San Antonio earned home court the hard way, grinding out a 111-103 Game 7 in Oklahoma City to bury the defending champs and send Victor Wembanyama to his first Finals. The Knicks took the scenic route too, just with less traffic — back-to-back sweeps of Philly and Cleveland have them riding an 11-game playoff winning streak into the building. Pinnacle has the Spurs at -189 on the moneyline and the total sitting at 218.5.
The line tells you what the books think the rust matters. New York hasn't played a meaningful game in over a week. San Antonio finished a Game 7 on Saturday and now turns around for Game 1 on Wednesday. That's the trade — fresh legs versus the team that just survived the hardest series in the bracket.
Wembanyama is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and just took home Western Conference Finals MVP, and he's the matchup the Knicks don't have a clean answer for. Karl-Anthony Towns is going to have to live in space he doesn't love. On the other end, Jalen Brunson is averaging 26.9 points through 14 playoff games and went 26-4-8 on 42/42/88 splits across three meetings with San Antonio this season, including the NBA Cup final. He has been here before in this series. Nobody else on the floor has.
- OutDavid Jones Garcia (F) — Jones Garcia underwent ankle surgery Wednesday and will miss the remainder of the 2025-26 season, Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News reports.02/04
Series price opened Spurs -205, Knicks +170 — meaning the market is treating New York as a live dog but not a coin flip. Only three teams have ever won the Finals as bigger underdogs (2019 Raptors, 2016 Cavs, 2004 Pistons), which is the kind of company Tom Thibodeau's group would happily keep. Tipoff is 7:30 PM CT on ABC. The drought ends or it doesn't.