-19 season when he was discussing the prevalence of 3s:
“I’ve hated the 3 for 20 years. That’s why I make a joke all the time (and say) if we’re going to make it a different game, let’s have a 4-point play. Because if everybody likes the 3, they’ll really like the 4. People will jump out of their seats if you have a 5-point play. It will be great. There’s no basketball anymore; there’s no beauty in it. It’s pretty boring. But it is what it is, and you need to work with it.”
That takes us to the Knicks’ Mike Brown, who at one point was viewed as a limited NBA head coach.
During Brown’s first coaching stint, he had incredible success with a young LeBron James (yes, he was young once) and the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005-10. The Cavs were 305-187 (.620) with a 42-29 playoff record (.592) under Brown, including a finals appearance in 2007 (they were swept). The knock on Brown’s coaching was that he had a genius mind for defense but ran uncreative offense. Any success on the latter end of the floor was credited to James, and the playoffs were used as examples of that.
His offense was stagnant, iso-heavy and too predictable. In his next spot, with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2011-13, Brown was fired after a lockout-shortened season (41-25) and five games into his second season. He wasn’t the proper voice with the gravitas to command a team full of stars in L.A.
He returned to Cleveland for a season and was then replaced by David Blatt when LeBron came back to the organization. Brown spent the next six seasons under Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors. Three titles later, he got his shot to be the latest coach to try to pull the Sacramento Kings out of the cellar in 2022-23.
And he did. He installed an expansive and high-octane offense, and the Kings immediately started winning. Brown led them to 48 wins (an 18-win improvement), the West’s No. 3 seed in the 2023 playoffs (their first postseason appearance in 16 years) and the best offense in the NBA. After the Kings went full-on Kings mode by firing him a season and a half later, Brown got the Knicks job.
In his first season, he has them one win away from the championship. As my friend Nic reminded our group chat, Brown has experienced so much chaos in his coaching career:
- LeBron’s 25 straight points against Detroit (2007): The 22-year-old did that against a Pistons team that made six straight conference finals.
- Fired to keep LeBron: In trying to get LeBron to re-sign during The Decision, the Cavs fired Brown and hired Byron Scott.
- Lakers chaos: Brown coached a week of Kobe Bryant-Dwight Howard-Pau Gasol-Steve Nash before being fired in 2012.
- Fired to get LeBron back? After the 2013-14 season, he was fired a month before the Cavs hired Blatt, which was three weeks before James came back to Cleveland.
- The Draymond-KD incident: Draymond Green went off on Kevin Durant in 2018, and that seemed to lead to KD leaving the Warriors in the summer of 2019.
- Warriors 2019 finals injuries: He was an assistant coach when Durant and Klay Thompson suffered massive injuries in Golden State’s Finals loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Wait, I feel like I’m forgetting one more critical event … Oh, yeah!
He was an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers during the Malice at the Palace! Brown has had an incredible journey. The Knicks have already had the second-longest playoff win streak in league history (13 games) and the biggest comeback in finals history (29 points). He’s earned every bit of praise as he’s adapted and grown through it all.
The last 24
☀️ Heat-seeking? Is Giannis Antetokounmpo close to being traded to Miami? The Bucks may have other suitors.
🏀 Historic comps. The 2026 NBA is viewed as a loaded one. How do the top four prospects compare to the best ones Sam Vecenie has ever evaluated?
🏀 New blueprint. The Knicks, with their lack of a true dominant star, are illustrating a truth about the NBA: The nature of title contention is changing, John Hollinger writes.
🆒 Chill under pressure. OG Anunoby has never offered much outward display of emotion. That mindset might be perfect for this moment.
😡 Ignore the idiots. There have been a few dummies doing dumb stuff around the finals. It’s the only blight on a great series.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!)and catch out-of-market games onLeague Pass.
The Impossible?
What would a Spurs’ comeback look like?
I went back through all of those finals to see what it looked like for the teams who were up 3-1 but had to play Game 5 on the road, like the Knicks will do tomorrow. Funny enough, that’s one of the harder ways to close out something that is successful 97 percent of the time. Teams up 3-1 on the road for Game 5 are 8-9 in that game. They normally win Game 6 at home, but that Game 5 on the road is extremely difficult.
The eight teams who closed it out in Game 5 on the road are the 1953 Minneapolis Lakers (we all remember that), the 1973 Knicks ( 👀), the 1979 Sonics (bring them back!), the 1990 Pistons, the 1991 Bulls, the 1999 Spurs (over the Knicks), the 2001 Lakers and 2009 Lakers.
Some really good teams have lost Game 5 on the road up 3-1 but still went on to win the title. The 1948 Bullets, 1949 Lakers, 1950 Lakers (OK, this used to happen a lot), 1982 76ers, 1986 Celtics, 1987 Lakers, 1996 Bulls, 2000 Lakers and 2008 Celtics all failed to close it out on the road. So what do the Spurs have to do in Game 5 to delay what feels inevitable?
Control the paint: The Spurs got kind of lazy/tired in the second half of Game 4 and started chucking a bunch of 3-pointers. We didn’t see a lot of good looks. As a result, the Spurs had just 28 points in the paint on 14-of-33 shooting. That’s terrible. It was the only game in this series that they had fewer than 42 points in the paint.
Guard the 3-point line: San Antonio allowed the Knicks to shoot 11-of-20 from 3-point range in the second half of Game 4. You know that super-tall French guy on the team? Try to keep him on the back line of defense and overplay the 3-point line to funnel to him.
Put Victor Wembanyama in the paint: He has to dominate the rim on offense too. Wemby is at his best when he’s making your big men feel inadequate around the basket. He can shoot a couple of 3-pointers when they make sense, but he has to be at the rim and at the free-throw line. If he’s venturing out away for too many jumpers, you might as well rope off the court and get the champagne ready for New York.
Finals rankings
Who is The Bounce’s finals MVP so far?
We’re now four games into the finals, and we’re on the verge of seeing a finals MVP named. We’ve been ranking 10 players from the series, but we’re cutting it down to a ballot of five. If the Spurs extend the series, we’ll circle back on Monday with updated rankings. But with potentially one game left, this would be The Bounce’s finals MVP list.
5. Karl-Anthony Towns, Knicks 📉: Great start to the series, but he’s an honorable mention at this point. With a championship ring, he’d be just fine with that.
4. Wembanyama 📉: He’s been the best player for the Spurs, obviously. But he’s not close to a Jerry West “winning it on the losing team” situation.
3. Josh Hart, Knicks 📈: Hart has been tremendous in this series, but it’s not enough to steal the award.
2. Jalen Brunson, Knicks: My money would be on Brunson winning it, but I think his struggles on offense for about half of this series are noteworthy. We could have a Steph Curry-Andre Iguodala situation.
1. Anunoby 📈: Aside from the first three quarters of Game 1, Anunoby has been the best and most consistent player. He has the biggest moment so far. And he’s averaging 23.8 points on 58.0/55.6/91.7 shooting splits. That’s a 78.4 percent true shooting, with great defense to go with it.
