NBA Finals Predicitions

Who are you picking?

Game 1-Spurs over Knicks

Game 2-Knicks over Spurs

Game 3-Knicks over Spurs

Game 4-Knicks over Spurs

Game 5-Spurs over Knicks

Game 6-Knicks over Spurs

Knicks in 6

I second this. Knicks will get a split from first 2 games. Spurs won't sniff a win in New York,

New York Knickerbockers - San Antonio Spurs:

My head says if the Knicks win, it could be in a short series, and if San Antonio wins, it will be in a long series.

But, I'll pick Spurs in 5, with history repeating itself since 1999.  Something I thought was possible, over a month ago.

San Antonio

New York

San Antonio

San Antonio

San Antonio

MVP:  Victor Wembanyama

Special Trophy Presenter:  Greg Popovich

Summer Movie Promo Tie In:  Probably Masters Of The Universe, possibly SuperGirl.  But I'll go with The Death Of Robin Hood.

Devin Vassell will hit a game winner or game clincher / blow to the groin.

I second this. Knicks will get a split from first 2 games. Spurs won't sniff a win in New York,

Spurs are absolutely sniffing 1, 2, or 3 wins in New York.

Need the trophy presenter, mvp and summer movie promo tie in.

Worst summer movie tie ins were Fantastic Four in 2004 (which only showed the Lakers), and Grown Ups 2 in 2010 when they kept showing someone peeing in a public water park swimming pool.

Spurs are absolutely sniffing 1, 2, or 3 wins in New York.

I don't think so. I'm not being hyperbolic, I'm expecting the Knicks to crush them. They played twice in the regular season, NYK was up by 11 in the 4th and blew one game, the other game was a bludgeoning.

Knicks are playing their best basketball of the season. Not to diminish San Antonio's accomplishment of advancing, but OKC was missing their 2nd best player, plus had no production from Chet, and SA still just barely won - if those fortuitous, ill-advised 3-pointers didn't go in to start the final frame back to back to back, OKC was about to run away with it. There's a reason Spurs were crying after that victory.

Cool. I do think this will be a good series.

It would not surprise me at all if New York won the series.

I just think this will be like the Raptors Finals, in which there are 5 or 6 road wins in the series.

Patrick Ewing presents the trophy, Brunson gets the MVP and the movie tie in will be Masters of the Universe with Wemby and He Man having some sort of battle with Wemby as an alien

Nice.

I think last year's Karate Kid Legends as a movie promo is so versatile. You can show young Karate proteges, or legends, corresponding to young NBA teams, or older players. And the obvious references to finishing moves or "sweep the leg" or "crane kicks".

They didn't use it, but IMO it's one that can probably be used every year.

WTF are Shaquille O'Neal and Draymond Green doing wearing dark glasses. We need to see your face.

If you're a studio host, we want to see your facial expressions.

That would've been great. There is a new martial arts movie coming out this weekend called the "The Furious". Maybe there's still time to utilize it now that the Knicks can't sweep and the series will roll into the weekend

San Antonio up 12 - 2.

You know the rule. It's not a comeback until the trailing team has taken the lead.

New York has taken the lead.

104 - 105, 38.8 left in the 4th.

Hate watching these large blown leads by any team.

If that stat is true that San Antonio took 8 3's in a row, it just continues what I don't like about today's game.

Too many 3's.

Houston's 0 - 27 didn't teach anyone a damn thing.

Now this series can't have more than 4 road wins.

Is it just me, or are all of the movie promos being done by fast food (Wendys, KFC), instead of the NBA Finals?

Is it just me, or are all of the movie promos being done by fast food (Wendys, KFC), instead of the NBA Finals?

Yeah, reminds me of Subway in 1991 doing the Terminator 2 promos

But it makes for some good drama. That was a historical comeback

That seems like weird branding. A fast food that tries to pretend they are healthy.

They have since made a lot of concessions. They started selling Cinnabon churros.

Especially when you have the lead. I understand it if you're down 20 but when you're up over 20, you should be milking the clock and trying to draw fouls

But it makes for some good drama. That was a historical comeback

I hate it because you're spending the entire game watching mistakes.

During 67% of the game, it's one team making mistakes.

During the final 33% of the game, it's another team making mistakes.

People haven't mentioned this yet, but Wembanyama shot FTs like he was Mitchell Robinson.

As well as cheesesteaks and sandwiches with fritos on them

As well as cheesesteaks and sandwiches with fritos on them

Agree, good examples.

Good point. That's the flip side of the drama. It's mistake filled drama

I wonder if Wemby is starting to feel the pressure

Better drama is a game that has leads exchanged 7 - 13 times.

Because that means it's probably close throughout the game.

This is true. I guess I should say it creates 4th quarter and late 3rd quarter drama

Jalen Brunson man- what a dog. I'm not surprised- he's a true MVP-level superstar. He's just cannot be stopped, even by Wemby. So crafty, such a good shooter, and on defense he's able to hold his own, creating many turnovers poking the ball away. The Mavs are so dumb to not have re-signed him. I was hoping the Clippers would've gone after him but the FO didn't seem to have interest.

His dad was a solid journeyman and I remember him with the Clips. So quite touching to see Jalen and Rick share that embrace at the end.

I did not think Knicks would win the series, but man that is one heck of a TEAM, full of good shooters, defenders and rebounders.

Regarding the Clippers and this coming draft- I hope they don't let lack of size deter them from picking the best available player. Brunson is a perfect example of this.

Congrats to former Clipper assistant Mike Brown as well. He definitely out-coached Mitch Johnson. Spurs just struggled so badly in 4th quarters in this series, especially during crunch time. They could've won 4-1 but just kept choking.

Mitch Johnson got dominated on the sidelines. Fox is getting way too much forgiveness for playing hurt. He missed a critical bunny at every important juncture. It's pure Kings, Pels, Grizz, and Hornets basketball. The thing that really pisses me off about this title is that now this whole fleet of small Guards are going to be littering the NBA.

Brunson is a dog. He's SO clutch, and he wants the ball in the most critical moments. but David... I have to disagree. This guy can't stop a nosebleed. I can't remember the last time I saw him stay in front of anyone. Total Harden Syndrome.

Now, teams are going to be all over Acuff, Philon, Anderson, Okorie, Thornton... yuck.

Draft Acuff, and you'll never keep pace with the Point Guards around the West.

He can't guard any of them... and neither can Garland.

Very thankful that is over. This was hands-down my least favorite Finals to watch. I'm not sure what the league was going for, maybe they wanted a physical series? In my opinion, the referees just completely lost control. That was prison ball - reaching, pushing, hacking, elbows, chin shots all game long. If I'm allowed to play defense like that I'd be Defensive Player of Year.

In the end, the Knicks had closers and the Spurs didn't. Spurs are talented, but if they need a real closer, it's going to cost them $60M more per year.

We'll see next year if Wemby was simply immature, or if he's legitimately a dirty player. A no-name player would've been ejected 7 of those playoff games. Toward the end he was falling in love with sliding his feet under shooters. Dangerous plays.

I think the problem with the Clippers was that they were capped out while the Knicks had a ton of cap space. As for why they didn't trade for him, that's probably a tougher question to answer. The fact that Dallas didn't trade him tells me that they probably thought that they could resign him on the cheap and didn't see the Knick offer coming

Great point about the draft. The 5-10 part of the draft is tailor made for getting a smaller guard so this couldn't have worked out more perfectly for the Clippers

Congrats to former Clipper assistant Mike Brown as well. He definitely out-coached Mitch Johnson. Spurs just struggled so badly in 4th quarters in this series, especially during crunch time. They could've won 4-1 but just kept choking.

Good point. The good coaches don't let their teams blow 29 point leads

This roster is gonna get expensive. Wemby, Castle and Harper are all max contract players. They can probably keep Vassell around for $20 million and Bryant for a similar amount but I could see Champagnie getting a better offer elsewhere

This is why I take Flemings and slowly phase out Garland or at least trade him for something good

2025 NBA Finals had 29 lead changes. 2026 NBA Finals had 14 lead changes.

2025 also went 7 games. It was the better series.

Shaq made the Finals in year 3, but wouldn't win a title until year 8. It took a new team for him to win a title.

LeBron James made the Finals in year 4, but wouldn't win a title until year 9. It took a new team for him to win a title.

Anunoby should have won MVP, in this 5 game series. He also shot the ball more than 10% better than Brunson.

If this series had gone 6 or 7 with a New York win, I might have a different answer.

I'm still gonna give Brunson the slight nod but there is definitely a case for OG. He was better defensively than even Hart and shot the ball really well

Both SportsCenter and NBA TV had player interviews.

It's weird that the big media move of of offseason was for Inside The NBA to do the NBA Finals, and they weren't the ones doing all of the in studio player interviews.

Also, NBA TV barely covered anyone from the Spurs other than Wembanyama's postgame.

I'm going to have to undelete the SportsCenter postgame so I can see what some of the other Spurs had to say in their final interviews.

Yep, that's more fallout from NBA TV no longer being under the Turner umbrella. Let's hope the situation improves

I also get tired of Shaq only talking about scoring.

Shaq said he liked how Brunson had the mentality that he wasn't going to pass.

I don't even know if Brunson felt that way, but he kind of gave a non answer.

There is nothing wrong with feeling out the game and making the right play. Reading what the defense is doing and then deciding. There is nothing wrong with passing.

If Brunson did not agree, I would have liked for him to say "No Shaq, if I saw an open teammate, I was going to give him the ball if he had the best chance to score."

Or I'd like a player to say to Shaq "I wanted to be even better than you, and I'd do that by winning some defensive MVPs, something you never won and only finished in the top 7 once. I don't want to just score 30 in a playoffs game, I want to also be the defensive MVP."

I think Shaq was a great player. But as an analyst, all he talks about is shooting and scoring. He doesn't even talk about rebounding.

I'd like someone to say to him "I came out with the mindset that I was going to get 22 rebounds".

Kenny Smith and Barkley will talk about defense, or a lack of defense, at least.

Also when Mike Brown was coaching the Kings, he handed out a defensive MVP bling chain after every game.

I'm surprised he didn't do something similar with New York.

Probably has a lot to do with the fact that he didn't always give 100% on defense so he avoids talking about it altogether

Sounds like a great idea but depending on the value of those chains and with the ongoing aspiration saga, I'd be hesitant to do that here due to the possibility of salary cap circumvention

Sounds like a great idea but depending on the value of those chains and with the ongoing aspiration saga, I'd be hesitant to do that here due to the possibility of salary cap circumvention

Lol.

FYI, it was the same chain. Passed to the next player's defensive player of the game.

But, going with your train of thought, what if it was a multi million dollar watch? That could be a good way to circumvent the salary cap.

Yeah, I remember Mark Cuban allowing Dennis Rodman to live in his luxury back house at the Cuban mansion. It was estimated that rent at the backhouse would be around $3,000 a month so assuming he stays there for a year, that would be $36,000 for a guy making $1 million at that time