This season’s NBA Finals offer an exceptionally compelling matchup.
On one side, the young, upstart San Antonio Spurs with a generational talent at the centre, that jumped from pretender to contender at a dizzying speed not seen since the Boston Celtics’ big three proved that anything is possible in 2008.
On the other, the team from the Mecca of basketball. The New York Knicks return to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, when they also played the Spurs, and lost. The Knicks last won a championship 56 years ago in 1973, and the City That Never Sleeps is teeming in anticipation of the opportunity before them.
But the champion eventually crowned — the eighth straight new champ, an NBA record — will be decided by the matchups within the matchup. The continuous chess-like adjustment game of playoff basketball that highlights teams’ greatest strengths and mercilessly exposes their weaknesses.
Will Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns carve up the San Antonio Spurs third-ranked defence with cunning drives and precise interior passing, while the team as a whole keeps hitting threes at a playoff-best 40 per cent clip?
Or will the Victor Wembanyama problem prove too difficult to solve? The gargantuan French centre could prove to be the undoing of the Knicks’ unprecedented playoff dominance (albeit against weaker competition).
Let’s look at five key matchups that the outcome of this heavyweight bout could hinge on.
The Knicks’ best-in-NBA-history playoff offence (123.3 offensive rating) is set to collide with a defender unlike anything we’ve seen before. It’s an unstoppable force-immoveable object situation.
The conventional wisdom would dictate that Towns — one of the best three-point shooting bigs of all time — camp out on the perimeter to draw Wembanyama out of the paint.
But there’s nothing conventional about Wemby.
Regardless of where the other team plays their centre — or any of their players for that matter — he’s going to play his game. And that game is a one-man zone in the middle of the floor.
Against the Thunder, Wembanyama was cross-matched onto Alex Caruso, leaving him open at the three-point line as he roamed off to wreak havoc all over the court. In Game 1, Caruso made a career-high eight of his 14 attempts from deep. All eight were wide open (closest defender six-plus feet away), and only one of his 14 attempts came with a defender within six feet.
Regardless of Caruso’s hot three-point shooting early in the series (18-of-35), Wembanyama and the Spurs stuck to their guns, and the Thunder guard went 1-of-9 as his team dropped the final two games. San Antonio is going to live with average-to-below-average career three-point shooters getting open shots. In fact, this is a desired outcome for them. And they aren’t going to waver if shots go in early.
This series’ Caruso is Josh Hart.
We’ve already seen other teams utilize cross-matching on Hart, who shot 41.3 per cent from three this season, but 34.2 per cent over the rest of his career.
How the Knicks choose to navigate Wembanyama’s otherworldly presence could make or break the series. Taking the open shots with their worst three-point shooters is playing into the Spurs’ hands. San Antonio could force New York into the first adjustment and make them go away from Hart. Landry Shamet is shooting 60 per cent from downtown, but the Spurs didn’t hesitate to have Wembanyama help off Chet Holmgren against the Thunder, and they won’t against Towns either.
Mitchell Robinson will reportedly be available in Game 1. Could the Knicks flip the script and deploy their bigs in a more traditional style? Using Hart — or whoever else Wembanayama plays off — as a screener on the perimeter could also open up offence.
Still, there’s no easy solution. And anyone who has one should apply for a job with an NBA team pronto. Towns shooting the leather off the ball could still buoy the Knicks offence, but it just isn’t going to change how Wembanyama plays.
Victor Wembanyama vs. OG Anunoby
Wembanyama presents plenty of problems, particularly for opposing offences, but he also led the Spurs in scoring throughout the regular and post-season on hyper-efficient 63 per cent true shooting.
If the Knicks can find a way to stop him, that would be a great start, and the best course of action might be an unorthodox one.
It seems counterintuitive to guard the seven-foot-four “alien” with a six-foot-seven forward, especially when other seven-foot options exist on the roster, but OG Anunoby might be best suited to take on arguably the most daunting assignment in basketball.
Since Wembanyama entered the league and began his ascent from mind-boggling possibility to mythologized superhuman — lore and all — 20 players have been his primary defender for over 100 possessions. He has the fewest player points per 100 matchups against Anunoby (h/t Caitlin Cooper).
We’ve already seen Wembanyama guarded by Oklahoma City Thunder wing Jalen Williams in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, and it didn’t go so well. The now-series MVP posted a 41-point, 24-rebound, three-block stat line that had only been done twice before in the playoffs — by Hakeem Olajuwon in 1987 and ‘88.
The Knicks will undoubtedly need to throw varied looks at Wembanyama, including a variety of matchups, aggressive help and doubles, but Anunoby still might be the best starting point.
Rim protectors often get the most recognition as defenders in the sport; nine of the last 10 Defensive Player of the Year winners are frontcourt players with sizeable block totals. But at a time where sweeping the back line and erasing shots at the rim is most valued, Anunoby has made his hay as an impenetrable on-ball defender.
The idea would be similar to the approach the Thunder took with Williams: Use a strong player with a lower centre of gravity to wrestle with Wemby and bump him out for catches as far away from the basket as possible. But Anunoby might just have the physical tools and wherewithal to do it. He was frequently asked to guard up against opposing bigs while on centreless Raptors teams and successfully handled the physically imposing Joel Embiid both with Toronto in 2023 and New York in 2024.
Add that Anunoby has an enormous seven-foot-two wingspan, nine-foot standing reach and the mobility to hang with Wemby on the perimeter, and he could be the perfect Alien stopper. Plus, his nonchalant demeanour is the perfect foil for Wembanyama’s heart-on-his-sleeve passion.
Brunson doesn’t make up the entirety of the Knicks’ backcourt, but he does account for most of its punch. Meanwhile, San Antonio has a veritable stable of guards capable of making tough shots, driving downhill, reading the floor, and making plays from within the teeth of the defence — the things good guards do.
Stephon Castle, De’Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Devin Vassell, provide the Spurs with a kings ransom of scoring and ball-handling options. And if Anunoby is busy dealing with Wembanyama, it will likely fall on Mikal Bridges to guard the Spurs’ lead ball handler.
But San Antonio has so many players capable of handling the ball, that doesn’t really solve the issue. Put Bridges on Castle? A simple second-side action could have Fox attacking Brunson. Far from ideal for the Knicks. The Spurs’ breadth of options here poses a significant problem.
Alternatively, while Brunson is a handful, Castle is fresh off playing relatively successful defence against one of the greatest scoring guards in NBA history, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Canadian superstar was held under 20 points twice in the Western Conference Final, which didn’t happen once in the regular season.
Even though Brunson is the best offensive player here, the flexibility provided by the Spurs’ backcourt depth seemingly tilts this matchup in their favour. It’s emblematic of how the NBA’s dynamic of top-heavy teams has shifted to squads without weaknesses in recent seasons.
Knicks transition lineups vs. the non-Wemby minutes
So far the Knicks have boasted the best bench units in the playoffs, while the Spurs have commanded their minutes with Wembanyama on the court.
Even while going through a gauntlet of playoff-tested juggernauts in the Minnesota Timberwolves and Thunder, Wembanyama posted a Western Conference-best plus-188 in the playoffs.
Meanwhile, New York’s best two units by plus-minus have included Miles McBride and Shamet, and those groups have won their minutes more than any other five players — other than the Spurs starters.
Moreover, the Knicks have scored more points in the paint (53.3 per game) on better efficiency (61.6 per cent shooting) than any other team in the post-season. However, opponents have shot just 45.5 per cent at the rim against Wembanyama and his 60 playoff blocks are the most since former Spur Tim Duncan had 62 in in 2007 — they’re also more blocks that the Knicks have totalled as a team this post-season (58).
It’s going to be immensely difficult for the Knicks to maintain that level of efficiency against Wembanyama. Instead, they’ll need to capitalize in a big way when he’s off the floor.
The Knicks’ experience vs. the Spurs’ youth
With an average age of 25.4, the Spurs are now the second-youngest team in NBA history to make the finals after the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers. Their core of Wembanyama (22), Castle (23) and Harper (20) are all on their first playoff run.
Conversely, the Knicks are the fourth-oldest team in the league (28.1) and have made the playoffs for four years straight.
The Spurs’ young talent seems overwhelming, but the cumulative experience the Knicks have gained over 10 playoff series shouldn’t be discounted. They’ve learned to counter — face guarding Tyrese Haliburton with Bridges while Anunoby guarded the Pacers’ secondary ball handler, Andrew Nembhard, in the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals; using Towns’ playmaking to shred the Cavaliers as they raised their line of defence in Round 2.
Making the right adjustment first can make the difference between winning and losing a game in a series, and the Knicks have plenty of practice.