Landry Shamet said the Knicks are trying to keep their edge intact as the NBA Finals begin, with Game 1 set for Tuesday night in San Antonio after nearly 10 days without a game.
Shamet said Monday that New York has moved past its East finals sweep of Cleveland and is concentrating on the basics before meeting the Spurs. “All that [Cleveland] stuff’s behind us,” he said, adding that the task now is “making sure our bodies are right; making sure our minds are right; making sure we're paying attention to details.” He said the Knicks have been “incredibly sharp and locked in” during the break and that, when the ball is tipped in a couple of days, it will be “right back into the swing of things of a series.”
The timing matters because the Knicks are walking into Game 1 with a recent memory of what a long pause can do. After the Cavaliers played a Game 7 on May 17, New York was down by 22 points in the fourth quarter of Game 1 two nights later before rallying. That earlier opener showed how quickly a rested opponent can push the pace, and it is part of why the Knicks are treating this layoff as a problem to manage, not a pause to enjoy.
Shamet said the answer is repetition, not reinvention. “Our focus is on going on the road and winning Game 1, and that’s been the same,” he said. “This isn’t our first long break that we’ve had.” He said the team is sticking to its game plan, keeping to its principles and avoiding the urge to “get too crazy or outside the box.”
The Spurs created the matchup by winning a Game 7 on Saturday, and New York will be the visitor in San Antonio on Wednesday for a Finals opener that could set the tone for the series. The Knicks had last played on May 25, when they completed a four-game sweep of Cleveland, leaving them with a rare stretch of downtime before the biggest game of the season.
That is the balance New York has to strike now: rest enough to be fresh, but not so much that the first quarter in San Antonio turns into a scramble. The Knicks have said they are sharp and locked in. Game 1 will show whether that is a promise or a product of the break.
Mike Brown said the Knicks also know what awaits them in San Antonio, where the crowd is expected to make the building loud from the start. “We need to be aware that we’re going into an environment where the opposing team is going to generate a lot of energy,” Brown said, calling the atmosphere hostile and stressing that New York has to begin with purpose, mentally as well as physically, so it does not fall behind early.
The same test New York faces in the opening minutes is the one it could not fully avoid last time it waited this long between games. Shamet’s message is that the Knicks do not need a new formula to survive it. They need the details, the discipline and a clean start on the road, because the first game after a layoff can tell the rest of the series a lot more than the break itself does.
