Five players who will decide
the Spurs vs. Knicks title
Fifty-three years. That’s how long New York has waited to watch its Knicks play for a championship. Meanwhile, a 22-year-old French alien is about to make his NBA Finals debut — and Victor Wembanyama might already be the most terrifying player in basketball. Game 1 tips off tonight at the Frost Bank Center.
There are generational prospects, and then there’s Wembanyama. In Game 1 against Oklahoma City, he dropped 41 points and 24 rebounds — the youngest player ever to record a 40-20 game in the playoffs — then hit a 28-foot three to force overtime. The Knicks’ best answer is OG Anunoby, who anchored the NBA’s top-ranked playoff defense. No single defender can truly contain a player at this level, but Anunoby can make it costly. Expect doubles, help rotations, and Wembanyama making all of it look pointless anyway.
“They don’t know how much I love them, and everyone stepped up tonight.” — Wembanyama, after the Spurs reached the Finals
Key matchup: OG Anunoby + double-teams. If he plays like he has all postseason, San Antonio wins this series. Simple as that.
Every great Knicks team has needed someone to carry Madison Square Garden on his back. Brunson took home Eastern Conference Finals MVP honors, helping New York sweep Cleveland 4-0 in what some are calling the most dominant postseason run in NBA history. He won’t wow you with athleticism — what he will do is grind teams into submission with floaters, pull-ups, and elite basketball IQ. The key question: how he handles De’Aaron Fox in pick-and-roll coverage. If Brunson can get into the paint consistently and force help rotations, he opens the floor for Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges.
Key matchup: De’Aaron Fox in pick-and-roll — a legitimate defensive threat despite ankle trouble this postseason.
A rookie shooting 58.6% from the floor in the playoffs. He dropped 24 points in Game 1 against OKC without Fox (injured) and looked like he’d been in these moments before. Rookies in the Finals usually wilt — Harper doesn’t seem to have received that memo. He has an eerie calm reminiscent of how Cade Cunningham processes the game. If Brunson or Bridges is guarding him, the Spurs should be hunting that matchup relentlessly. The Knicks haven’t faced a backcourt duo quite like Harper and Fox all postseason, and the adjustment period could cost them a game or two early.
Key matchup: Brunson or Bridges — Spurs should target whichever is assigned to him.
Bridges hasn’t missed a single game in eight professional seasons. That’s not a streak — that’s a personality trait. His availability matters as much as his production. He arrived via trade two seasons ago and the fit has been seamless: a versatile defender who can guard multiple positions, knock down corner threes, and quietly put up 16-plus points per game without demanding the ball. In NBA Finals predictions conversations, Bridges tends to get undersold. But if New York is going to beat Wembanyama, it’ll partly be because of how Bridges and Anunoby suffocate Spurs role players and force everything through San Antonio’s star.
Key role: Limit the supporting cast’s clean looks, and even Wemby can only do so much.
Cut by Philadelphia, landed in San Antonio, set a franchise record with 195 made threes this season. Champagnie’s story is the kind of basketball journey that makes the sport genuinely compelling. He’s converted 46 triples in these playoffs — second only to Donovan Mitchell — from the starting lineup on a Finals contender. The Knicks must respect his shooting, which means Wembanyama gets cleaner post catches and Harper gets more driving lanes. Champagnie is the detail that makes the Spurs’ offense hum. If New York collapses too aggressively on Wemby, Champagnie will punish them.
Key role: Forces the Knicks into an impossible choice — guard the perimeter or collapse on Wembanyama.
The Spurs have a deeper, more balanced supporting cast than most appreciate. Harper and Champagnie are not just complements — they’re legitimate contributors who can take over stretches. That said, the Knicks’ 11-game winning streak is not a fluke. Brunson is battle-tested, the defense is elite, and the Garden crowd in Games 3 and 4 will be one of the loudest environments any of these Spurs players has ever played in.
Spurs in 6. Wembanyama finishes his first Finals with a performance people will be talking about for years — but don’t be surprised if this series is closer than that scoreline suggests. Whoever wins, we’re watching something rare: a Finals that genuinely could go either way, decided by a handful of players who all, in their own way, belong on the biggest stage in basketball.
