[BREAKING NEWS] ESPN reacts to New York Knicks beat San Antonio Spurs for NBA Cup championship

[BREAKING NEWS] ESPN reacts to New York Knicks beat San Antonio Spurs for NBA Cup championship

NBA Cup final right here. Spurs Knicks. Knicks just running away with this in the fourth quarter. Outscored the Spurs 33-6 in the fourth as the Knicks [music] go on to become your 2025 Emirates NBA Cup champions. 124 113 is your final. New York seven [music] players in double figures. Meanwhile, Spurs at one point led by as many as 11 in this, but it was a next [music] level fourth quarter performance, especially from that guy right there, Jaylen Brunson, [music] as the Knicks go on to get the victory. OG Anobi leading the way, leading all scorers with 28 points in this one. Brunson just following up just shy of him with 244 and eight. Carl Anthony Towns did exit the game briefly while dealing with an injury, but did return. But on the other side of this matchup, Dylan Harper [music] with a 21-point performance. Victor Wmanyama despite in limited time finishing with 18 points. Had a couple of big moments there in the third quarter but not enough as [music] the Spurs fall short in the cup championship. Your Knicks, hey, they got a title of sorts. Well, it might not be the NBA finals, but I mean, this one at least felt like a playoff game as we’re joined by CBS Sports NBA analyst John Gonzalez. And John, it it just seemed like the Spurs, they were ready to collect that big check and start heading back to San Antonio, but that fourth quarter turnaround that we saw from the Knicks, San Antonio, they had success earlier with their ball pressure, did the Knicks just adjust better than the Spurs did tonight? What was the ultimate deciding factor for you in this one? >> Yeah, end of the third quarter, into the fourth quarter, they really turned it up. Jaylen Brunson was excellent again. He had 25 points. He had had four straight 30 point performances in the cup. Kiana. So, he didn’t quite get past that level, but it was still really good tonight. You mentioned OG Anobi. He was fantastic. I thought he was the best player of the game. I suspect that Jaylen Brunson was the best player of the cup, but the Knicks really dialed it up. And I think if there was one thing that they really excelled at in this game and especially late was the offensive rebounds. I mean, they they dominated on the offensive rebounds. They dominated in rebounds in general and really put that to good use for second chance points. They had all five starters in double figures. And then they closed late with Tyler Kick because uh Bridges was dealing with a little injury issue. You mentioned Carl Anthony Towns, Jordan Clarkson, Tyler Kick, even though the Spurs bench outscored the Knicks bench in total. And part of that is because they’re bringing WBY off the bench and and Harper had 21 points, but Jordan Clarkson, Tyler Kolock off the bench for the Knicks had a combined 29 points. That was a huge boon. So everybody really contributing late in that game for the Knicks who, as you mentioned, championship, they get a cup. Uh they do they get their first championship type banner since 1973. But you talk about the Knicks, they had 32 second chance points. They had dominated in the points in the paint with 56. I do want to talk about the other side of the match up in just a bit. But you and I, we sat here, we talked pregame, we knew coming into this one that the Knicks, they are real contenders. But what did you learn about them tonight? Does winning this tournament maybe validate where New York is as a contender or is it just maybe another notch on their progress belt? Yeah, they got they got off to a little bit of a slow start and I think some people were sleeping on them. They came in as preseason favorites along with the Cavs. The Cavs can’t shoot, but the Knicks now are looking like the Knicks team that we all expected them to be and [music] be the as a primary contender in the Eastern Conference. They’re still lagging behind the Detroit Pistons by two and a half games in the Eastern Conference. Obviously, this game doesn’t count towards the standings, but the Knicks have really put the Eastern Conference on notice that, hey, we’re playing our best basketball right now, and all the little uh kinks that we had to work out look like they’re ironed out. They have the second best offense in the NBA. They came into this game, again, the stats don’t don’t count, but they came into this game just outside the top 10 in defensive rating as well. And with Jaylen Brunson playing well, you hope that Carl Anthony Towns, who had a little bit of a cash calf injury, uh, an issue in the fourth quarter, did go back into the game, but you hope he’s okay. You hope Bridges is okay because that starting unit is really clicking right now. And outside of the Pistons, you look at the Eastern Conference and you go, man, who scares you more than the Knicks? And the answer is nobody. They are putting the rest of the Eastern Conference on notice that hey, this could very well be their year that they go to the finals. Finally. >> Yeah. [laughter] But finally, John, I hope that this uh doesn’t hurt for you to be saying all of this, but let’s go to the other side of the matchup, shall we? I mean, we got to talk about Victor Winyama. Obviously, finishing his night, 18 points, nine assists. He did play 25 minutes. We talked about we weren’t quite sure how he would be used, how long he would be used in this game, but even though he was limited and coming off the bench, how much do you think that affected maybe San Antonio’s late game competitiveness? >> Yeah, I mean, they’d love to have a full strength WBY out there, right? Because that would probably tip the scales a little bit more in their favor. I’m not saying that the Spurs would have won this game, but he’s still working back from his calf injury and you don’t want to push that, right? He only played 25 minutes. He was off the bench again. He didn’t start the game. He had 18 points and a couple of blocks. I thought he looked fine. It wasn’t it wasn’t as impactful as the game that he had against Oklahoma City in the semi-finals, but ultimately if you’re the Spurs, you feel good about making the cup finals. You feel good about where this team is. They were nine and three without Wimi. They had won three in a row coming into this game. The Knicks are a worthy winner of the cup. And if you’re the Spurs, yes, it hurts that you don’t win. It hurts that you don’t get that 500 plus 500k plus uh bonus for winning this game, which would go a long way for those uh veteran minimum contracts, the two-way guys, but you have to feel really good about where you are in this Western Conference with WBY back. Now, all of a sudden, you’re thinking, well, hey, yeah, Oklahoma City is the best team in the Western Conference, but you have to put the Spurs right there with the the primary contenders to Oklahoma City along with the Rockets and then the Nuggets. I would have the Spurs right in that second tier group challenging Oklahoma City. And you never know what happens in the playoffs. Don’t forget in Oklahoma City last year, they got pushed to seven games by the Denver Nuggets and then uh seven games in the finals by the Indiana Pacers. So, anything could happen. >> I certainly don’t think that this loss in the cup finals diminishes anything that we have learned about the Spurs. Instead, I think that we have essentially kind of maybe we’re afraid of the Spurs and what they can be, especially when they’re healthy. And I know we talked a lot about that pregame, but I do want to just circle back to the Knicks because Jaylen Brunson after his performance in the cup final, the cup final MVP, 25 points in 41 minutes. What did you see out of him? How impressed were you? Especially when I look at that fourth quarter because it looked like he was the one that essentially took over and kind of helped the Knicks to this win. >> He’s been awesome in the cup. As I mentioned, he had four straight games in cup games with 30 points or more. Tonight, 25 points, but he also had four rebounds and eight assists. He’s a a deserving winner of the cup MVP. He’s a killer, right? I mean, he’s one of the best closers in the game two years ago. He finished top five in the MVP voting. He made first team allNNBA. This is a guy who when you look around at the best players in the NBA and certainly the best scorers in the NBA, he’s right at the top of the list. Josh Hart likes to give him flack for being not that athletic, not that quick, uh doesn’t have that much hops. doesn’t matter because this guy can get anywhere he wants to on the floor and he’s really next to impossible to stop from scoring. You saw it again tonight when they needed him most. He really turned it on and he delivers helps deliver along with OG and Obi a cup championship to the Knicks. He’s been fantastic this season and winning the cup MVP. Not no surprise here. He was excellent in this tournament. >> Yeah, winning cup MVP, but now maybe kind of just adding to that case for league MVP. I know he’s might be one of those names in the mix, but maybe just further pushing that narrative right there with what we’ve seen, especially throughout his performance throughout the cup. But John, with this being the third installment of the NBA Cup and officially now in the rear view, I want to get how you’re feeling about the tournament now. How would you like to see this improve and maybe expand in the future? >> Yeah, they’re still working out the kinks a little bit here. A couple of different coaches, Jamal Mosley with the Orlando Magic and obviously Mark Dagnel uh with the uh Oklahoma City Thunder. The two losing coaches in the semi-finals were like, “Well, wait a minute. We have better records. Shouldn’t we have had a home game rather than having to go to Las Vegas?” Tonight, Commissioner Adam Silver said that they’re exploring moving the cup out of Las Vegas. They had toyed around with the idea of maybe playing it in some major college venues. I’m not sure what that really gets you. Is that going to improve the crowd? Tonight, the crowd was a little dead. That’s something that you want to improve upon because all of a sudden you’re asking fan bases to parachute into a place late on a Tuesday night, right? Like you don’t know that your team’s going to make >> holiday season, too. >> It’s holiday season. All of a sudden, I’m catching a plane to Vegas on a Tuesday. I got to work tomorrow, Kiana. Uh but all these things said, I really do like the cup. I think that there’s some juice to it. There’s some energy. Both teams obviously wanted to win. And hey, the money helps, right? Because, as we said, that winning team, the New York Knicks, they get more than $500,000 per player. Jordan Clarkson’s on a veteran minimum contract. He said he was going to pay his rent with that check because basically he made one quarter of his salary tonight in a bonus by winning this game. So, there’s a lot to like about the cup. Yeah, they can tinker a little bit, but so far so good. I think >> I think one thing that I really do appreciate and you got to see that especially there in that fourth quarter how hard they were playing because I mean it’s fine money talks and it makes you work a little harder and you got to see that out of those guys. It wasn’t very laxidasical. These guys were fighting for that check and the Knicks ultimately getting that as always. John Gonzalez appreciate you stopping by. Thank you. Take a look at the Knicks in a knockout [music] stage in the NBA Cup. I mean, these are all doubledigit victories in these knockout stages. They knock off the Raptors in the quarterfinals, knock off the Magic in the semis, [music] and now knocking off Victor Winyama in the finals. Your Knicks, hey, they got a banner. Well, a kind of banner, their first one since 1973 [music] at least.

[BREAKING NEWS] ESPN reacts New York Knicks beat San Antonio Spurs 124-113 for NBA Cup championship