Well Played Knicks
Going into the series, I thought "easy work for the Spurs". We had just witnessed the Spurs topple the goliath Thunder1 in OKC with a strong Wemby performance and a heater of a game from Champagnie. Seeing the defending champion Thunder heading back to the locker room, and announcers stating that the Spurs will be hosting the Knicks for Game 1, it was easy to get caught up in the power of the western conference. I heard arguments that the Knicks beat the Spurs during the regular season and in the NBA Cup, but I ignored them.
"The playoffs are different" I thought.
And they were.
The lights were too bright. For practically everyone on the Spurs except Dylan Harper. The Knicks fought through every time. Props to them! All the bets paid off2! Jalen Brunson deservedly named the Finals MVP3. 45pts to close out the series, he left with a classic.
So I will happily don my virtual Weenie Hut Jr's hat in recognition of being so wrong.
Footnotes
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I don't give weight to the whole "missing Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell" argument. They were the heavyweight favorites without JDub, and Mitchell played in Game 1 which was a Thunder loss. If we "Mickey Mouse"-ing series like this, then we'll invalidate every series in history. Hopefully I'll cover my take on series I consider "Mickey Mouse" playoff runs. ↩
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It was pretty great hearing Josh Hart's "Forget those picks!". ↩
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The memes about De'Aaron Fox being the Finals MVP are painfully funny. ↩