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It's a party on the river walk in San Anton where the promise of potential has been realized in an image. A 7-footer from France handed the keys to the car as a mere teenager. Three years later, the drive undeniable. Now the road continues and the next stop is Midtown Manhattan. Our finals matchup is set and for our instant reaction, we set the table with two of the best, the coach Avery Johnson and CBS Sports NBA analyst John Gonzalez. Fellas, this is the good stuff. Out of the East, we get a New York team that's going to be well-rested. Out of the West, an absolute freak in Victor Wimbeyama and a supporting cast that has emerged in some way. John, the first thing that comes to
mind when you put these two on a court for maybe, let's say, best case seven games, what comes to mind? Oh, I mean this is going to be a phenomenal series and congrats to Avery for having the Spurs back in the finals. And you know these are whoever came out of the West, you were going to get a good series because Adam Silver and the league office are thrilled to have the Knicks back in the postseason for the first time since 1999. And look, I was pretty skeptical about the Knicks going into the postseason where that defense I wasn't quite sure. They were only 500 against teams with winning records during the regular season. well asked and answered. They were fantastic against the Hawks and they absolutely
steamrolled the Sixers and the Cavaliers. And they come out of the postseason with the best defensive rating in the postseason and the best offensive rating. And over this 11game winning streak, they have uh the best point differential in NBA history. And that's not just in the postseason. This is the best 11game streak in the regular season or the playoffs in NBA history. The NBA has never seen anything like what the Knicks did to the Hawks, the Sixers, and the Cavaliers. Now, the Hawks, the Sixers, and the Cavaliers, to Avery's point earlier, don't have a certain guy named Victor Webbyama. The Spurs are going to be by far and away the toughest test that the Knicks have faced so far. Victor Wanyama, he's
asked, he's answered every question about him. They're down 3-2. He was talking about, are we big enough for this moment? Can we match it? Yes, absolutely. The Spurs did that. For a young team to go to the finals after not even being in the postseason the year before is just truly remarkable. and they have big guards and wings. That should be interesting. Uh, and to see how that they play against Jaylen Brunson. I want to see how Carl Anthony Towns matches up against Victor Wimyama. Mitchell Robinson is kind of a question mark for the Knicks now, right? Because he broke his pinky finger and he couldn't shoot free throws anyway, but he's going to play through it with a brace on his finger. How much can Mike
Brown have him out there, right? And then if not, are you going to Ariel Huckporti as your backup big or Jeremy Sohan? You going to play small? Those guys haven't even played. It's going to be a phenomenal series. There's so many questions here. I can't wait for this one. Coach, I think, please go ahead, Joe. Yeah, I was just going to kind of go to the idea, a refrain, if you will, that's been bouncing around that this West Finals was the finals in some way, that whoever came out of the West was going to be a matchup problem for this New York Knicks team. Did anything you see over the last couple weeks, maybe the rest in the back of our minds, make you feel differently about that idea?
Well, we got a ton of respect uh for the New York Knicks. What an incredible job, Mike Brown. You know, it was said it all along. Finals are bus, right? You come in, you take over Eastern Conference Finals team and you know, there's a lot of pressure on Mike Brown and the players. So, congratulations to the Knicks. The one thing with the Knicks, they haven't seen a team like the Spurs. And it's not just Victor. Let's just take, let's eliminate Victor, which Victor is the big Superman of the Spurs. The size, and I think John is going to agree with me on this. The size of the Spurs wing players is unlike anything Jaylen Brunson has seen. consistent size from the starters to the role players that s
and these guys are two-way players. They play extremely hard on both ends of the floor. You bring in Dylan Harper, you bring in Kelvin Johnson, you bring in Carter Bryant outside of De'aran Fox and Vel and Champini and look man, this is a different deal. Jaylen Brunson is special. We can't stop. The Spurs can't stop Jaylen Brunson. As a Spurs fan and an alumni of the Spurs, we cannot stop him, but we can slow him down and we can slow down those role players. And that's the problem that the Spurs present unlike any of the other teams that they played against in the playoffs. And you could turn Jaylen Brunson into a bit of a math problem at the other end of the court and attack him with all of that guard size. We're
going to delve deeper into this conversation here in just a bit. But first, a look at some of what's between them. The Knicks took down the Spurs in the NBA Cup final this season. We'll get a rematch here in the real final. The Spurs making their first NBA Finals appearance since the 2014 campaign. And the Knicks haven't seen it since 1999 and looking for their first title since the 70s. Coming up, a full-fledged Finals preview whereby looks to take one more step towards NBA royalty. Can the 22-year-old lead the Spurs? We dig deep next.
It's a party on the Riverwalk where the promise of potential has been realized in an image. A 7-footer from France handed the keys to the car as a mere teenager. Some three years later, the drive is undeniable. Now the road continues and the next stop is Midtown Manhattan. John Gonzalez and coach back in the mix here to set the stage for the NBA Finals. Game one coming our way on Wednesday. And John, when I look at these two teams, vastly different in the way they've arrived into this moment. What do you see when you put them on the same court? Yeah, I can't wait for this series, right? I mean, first of all, we're all the big winners and you know, the league office and Adam Silver are thrilled
about this because you're getting Victor Webama who's just otherworldly and this young ascendant Spurs team into the finals for the first time in a while. And then the Knicks in the finals is obviously ratings blockbuster, right? That those fans MSG, it's going to be rockus. They haven't been there since 1999. And the Knicks, look, they've been off for a while, but they were playing some incredible basketball before they took this little hiatus where they're on an 11game winning streak. They absolutely steamrololled the Hawks, the Sixers, and the Cavaliers. And over the span of this 11game winning streak, they have the best point differential in NBA history. And that is not just for the
postseason. That is for the regular season and the postseason. And over that span, first and defensive rating in the playoffs, first and offensive rating. We know what Jaylen Brunson can do. Carl Anthony Towns. They've got great wing defenders and OG who's maybe the most underrated two-way player in the league and male Bridges. So, they're playing great basketball. I do have a little bit of concern though about the backup big position. Mitchell Robinson broke his pinky. How does that look? He's going to play through it with a brace. You he can't shoot free throws as it is just 30% from the line. So, what happens when he goes out? Because, you know, uh Mitch Johnson is going to employ some hack
Robinson when he's out there. So, then do they go to Ariel Hawkport? You can't deal with Victor Wyama. Nobody has an answer for him. Not the Knicks or anybody else. But man, what an incredible series this is going to be to see those two teams facing off against each other like they did back in 1999 when Avery was there. It's we're all the big whoever wins this series could go either way. I'm leaning Spurs, but we're all the big winners for this one. And then you got Mike Brown who was a Spurs assistant for a long time and you know he bounced around Cleveland and won a couple of championships as an assistant with Golden State. His family still lives in San Antonio. He said he's gonna save some money by not
finding his family alive. So that's that's a big deal. So these team Mike knows the Spurs. He knows the culture. He knows the organization. Obviously the Spurs got Papa Ditches uh fingerprints all over this organization. I just want to look at the Spurs depth and their size at the wing position. The Spurs can't stop Jaylen Brunson. But man, I thought for a couple of games they did a nice job on SGA and we'll see what they do with Jaylen Brunson in this series. But the quality of depth from the Spurs, uh we know Victor Winyama, he's a global icon. He and Anthony Towns, they'll they'll have some fun playing against each other. But the rest of this roster, I'm leaning Spurs, too, because the
quality of depth on this team. And remember, Cleveland was up what, 22 points in game one because uh New York had a little bit of a longer break. If the Spurs are up 22 points with eight minutes to go, game over. Well, there's longer breaks and then what we're seeing here, it's listed as a rest advantage. And you have to keep it that, coach. As John said, highest field goal percentage in any 11ame span in the playoffs since 1987, 53.3%. New York wanted it every other night if they could get it. How do they ensure that this rest is an advantage and not something that slows them or works against them?
Yeah, I think you know the key is getting off the fast starts. You look at the Spurs in this series go OKC. Even the game that they lost in game three, they got off to a fast start. We always want to talk about you know this the league being a fourth quarter lead. But again, the Spurs even in game seven got off to a really fast start against OKC. Sure. Oklahoma City came back, you know, Oklahoma City changed their lineup at the beginning of the third quarter, you know, with Caruso and Jay Williams. So, the Spurs play, you know, forced them to play their hand even at the end started that third quarter. So, again, because they wanted to try to get off their fast start, they ended up tying, you know,
what 242 24 in the third. So, getting off to a fast start is going to be a major key. All right, I'm going to ask you the unanswerable question here, John Gonzalez. Victor Webbyama coming out of this series as the first player in NBA history with 15 or more threes and 15 or more blocks in the same series. It's a nice concise picture of what he presents at both ends of the court. How do you game plan for him if you are the Knicks? Yeah, it's kind of what Avery was saying about Jaylen Brunson that the Spurs aren't going to be able to stop Jaylen Brunson, but maybe you can slow him down. You can't stop Victor Webmanyama.
Nobody has an answer for Victor Wanyaman as well as the Knicks are playing right now and they again they had the best defensive ratings so far through the postseason. It's an impossible task. There's nobody who can guard that guy, especially when he goes to the rim. You were talking about his three-point shooting, which is fine. That's a part of his game that he has improved upon uh as he's matured in the NBA. But what really sets him apart and what I like to see is when he starts out aggressive offensively in the paint, when he's getting to the rim, because then really nobody has any answer for him. It's one thing for him to shoot that step back
three which is also unguardable. Sometimes it goes down, sometimes it didn't. It went down in game seven. It went down in game six. In game five he was 0 for five, right? So if you're the Knicks, you're loving if he's shooting threes rather than getting to the rack. But that is a major problem. And uh Avery had mentioned Carl Anthony Towns going at Victor Webyama. I don't love that matchup if I'm the Knicks because Carl Anthony Towns just he's been playing better defense in this postseason, but I'm not thrilled about that. We talked about Mitchell Robinson. He's got that broken pinky on his finger. uh or on his hand rather. He's got six fouls. You can send him out there to try to slow down Wembley and be
physical with him. The problem is when Mitchell Robinson is on the floor, he's a threat to get fouled himself and then go to the free throw line. So, the answer is there is no answer for Victor Wanyama, but the Knicks will do their level best. A series that will run through the bigs. Jaylen Brunson will certainly have something to say about it as well. The marquee is obvious. You've got a New York star on one side and a budding, as you said, coach, global star on the other. But I'm interested in your point of view here, coach. What is the subplot? Because oftent times these championships, these series are decided by something beyond what's staring us in the face. What's that second tier storyline you're looking at?
I think it's going to be a guy like Mikuel Bridges. You know, in this series, you know, he's had his moments. Is he going to be able to score the basketball in this series? Because if you can eliminate a Mikuel Bridges, uh especially when you're double teaming Jaylen Brunson, that bodess well for a team that gives a team, you know, a situation, you know, Josh Hart, you know, can you double team off of Josh Hart, you know, because if you could play five against four, five against three, eliminate guys who, you know, are potentially threats offensively, that's going to be very helpful. you know, Mitchell Robinson as a backup center, can he play what, 15 minutes a game or eight minutes a game? And when he plays, we know he's not a very good free throw shooter. So,
I think the subplot more than anything is the supporting cast of the New York Knicks. Yeah, that's a really good one because male Bridges, don't forget back in that Atlanta series after game three, Knicks fans were calling for Mike Brown to bench him because he couldn't hit a shot and then all of a sudden he couldn't miss a shot and neither could the Knicks and they just took off like a rocket ship. Uh so that's a good one. OG Anobi, as I mentioned, I think was there's an argument to be made that he was the best two-way player in the first three rounds for the Knicks or certainly for any team in the Eastern Conference.
I'll go over to the Spurs, though. Uh Avery touched on this a little bit. They're so big and physical on the wings and with their guards, right? I mean, from Castle to Devin Vel to Julian Champeni to here comes Dylan Harper and Kellen Johnson off the bench. Again, Avery is right. You're not going to stop Jaylen Brunson. But if you were going to design something in a lab and said, "How could you slow down Jaylen Brunson?" I'd say, "Well, give me a lot of size and athleticism." And boy, do Castle and Vel and Champenni and Harper and Johnson have all that, right? I mean, Stefon Castle because he plays with Victor Wanyama kind of gets overlooked and he had some turnover issues and he needs to
clean that up. You know, he did for a little bit in the series, but defensively there's a case to be made that guy could have been all defense. He's that good and he's hyper athletic. So, I can't wait to see how uh the Spurs deploy those guys against Jaylen Brunson. If they're blitzing him, if they're doubling him, trapping him, it's not going to be an easy series for Jaylen Brunson. So, that matchup uh is going to go a long way to determining who wins this thing. And remember, Jaylen Brunson has to play defense, so you can't hide him anywhere in this series. And the same thing you saw against Oklahoma City Thunder, they attack Shay on the defensive end. Even they were bodying him. They were physical with them. They were running in
even trying to get offensive rebounds. And even if they got called for a loose ball foul, they were making Shay feel them in this series. Watch out. The same thing's going to happen in this series against the Knicks. I think John may have said it best earlier. We are the winners. Clean sweep, four games. Can't wait to watch this one go down. Hopefully it does go the full seven here. Watching from the sideline. John Gonzalez, Avery Johnson. We give thanks always for the insight and analysis from two of the best in the business. A look here at what's between these two and what stands at stake. The Knicks took down the Spurs in the NBA Cup final this season. A rematch in the
real finals. Now, the Spurs back in the finals for the first time since 2014. The Knicks all the way back to 99 and looking for their first title since the 70s.
