{"id":754733,"date":"2026-06-07T08:48:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/754733\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T08:48:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:48:31","slug":"knicks-in-prime-nba-finals-position-thanks-to-their-impressive-bench-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/754733\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks in prime NBA Finals position thanks to their impressive bench"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The unborn will know their names.<\/p>\n

With another two wins<\/a>, the Knicks will end the NBA\u2019s most painful drought and capture their first championship in 53 years.<\/p>\n

With two more wins, the names of Jalen Brunson<\/a>, Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>, OG Anunoby<\/a>, Josh Hart<\/a> and Mikal Bridges<\/a> will be passed down to future generations, just as Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley and Earl Monroe became famous to every Knicks fan too young to experience when the Garden was Eden.<\/p>\n

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Every title team eventually gets whittled down to a small fraction of its contributors.<\/p>\n

Even perhaps the greatest team of all time, the 1927 Yankees, has been filtered to little more than Ruth and Gehrig.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Knicks guard Landry Shamet<\/a> reacts after scoring during the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the NBA Finals. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

But you know better.<\/p>\n

You know the Knicks wouldn\u2019t hold a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals without the strength of their second unit \u2014 without names that will never reach the rafters (Mitchell Robinson<\/a>, Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado<\/a>, Miles McBride<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of contributions from a lot of guys, and that\u2019s why you like having a team because it could be anybody\u2019s night on any given night,\u201d Knicks coach Mike Brown said following the 105-104 Game 2 win. \u201cOur guys don\u2019t care. They sacrifice for one another and we found a way to get a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Knicks bench was instrumental in the Game 1 win in San Antonio, producing 28 points, along with four assists from McBride, and a combined 10 rebounds from Alvarado and Robinson.<\/p>\n

In Game 2, Brown needed even more, as Brunson shot 7-for-25, Hart was held scoreless and Towns was limited to four second-half points.<\/p>\n

For a stretch of more than five crucial minutes \u2014 from the 3:19 mark of the third quarter through the 10:15 mark of the fourth quarter \u2014 Brown sat Brunson and Towns, opting for a lineup of Shamet, Robinson, Alvarado, McBride and Bridges.<\/p>\n

\"MitchellMitchell Robinson dunks over Victor Wembanyama<\/a> in Game 2. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

During that span, the Knicks lead grew from four to 12, eventually settling at 87-78 when Brunson and Towns reentered.<\/p>\n

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Shamet, who is shooting 67.6 percent on 3-pointers in the postseason, finished with 13 points for the second straight game.<\/p>\n

Robinson had seven points, three rebounds, one block and one steal in 14 minutes, in addition to helping prevent Victor Wembanyama from evening the series on the potential game-winner.<\/p>\n

Alvarado and McBride \u2014 who have two of the Knicks\u2019 top five on-court ratings in the NBA Finals \u2014 combined for seven points, four assists and four offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n

In last year\u2019s playoffs, Tom Thibodeau used each of his starters for more than 35 minutes per game, giving just two reserves (Robinson, McBride) double-digit minutes per game.<\/p>\n

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This year, Brunson is the only starter averaging more than 34 minutes in the playoffs, as Brown uses a nine-man rotation during the season\u2019s most critical moments, placing trust in names many will never know.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important,\u201d Shamet said of the bench play. \u201cWe need everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The unborn will know their names. With another two wins, the Knicks will end the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,288,11053,327,563,304,4988,1260,2715,1247,6,1220,741,693,4845],"class_list":["post-754733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-knicks","tag-landry-shamet","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-miles-mcbride","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-og-anunoby","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-willis-reed"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116707964154989413","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754733","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=754733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}