{"id":836453,"date":"2026-09-16T07:49:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/836453\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T07:49:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:49:57","slug":"2026-nba-playoffs-conference-finals-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/836453\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA playoffs: Conference finals takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"

The conference finals of the 2026 NBA playoffs<\/a>are here, and our NBA insiders have you covered for every game of the Eastern and Western matchups.<\/p>\n

The No. 3-seeded New York Knicks<\/a> defeated the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>in a four-game sweep to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.<\/p>\n

In the West, the defending championOklahoma City Thunder<\/a> clash with the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>in a matchup of the top two seeds.<\/p>\n

Here’s what matters most in both conferences and what to watch in the series.<\/p>\n

Jump to a series:<\/p>\n

Knicks-Cavaliers<\/a><\/p>\n

Thunder-Spurs<\/a><\/p>\n

More coverage:<\/p>\n

Schedules and results<\/a> | Offseason guides<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Western Conference\"\"<\/p>\n

Biggest takeaway from Game 6:With his team facing elimination, Victor Wembanyama<\/a> understood the approach needed for Game 6. So, the Frenchman embraced aggression from the opening tip, touching off a 3-point barrage in the first half that saw San Antonio hit 11 shots from deep, the most in any first half of a playoff game in franchise history.<\/p>\n

With 5:15 left in the game, the 19,066 fans in Frost Bank Center chanted, “Spurs in seven!” as San Antonio tied the series 3-3 to force one more game Saturday in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

Over the first two quarters, Wembanyama piled up 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting, surpassing his Game 5 totals of 20 points and 15 attempts, while knocking down four 3-pointers. Wembanyama finished the game with a team-high 28 points.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama has now produced 20 points or more and multiple blocks in all six games so far of the Western Conference finals. That ties Hakeem Olajuwon<\/a> in 1995 for the most such games in a single conference finals since 1974, when blocks became an official statistic, according to ESPN Research.<\/p>\n

The fast start sparked momentum that spread throughout the entire squad and carried well into the second half. The Spurs embarked on an 11-0 run in the third quarter with Wembanyama off the floor that pushed their lead to 21 points.<\/p>\n

The club would eventually complete a 20-0 run in the third quarter that registered as the largest allowed by the Thunder in a postseason outing since they relocated to Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama proved devastating early in the half court, where he racked up 19 of his 22 first-half points. Wembanyama shot 4-of-4 with Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a> as the primary defender in the opening quarter, after shooting 3-of-11 against the Thunder center in Game 5.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama’s first-half outburst marked his fifth 20-point half of the postseason, the most by a Spur in one postseason since 1998. Hall of Fame power forward Tim Duncan accomplished the feat four times in 2003 and 2006. — Michael C. Wright<\/p>\n

Game 7:Spurs at Thunder<\/a> (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, NBC\/Peacock)<\/p>\n

What to watch in Game 7:Can Wembanyama be the most dominant force on the floor for the fourth time this series? Can Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> come up with his best performance of the series when the defending champs need it most?<\/p>\n

One of the main storylines entering this series was whether the French phenom could dethrone the back-to-back MVP. However, Wembanyama’s first conference finals have been somewhat of a roller coaster, but he has been brilliant in each of the Spurs’ wins. His presence is one of the primary reasons that Gilgeous-Alexander’s scoring and shooting efficiency have been so far below his norms. But a big Game 7 can make Gilgeous-Alexander’s struggles against the Spurs’ defense in the first six games a mere footnote. — Tim MacMahon<\/p>\n

Eastern Conference\"\"<\/p>\n

Biggest takeaways from Game 4: Donovan Mitchell<\/a> lamented after Game 3 that the Cavaliers blew a 22-point lead in the first game of the series and it had changed the tenor of the Eastern Conference finals. The Cavs never recovered from that collapse, and their season ended with four straight double-digit defeats, including a thumping in Game 4.<\/p>\n

Cleveland actually began Monday’s game by scoring the first five points and jumping out to an 8-2 lead. Mitchell tried to do all he could to extend the Cavs’ season, scoring 12 of his 31 points in the first quarter, and Evan Mobley<\/a> showed up as his running mate. But the Knicks’ offense was relentless, and the Cavs couldn’t do anything to slow down New York. By the middle of the second quarter, the game started to get out of hand.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the Cavs were fatigued from a grueling gauntlet across the first two rounds — each a seven-game series — and without consecutive rest days for the final 3 weeks. But the Cavs also were overmatched by a more talented team. This summer will be full of questions for an organization searching for a way to get over the hump of playoff disappointments. — Jamal Collier<\/p>\n

The Knicks chase history with NBA Finals berth<\/p>\n

Three times in these playoffs the Knicks have had a chance to close out their opponent on the road, and three times they have completely eviscerated the opposition so that the game was over long before the fourth quarter even started.<\/p>\n

So much has changed since the night of April 23, when the Knicks fell behind 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> in the first round. The Knicks lost back-to-back games by a single point, including a collapse in Game 2 that had New York City on edge, wondering if the Knicks were going to find a way to disappoint their die-hard fans again.<\/p>\n

Absolutely no one, not even the most ardent Knicks supporter, could have anticipated the fever dream that followed.<\/p>\n

Thirty consecutive days without a loss. Eleven straight victories after Monday night’s Memorial Day win in Cleveland, with a point differential of plus-262 — the biggest differential over an 11-game span across any portion of the NBA’s 80 seasons, regular season or playoffs.<\/p>\n

As a result, the Knicks find themselves back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 — and the partisans in the Big Apple will spend the next eight days dreaming that this could finally be the year the franchise’s 53-year championship drought comes to an end.<\/p>\n

The challenge of slowing down either Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> or Victor Wembanyama<\/a> and their talented depth will easily be New York’s toughest test. But the Knicks can argue they are playing as well as any team in the history of the league over the past month.<\/p>\n

TheKnicks have a collection of two-way wings in OG Anunoby<\/a>, Mikal Bridges<\/a> and Josh Hart<\/a>. They have legitimate 7-footers who give them different ways to attack the opposition in Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> and Mitchell Robinson<\/a>. They have quality 3-and-D options off the bench in Landry Shamet<\/a> and Deuce McBride<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And, of course, they have Jalen Brunson<\/a>, whose arrival as a free agent four years ago changed the course of the franchise.<\/p>\n

This team shares the ball, has a depth of talent and is being led by an underdog superstar who defends and scraps — paralleling the Knicks teams of the 1990s led by Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Allan Houston and Larry Johnson, and the championship teams of 1970 and 1973 that were among the most celebrated groups in NBA history.<\/p>\n

The hardest part of the climb is still ahead. Getting past either theOklahoma City Thunder<\/a> or the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>is far from a certainty, as New York will be the underdog against either team when the Finals start.<\/p>\n

But don’t tell that to the Knicks, or their fans. For the next eight days, they’ll be able to sit back, rest and revel in a historic run.<\/p>\n

And with how things are going, why should they stop dreaming now? — Tim Bontemps<\/p>\n

NBA Finals Game 1:June 3, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The conference finals of the 2026 NBA playoffsare here, and our NBA insiders have you covered for every…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[99036,79709,7,193,2208,1409,130,6,11,191,179,90096,474,574],"class_list":["post-836453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-playoffs","tag-99036","tag-2026-nba-playoffs","tag-basketball","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-conference-semifinals","tag-eastern-conference","tag-espn","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-round-two","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117279629642638021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836453","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=836453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}