Blowouts combed down, the New York Knicks tiptoed out of San Antonio with a 105-104 Game 2 victory, going up 2-0 in the NBA Finals, heading back to the crib hoping to secure their third consecutive playoff series sweep, this time, for the trophy.
I’ve heard “Cinderella” used to describe Mid Major teams making deep March Madness runs but the Knicks are truly the Cinderellas of sports, actually bringing brooms across the country, sweeping every team, in bed, cozy, no later than 12:10 AM. Rats everywhere. New York BAYBEEEE.
Game 1, we ran through the biggest winners and losers.
Today, let’s run through The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in the Knicks Game 2 NBA Finals victory.
The Good
The Mikal Bridges trade
Very few players master skills beneficial only to themselves. Mikal Bridge’s brain scans the dimensions of the floor differently; his game anchored in unlikely but unstoppable, sudden fallaway mid-range jumpers off the dribble, bottom of the net.
In Game 2, 20 points (8-for-13 from the field), 4 threes, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal—leading the Knicks with 41 minutes, after playing every single basketball game of his professional career.
At one point, Mikal made 69 of his 100 postseason shot attempts.
Leon Rose—the evil genius responsible for putting this Knicks juggernaut together from the non-existent potential of Kevin Knox and Frank Ntilikina—under scrutiny by the reactionaries, daring to trade 5 random ass first round draft picks, inevitably at the bottom of the round because the Knicks are good and will be for a while—in exchange for Mikal Bridges—drone-striking the rim as the Knicks are 2 wins from the cup.
Good luck to the Brooklyn Nets—who just had 5 first-round draft picks last summer. Took 5 guys, who, best case scenario, crush in the NBA coming off the bench. Brooklyn can have all of the Knicks first-round draft picks, for the next decade, they will not select a player better than Mikal Bridges right now.
Sorry, Egor Denim sycophants.
The officiating
Tony Brothers and his officiating crew decided—bout half way through the first quarter—they would call this game like the 1999 Finals—allowing the players to grapple all night.
This was only possible for the best two teams in the NBA, battling in the Finals.
The refs call this type of game in February, Draymond Green and Luka Doncic are ejected for calling the refs’ children slurs—the Pistons taking matters into their own hands, Ron Holland holding a player’s arms back while Beef Stew delivers body blows, court justice.
But the San Antonio Spurs are a professional basketball organization.
Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle were getting clotheslined out of the sky, lay-up attempts either ending in 2 points or a concussion—neither barked at a ref or took their frustrations out with nasty retaliation fouls.
The Knicks almost lost their poise in the 4th but none of the players or coaches took to the post-game press conference to complain about the refs.
Knicks scored 105, same as Game 1. Doesn’t matter if you call it tight or let them fight, Knicks get their buckets.
One of the most underrated elements of the NBA is the randomness of the officiating team. Sometimes, a staff will just come out of halftime without their whistles—shrugging at guys with bloody noses who cannot believe they didn’t just get the And-1, holding a dislodged Canine at an ump, dismayed.
Greatest sport in the world. So dumb. I love it.
But seriously, round of applause to the Spurs and Knicks taking the drastic shift in physicality in stride, without turning it into a storyline and discourse and slop.
They played ball on All-Madden difficulty and had an instant classic.
Real hoop. Nobody was “freestyling” off their iPhones.
The Bad
The officiating
I’m all for the physicality but it’s odd when technical fouls and flagrants are called sometimes but not unilaterally—considering both fouls have such game-altering ramifications.
Mitchell Robinson received a technical foul, wrestling for position with Wembanyama—in a game full of guys pushing each other.
The problem with the refs allowing players to shove each other is, at some point, they’ll need to step in to establish order, and if they can’t maneuver jumping into that double dutch correctly, the whole game’ll blow up, refs looking nasty for choosing one side over the other.
Being a referee is hard, but no sympathy for the devil. ACAB.
Jalen Brunson in hell
The refs deciding on-ball hand checking is legal, suddenly, not great for Jalen Brunson receiving paws and feet bringing the ball up the court—ground to dust by Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper delighting in towering over, manhandling the best scorer in the Milky Way.
Brunson got to his 20 points but on 7-for-25 shooting, a team-low -10.
Jalen won the game, hitting the free throw to give New York the 105-104 win, even on his worst shooting night, still the determinant factor of the Knicks destiny.
Knicks up 2-0 so who cares?
The Finals MVP is only a trophy eligible to the winners of the Finals. None of that shit matters until the Knicks win 4 games before the Spurs do.
The Ugly
Wemby no-look pass
The no-look pass is always risky but it’s most dangerous when the player receiving the ball is the one doing the no-looking.
Wemby’s costly turnover in the finals seconds of Game 2…
Tough. pic.twitter.com/96BRj8L5Aj
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 6, 2026
That season with Chris Paul in one ear, out the other.
The Spurs final play of the game
7 seconds left. Down 1. On the San Antonio Spurs roster, a 90-foot-tall giant who swats sparrows from the sky whenever he lifts his arms over his head.
Okay, what’s the play?
Mitchell Robinson had an amazing contest on this final jumper by Wemby (and on the prior shot too). Given how well KAT has defended Wemby it took guts for Mike Brown to make this shift. Perhaps he expected Wemby to pull up instead of driving. pic.twitter.com/4L8P60zwm7
— Kevin O’Connor (@KevinOConnor) June 6, 2026
Oh…
De’Aaron Fox wastes 3 seconds before anyone does anything, Victor Wembanyama pick and pop to one step within the 3-point line for a contested long two over Mitchell Robinson.
Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson, sweat raining down on the playboard, drawing up the worst play in Finals history, front row of Spurs fans needing to cover their ears, the sound of Mitch Johnson’s heart beating out of his chest thunderous.
Hack-a-Mitch strategy
Speaking of the Mitch’s, in the first quarter, the Spurs elected to intentionally foul Mitchell Robinson to prevent the Knicks offense from possessing the ball.
And they won those minutes. Cool.
But in a series where Landry Shamet and Mitch Rob are making a difference off the bench while Keldon Johnson and Luke Kornet are treading water, perhaps completely punting on their minutes, using them as fouls to burn, doesn’t generate confidence for the Spurs role players.
The Knicks played 4 bench guys with Mikal Bridges to end the 3rd and start the 4th.
The Spurs bench was used to foul Mitchell Robinson and pass to Dylan Harper.
I’m a firm believer a team’s lost the series when its strategy no longer involves playing basketball.
Knicks in 4.
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