{"id":752231,"date":"2026-06-04T11:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T11:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/752231\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T11:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T11:57:15","slug":"cavaliers-watch-finals-with-bitterness-as-knicks-teach-spurs-the-same-harsh-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/752231\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavaliers watch Finals with bitterness as Knicks teach Spurs the same harsh lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Game 1. The New York Knicks face an opponent coming off of a 7-game series after they have been resting comfortably for over a week because they swept their last series. They fall behind by double-digit points in the second-half, only to come storming back and win.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Cavaliers went through that experience in the Eastern Conference Finals, and they just watched the Knicks do the same thing to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

History is repeating itself<\/p>\n

It happened in much the same way, as well: Jalen Brunson. The Knicks’ diminutive superstar point guard was bottled up by the Spurs for much of the game before he came alive in the second half, getting free for open baskets or beating up on poor rookie Carter Bryant. OG Anunoby found his shot, Karl-Anthony Towns went to war with Victor Wembanyama and didn’t lose, and the Knicks took the 1-0 series lead.<\/p>\n

It was their 12-straight victory, a mind-boggling run through the playoffs. They have the greatest point differential over 12 games in the history of the NBA playoffs. And the Cavaliers join the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers in commiserating with the pain for the Spurs.<\/p>\n

There is no solace for Cleveland, however, just bitterness. The Cavaliers were up by 22 points in the fourth quarter of Game 1, with the power to change the trajectory of this Knicks juggernaut and break up the streak. Everything could have been different. They may have had a real shot in the Eastern Conference Finals, a chance to change their fate.<\/p>\n

Instead, they let go of the rope. Kenny Atkinson froze, James Harden turned back into a pumpkin, and the Knicks made Cleveland its latest victim. Then they won Game 2, Game 3, Game 4 with increasing domination. The Cavs appeared powerless to stop them, and New York sucked the soul right out of their bodies.<\/p>\n

Will Spurs suffer the same fate as the Cavaliers?<\/p>\n

They are now left at home, considering how to change a roster that was not good enough. Will the Spurs find themselves in the same situation? They were good enough to reach the NBA Finals, taking down the Oklahoma City Thunder in the process. They have the world’s greatest player on their team.<\/p>\n

Yet All-Star point guard De’Aaron Fox was helpless to stop the Knicks’ onslaught. Their 3-pointers stopped falling. Victor Wembanyama was stymied by a former joke in Karl-Anthony Towns. Just as they did to the Cavaliers, the Knicks shined a spotlight on every flaw the Spurs have.<\/p>\n

New York once again pulled off a Game 1 comeback. The “rust vs rest” debate once again proved both sides correct. The rested Knicks took a while to get going against the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the East Finals, but then they delivered a knockout blow. History repeated itself in the NBA Finals, and after going down by 14 points in the second half, the Knicks came back to win by 10.<\/p>\n

Can the Spurs take back control of the series? Or will the Knicks do to them what they did to the Cavaliers?<\/p>\n

If the Knicks keep rolling, it won’t be solace for Cleveland. It will only be bitterness. They blew their chance, and now the Spurs might be doing the same. And thus far, no one has found a solution to the New York Knickerbockers. <\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game 1. The New York Knicks face an opponent coming off of a 7-game series after they have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":["post-752231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-basketball","tag-cavaliers","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-clevelandcavaliers","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116691720321447115","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}