NBA Finals Notebook: Knicks monitor Mitchell Robinson, brace for Spurs’ Game 2 counterpunch

The Knicks already did the hardest thing a road team can do to start an NBA Finals series. They took Game 1. Now comes the harder part for any team riding the high of a road win, convincing itself nothing has been taken yet.

The Knicks lead the Finals after a 105-95 win over the San Antonio Spurs in the opener, but their public message entering Game 2 has been almost stubbornly plain. They haven’t talked like a team carrying a 12-game postseason winning streak. They haven’t acted like one win in San Antonio gave them anything beyond the right to prepare again. Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t dress up the point.

“For me, I don’t think of anything like that, the 1-1, 2-0,” Towns said Thursday. “I just think it’s 0-0. The next game is the most important game of the year, so just continue to stay in the present, not worry about what the future may look like, not worry about what we’ve done in the past. Just cancel all that out and just worry about the present. Tomorrow when we step on the court there should be the same determination, desperation, energy level and physicality needed for a game win.”

That’s been the Knicks’ language throughout this run. Win, reset, repeat. It can sound boring. It’s supposed to.

OG Anunoby offered the same theme when asked how the Knicks have stayed grounded.

“Just after the game is over, just the next day, just reset, prepare for the next game, watch the film, try to clean up the things that you messed up on or adjust whichever way is needed, and just come into the game with a 0-0 mindset like KAT said,” Anunoby said.

A win would send the series back to Madison Square Garden with the Spurs needing to win four of the next five games. The Knicks understand that. They also understand how quickly the Finals can punish a team for admiring its own work. Mikal Bridges said the Knicks aren’t even treating their streak as a streak.

“I think for us, the guys in the locker room, our coaching staff, everybody pretty much in our office, in our organization, I think we just got a lot of grit, a lot of mental toughness,” Bridges said. “The thing about us is we don’t really look at it as a win streak. I think we just take it one game at a time.”

SPURS SEARCH FOR COUNTER

The Spurs led by double digits in Game 1, held a one-point lead late and still lost by 10 after the Knicks closed the opener on an 11-0 run. San Antonio scored only 19 points in the fourth quarter. The Spurs also finished with 16 assists, a number head coach Mitch Johnson said wasn’t representative of the way the franchise wants to play.

De’Aaron Fox, who scored just seven points in Game 1, said the Spurs weren’t far from their offensive process for long stretches. The problem came late, when the Knicks increased pressure and pulled San Antonio away from the parts of the floor it wanted to reach.

“Throughout the course of the game, I think we were decent,” Fox said. “I think toward the end of the game, we got a little bit worse at it, and obviously they ramped up the pressure, kind of kept us out of the paint.”

Fox said San Antonio’s offense works best when ball movement and paint pressure force defenses to rotate. That’s when Victor Wembanyama, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell and others can find easier looks without everything turning into one-on-one creation.

“When we have the ball moving and we get the defense to rotate, it naturally comes back to the guys that it’s supposed to come back to,” Fox said. “We have a pretty free-flowing offense where paint touches are key, and then when we get the defense moving, Vic gets easy shots. He doesn’t have to go one-on-one or have to fight through physicality the whole time.”

That’s essentially what Game 2 will boil down to. The Spurs don’t only need Wembanyama to shoot better after his 6-for-21 opener. They need sharper possessions around him, more movement, more paint touches, more early offense before the Knicks’ defense can get set. Johnson described the series response as a balance.

“We’re coming off a loss, and it’s on us to get into that balancing act of change, tweak over here, be better and sharper over there,” he said.

Johnson added that the Spurs have to avoid “fighting the game” when the Knicks crowd the paint with bodies. If the Knicks take away one option, San Antonio must find the next one.

“We have to make sure we pass the ball to open guys, make sure we continue to put pressure on the rim,” Johnson said. “That’s not always for ourselves, that could be with a roll, a cut, a drive. I think last night we got a little away from that.”

ROBINSON’S HAND REMAINS A VARIABLE

Mitchell Robinson cleared the first hurdle by playing in Game 1 after surgery on a fractured right fifth metacarpal. He was listed as probable on Thursday’s injury report ahead of Game 2. In the opener, Robinson played 13 minutes and finished with two points and six rebounds while wearing protection on the hand.

The issue now isn’t only availability. It’s utility. Robinson gives the Knicks another rebounder, another rim presence and another physical body in a series built around Wembanyama’s length and San Antonio’s paint pressure. If he can continue to give the Knicks strong minutes, they have more ways to keep Towns out of foul trouble and maintain size around the basket.

Towns did significant work in Game 1, including defensive possessions against Wembanyama. He said the opener forced him to shift responsibilities several times, especially around Jalen Brunson’s brief injury absence.

“Last night was a night where a lot of things happened,” Towns said. “Jalen got hurt, changed my role. Jalen came back, I had to change my role again. Throughout the game you’re changing your role three, four times. But whatever my role is, I’ve got to be the best at it and impact winning.”

Towns said he wanted to be “a star” in whatever role the game called him to play.

That’s the larger frontcourt challenge for the Knicks. Towns’ role can change by quarter. Robinson’s hand can affect his comfort. Wembanyama’s presence can alter matchups possession by possession. The Knicks handled enough of those variables to win Game 1. It’ll be a different situation in Game 2.

CRIME STOPPERS?

The Knicks’ rise isn’t responsible for New York’s crime numbers. Their winning hasn’t caused murders or shootings to fall. But the franchise’s best two-year stretch in decades has arrived alongside a notable public-safety marker.

NYPD announced this week that New York City recorded the fewest murders, shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history through the first five months of a year.

The timing adds another layer to the city’s current sports mood. The Knicks have reached the Eastern Conference finals in consecutive seasons. They’re now in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. New York is watching its team play into June while the city also reports one of its safest starts on record.

Towns was asked Thursday about the crowds outside Madison Square Garden during the Finals and smiled at the thought of how far Knicks fans could take this if the team wins three more games.

“I pray for the NYPD,” Towns said.

Then he praised the people assigned to manage the celebrations.

“It shows the love our fans have for us and the passion that they have,” Towns said. “I’ve got to give a shout-out, too, to the NYPD, to all those men and women out there that are not only protecting everybody, but on the flip side, as well, in my personal experience who are huge fans of the Knicks and support the Knicks fans in their ability to show how much they love the Knicks and being as lenient as possible without causing chaos.”

But before any celebration can move back to Manhattan, the Knicks still have to deal with the next response Friday night.

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