The Knicks are headed home with a two-games-to-none lead in the NBA Finals after edging the San Antonio Spurs 105-104 on Friday night at the Frost Bank Center, leaving them one win closer to their first championship since 1973. Game 3 is Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
Mikal Bridges was at the center of it, scoring 20 points with six rebounds and six assists while hitting eight straight shots during one stretch. He became only the second Knicks player, alongside Walt Frazier, to put up at least 20 points, six rebounds and six assists while shooting at least 60% in an NBA Finals game, finishing 8-for-13 and supplying the kind of steady shot-making that kept New York in front when the margin tightened.
The win also extended a remarkable run. The Knicks have taken 13 straight postseason games and have not lost since April 23, a stretch that has pushed them into rare air in Finals history. They are only the third team to win the first two games of the NBA Finals on the road, a list that includes the 1993 Chicago Bulls and the 1995 Houston Rockets, and no team has ever climbed out of a 2-0 Finals hole after dropping the first two at home.
Still, the Knicks are talking as if the series has not really started. Landry Shamet said the group is focused on Game 3 at Madison Square Garden and nothing else, calling the earlier games past history and stressing that, as far as the locker room is concerned, it is still 0-0. Josh Hart said the same thing, adding that being up 2-0 means very little if New York is not better on Monday.
That mindset fits the way the game itself was played. Carter Bryant began grabbing and shoving Jalen Brunson off the ball early, and Luke Kornet ran over him at one point, a reminder that every possession has already turned physical. Bridges, who was part of the Phoenix Suns team that went up 2-0 in 2021 before losing four straight to the Milwaukee Bucks, said that experience has taught him how much effort is needed every moment and how important it is to keep everyone level-headed while still playing desperate.
For now, the Knicks have the kind of lead that usually changes a Finals. They return to New York with a chance to move one step from a title, while the Spurs face the harder task of trying to become the first team to rewrite a comeback no one has ever completed.
