Key events
And here’s the game report from tonight’s Game 1:
Funny how quickly things can happen in basketball. Someone might see the final score and think the Knicks cruised to victory, but it was only the opening and closing runs that gave them the win. Every other minute of the game was difficult.
We’ll have at least three more of these games. Probably more. The Knicks can’t sweep this series. Can they?
Thanks for following along, and thanks for your emails. See you for Game 2 on Friday.
Wemby finishes his first NBA Finals game with 26 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks, but he was 6-for-21 from the field and had six turnovers.
Stephon Castle was an encouraging part of the Spurs offense throughout and ended up with 17. Julian Champagnie and Dylan Harper each added 16 but didn’t do much after halftime.
Knicks win Game 1
What a run by the Knicks, who looked out of it on multiple occasions.
Brunson, twice apparently injured, ends up with 30 points. “It wasn’t really my night for most of the night,” he says.
Towns had 18 points and 12 rebounds while battling Wemby to a standstill on defense.
Josh Hart was 1-for-5 from the field, but Knicks fans won’t mind – he had 15 rebounds, six assists and four steals.
Anunoby is fouled right after the inbounds pass and hits both free throws. Knicks up 10.
Yeah, this is over.
Quick rewind –
2:16 – Wemby hits two free throws to put the Spurs up by 1.
1:50 – After a miss and rebound, Brunson hits a 3. Knicks up 2.
1:11 – After a Spurs miss, Bridges hits two free throws. Knicks up 4.
0:57 – Wemby loses the ball.
0:37 – Brunson makes a patient move and scores. Knicks up 6.
0:32 – Wemby misses a 3.
0:29 – Anunoby free throws. Knicks up 8.
And the Knicks challenged the out-of-bounds call, successfully. Then they call timeout. They can advance the ball to midcourt.
Knicks knock the ball out of bounds. Spurs call timeout.
Knicks 103-95 Spurs, 0:29, 4th qtr: Anunoby hits both.
Brunson! Drives, pivots, shoots, scores, Knicks up six.
Wemby misses, Anunoby is fouled, and the pockets of Knicks fans are going wild.
Bridges hits both. 99-95
Clock passes one minute. Hart steals from Wemby.
Knicks 97-95 Spurs, 1:11, 4th qtr: Wemby makes both free throws, and the Spurs retake the lead.
Anunoby misses a shot, but the Knicks get the rebound. Bridges gets the rebound and tosses it to Brunson, who hits a 3.
Fox misses, then fouls Bridges at the other end.
Knicks 94-93 Spurs, 2:16, 4th qtr: Brunson miss, Wemby miss, Shamet miss but Knicks rebound, Brunson misses, Vassell misses. Calm down, guys!
Shamet fouls Wemby. That call’s legit.
Knicks 94-93 Spurs, 3:24, 4th qtr: Brunson finally misses one, but Wemby manages to his both side edges of the backboard on one possession.
Champagnie is fouled after getting the rebound and goes to the line, where he makes one of two.
Anunoby misses as the Spurs again play tight defense.
Wemby drives against Towns, knocks him down and makes the layup. The foul is called on Towns, because in the NBA, a defender has to have his feet glued to the court to get a charging call. Wemby to the line for one, and he makes it. One-point game.
Knicks 94-89 Spurs, 4:48, 4th qtr: Mitchell Robinson draws the assignment guarding Wemby, and he stands his ground while an exasperated Wemby ends up traveling, like a sovereign citizen trying to get out of a traffic ticket.
The Spurs then clamp down on defense, and Wemby surprises the Knicks with a quick 3-pointer. Knicks call timeout.
We have 4:48 left. My prediction for actual elapsed time: 20 minutes.
Knicks 94-86 Spurs, 5:46, 4th qtr: A fan runs into the court and is quickly corraled by security. Possession was unclear, so we’ll have a jump ball. The Spurs win it, and Champagnie clanks a 3-pointer off the backboard. Brunson drives and hits a difficult shot. Knicks lead by eight, and Brunson has scored their last eight.
Knicks 92-86 Spurs, 6:34, 4th qtr: Wild drive from Harper puts Vassell in a tough spot, and he turns it over. Brunson drives, switches to his left and makes the layup. Knicks up six, and the Spurs call timeout.
Knicks 90-86 Spurs, 6:52, 4th qtr: The teams combine for seven substitutions coming back from the timeout.
Brunson puts the Knicks back in the lead.
Harper drives and is fouled before he can get a shot away. Castle tries to bull his way through the lane and gets nowhere.
Brunson drives the other way and is fouled. He makes both shots.
Wemby comes back in.
Knicks 86-86 Spurs, 7:37, 4th qtr: Anunoby drives and scores. Wemby tries a post move on Towns and puts up an airball.
Knicks miss. Wemby flings a rebound up in the air to himself and gets a putback bucket.
Anunoby hits a corner 3. Castle hits a short shot, and Anunoby hits another 3 to put the Knicks up by five.
Castle hits a 3, and then it’s Bad Possession Day at both ends of the court. Finally, Vassell ends the ugliness with a putback to tie the game.
Timeout, Knicks.
Knicks 78-77 Spurs, 11:09, 4th qtr: It’s a tip drill under the basket, and the Knicks wind up with possession. Shamet makes a reverse layup, and the Knicks have the lead.
Wemby draws another foul and hits one of two.
End third quarter: Knicks 76-76 Spurs
Harrison Barnes plays outstanding defense on Brunson and forces a turnover. Wemby drives the lane and pulls up for a floater … oh, I’m sorry, make that a dunk. How long are those arms.
McBride hits an improbable off-balance 3, banking in his shot from an acute angle. He gives a little shrug, almost apologetically.
Wemby misses a last-second 3 and this game is nicely poised.
Knicks 73-74 Spurs, 1:53, 3rd qtr: Ill-advised shots for Wemby and Brunson.
Fox draws a foul for San Antonio and hits one of two to give the Spurs the lead. Barely.
Knicks 73-73 Spurs, 1:37, 3rd qtr: The Knicks fall asleep on an inbounds play, and Vassell takes the pass for an easy dunk.
Brunson drives and is fouled – remember when the Knicks hadn’t shot any free throws?
Knicks 71-71 Spurs, 1:55, 3rd qtr: Offensive foul on Wemby, who doesn’t seem to have realized you can’t shove someone while you’re setting a screen. Imagine when he has the experience to cut out the simple mistakes like that.
Brunson floats one. Tie game.
Knicks 69-71 Spurs, 2:52, 3rd qtr: Dylan Harper is looking his father, Ron Harper. Maybe even like his father’s old teammate, Michael Jordan.
Right after I say that, Shamet hits a 3, and Harper follows up with an airball.
Tough bucket for Towns inside. Fox his a pullup in the lane.
Hart drives against Wemby and wisely decides not to let the ball leave his hands. McBride ends up launching a shot that misses, but Towns is there for the rebound. He put it in and is fouled. He makes the free throw, and it’s a two-point game.
Knicks 61-67 Spurs, 10:03, 3rd qtr: Towns hits the free throw.
Champagnie tries to drive through traffic, and Towns swats his shot away like a volleyball, leading to a Brunson bucket and a Spurs timeout.
All of a sudden, the Knicks have outscored the Spurs in this quarter. Aren’t basketball momentum swings wonderful?
Knicks 58-67 Spurs, 5:21, 3rd qtr: Wemby has taken a knock to his knee. He’s out for the moment, though he has already taken a couple of breaks in this game before that happened.
Harper spins one way, then another, then another, then another, then Ilia Malinin calls to say, “Hey, that’s my job.” Then he scores.
Bridges hits a jumper, and then Hart hits a free throw in a rare case of the shooter not being the one who was fouled.
Castle hits a floater.
Shamet scores on a nice feed from Towns. Spurs miss, and Towns drives in from the arc, scoring and drawing a foul.
Knicks 50-63 Spurs, 6:50, 3rd qtr: The Knicks have hit one of nine shots in the third quarter. The swing at the end of the first half must have completely deflated them.
The Spurs call timeout. What do you say in that huddle? “Just make sure they keep missing shots.”
Knicks 50-63 Spurs, 7:46, 3rd qtr: Anunoby has an open jumper in the league but is distracted by Wemby, and his shot doesn’t reach the rim.
How does Castle make these shots fall? He just snagged a rebound with his back to the glass and somehow made the ball sneak up onto the rim and fall through the net.
Knicks 50-61 Spurs, 9:03, 3rd qtr: Brunson shoots an airball. Castle drives at Towns, stops and puts up a difficult shot that rolls in to put the Spurs up 11.
Wemby trips Hart, and Towns gets a quick bucket upon resumption.
Wemby makes a post move at the top of the lane, and Towns fouls him. That’s his third.
And Wemby is now 8-for-8 from the line.
Knicks 48-57 Spurs, 10:03, 3rd qtr: A couple of misses as the teams retake the court. Then Wemby tries to drive, but the Knicks defenders knock the ball off his leg and out.
Another miss, then Towns fouls Wemby. The Spurs’ big man goes to the line again and hits his fifth and sixth free throws. He has more points from the line than from the field. His highlight reel so far this game would be a blocked shot or two and a bunch of free throws.
NBA stats-keepers chime in to say Dylan Harper‘s 10 first-quarter points are the most by a rookie in the first quarter of an NBA Finals game since they started keeping play-by-play in the 1998 Finals.
The NBA didn’t have play-by-play until then? I think we had it in college in the late 80s. (Yes, I really am that old. I just put on an air of immaturity.)
Rowan Sweeney writes: “G’day from cold and rainy Australia, Beau. The question mark for the Spurs vs OKC was could they win, or at least tie, the minutes while Wemby was sitting. Which, as it turned out, they could. It’s early doors, but the Knicks have flipped that, and have Wemby in the minus (at time of writing) and are losing vs the bench guys… A good augury for NY?”
Thanks to the late surge, Wemby finished the first half at +3. But Kornet is +4. Maybe we’ll have a battle for the starting spot the rest of this series.
(No, I’m not being serious.)
Stats
Somebody somewhere probably made some money betting that Julian Champagnie (15) and Dylan Harper (12) would lead the scoring in the first half.
Despite the name, Champagnie is not French like Wemby. He’s actually from Staten Island, which gives us our second reference of the evening to What We Do in the Shadows.
Brunson (11) and Towns (8) lead the Knicks in scoring, but they’ve had to fight for every point. Brunson is 5-for-15 from the field. Towns is 3-for-9. Jose Alvarado has a neat stat line – seven minutes, seven points.
Rebounding is nearly even: Knicks 27-26.
Halftime: Knicks 48-55 Spurs
Fox picks Brunson’s pocket at midcourt and breaks away for a dunk.
Knicks miss, and the Spurs hold for the last shot of the half. They give it to … Champagnie. Again. Corner 3. He has 15 points.
Bridges tries a heave from three-quarters of the way down the court, but Wemby is there to block it, which only gets the crowd that much more excited.
