The New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs open the NBA Finals at 8:30 p.m. ET on June 4, 2026, with Game 1 set for the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. For fans asking what time does the Knicks game start, the answer is fixed: tipoff is tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET.
That start time carries extra weight because New York is back in the Finals for the first time since 1999 and is still chasing its first NBA title since 1973. Jalen Brunson is leading the Knicks into the series, and Josh Hart is part of a core that has spent the postseason building toward this moment.
Hart’s connection to Brunson runs back to college, when he said he lived with him for a year and first mistook him for one of those highly recruited freshmen who arrive acting entitled. He said he was wrong, that the two became friends, and that they still keep in touch. It is the kind of small, stubborn detail that travels with a team this far: the person who looked like a problem turned into the teammate he trusts most.
The matchup still comes with an edge that does not fit the cleanest playoff storyline. The Knicks have won 11 games in a row in the playoffs, but Jay Croucher and Drew Dinsick listed the Spurs as 4.5-point favorites for Game 1. San Antonio reached the Finals by outlasting the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in seven games, and Victor Wembanyama has carried that run with averages of 23.2 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.5 blocks this postseason.
The Spurs last ruled the league in 2014, and this opener gives both sides something immediate to prove: whether New York’s surge can keep going on the biggest stage, and whether San Antonio’s home court and Wembanyama’s form can justify the early favorite tag. The first answer arrives when the ball goes up at 8:30 p.m. ET. The next one is the part that can change the series.
