Knicks are proving all the nay-sayers (including me) wrong
Nobody gave the New York Knicks a chance in hell of winning this thing. Most pundits and bookmakers had them crashing out early in the series to someone like the Pistons or the Celtics. They have proven everyone wrong time and time again and the last team that actually beat them was the Atlanta Hawks and well, if you are an NBA fan you already know that the Knicks finished up that series with one of the largest tournament score deficits of all time when they absolutely destroyed the Hawks in game 6.
Then they went on to win the next 8 games straight, easily dismissing the 76ers and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
When the Spurs surprisingly advanced to the finals by eliminating the much-favored Thunder, nobody was giving them a chance to win.
Well, we kind of see what is going on here in the finals now don't we?
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Records are meant to be broken and the historical statistics haven't amounted to much in this tournament but with the Spurs now down 0-2 in the championship we should look at the fact that there have only been 5 instances in the history of the entire NBA that any team has ever returned from 0-2 to win the series. However, the game is very different today and 2 of those 5 times happened in the past 10 years.
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As expected, the Knicks are playing really tough defense on Victor Wenbanyama but the man is still pushing through and scored 29 points in game 2. He is getting plenty of support from his team mates as well as the points are spread out nicely among the rest. It just seems as though the Knicks have the Spurs' number though. The Knicks seemed to have this one in the bag long before the final buzzer but the Spurs went on a 14-0 tear that nearly tied the game up. Ironically, it was "Wemmy" who fumbled the ball in the final moments. Still, the Spurs looked to the same man to pull off a final seconds 20 footer that rattled off the mark. It was close, but as they say: "close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades."
Both of these losses for the Spurs happened in San Antonio and this doesn't bode well if we are looking at historical statistics. No NBA team has ever won the Championship after dropping the first 2 games at home.
The next 2 games take place in New York and if you believe at all in "home court advantage" then this looks really bad for the Spurs. Ticket prices are insane and the average cost is over $9000 per seat, and these are for the seats all the way in the back. Courtside seats are apparently being re-sold for over $120,000. That's just insane.
It appears as though the bookies are finally starting to have some faith in the Knicks though, because for the first time in this series the New Yorkers are favorites to win but only just. They are favored by 2.5 points. The Spurs have been 4 and 6.5 point favorites in both of the first 2 games and the "experts" were wrong about that.
The New York Knicks haven't won an NBA championship since 1973, but have always remained a popular force. It would be interesting to see them win.
Can the Spurs pull it back? History says no, but this tournament has been filled with a ton of surprises, that's for sure.