The New York Knicks’ chances of winning their first championship since 1973 continue to get stronger each and every game—including when it’s the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder facing off against one another.
After dropping two straight to the reigning champs, the Spurs picked up a dominant victory in Game 4. Their 22-point win is the Thunder’s third-largest margin of defeat since the start of the season, and the fifth-largest since 2024-25.
More importantly for New York, San Antonio’s victory ensures this ridiculously physical Western Conference Finals matchup will reach a Game 6, if not go the distance.
Spurs vs. Thunder is unfolding exactly as the Knicks should want
Even if they won’t admit it publicly, the Knicks definitely have a preference over who they’d rather face should they reach the NBA Finals. (Spoiler alert: They are reaching the NBA Finals.) It’s probably the Spurs, but the prerogative stands to shift toward the Thunder depending on the severity of injuries to Jalen Williams (left hamstring) and Ajay Mitchell (right calf).
Really, though, New York should just be rooting for the OKC-San Antonio series to last as long as possible by reaching a Game 7.
The relentless aggression being deployed by both the Spurs and the Thunder is already extracting a heavy toll. Both Dylan Harper and De’Aaron Fox have been banged up for San Antonio. Without Mitchell or J-Dub in Game 4, Oklahoma City ran out of reliable scoring options after Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
If there were an official metric for “bodies that hit the floor per game,” the Western Conference Finals would break the scale at which it’s graded. NBC Sports’ Reggie Miller even invoked the “bodies everywhere” trope during Game 4.
Stephon Castle is burning innumerable calories on his reactions to whistles and foul calls alone. That’s before factoring in the energy expended chasing around SGA, and at times having to serve as San Antonio’s primary ball-handler.
Log onto the whiny cesspool that has become Twitter’s corpse, and you will be inundated with complaints about the no-calls—about Isaiah Hartenstein attempting to wear Victor Wembanyama like a second skin on the glass, about SGA having only won MVP because he’s bicep-curled and skull-crushered his way to the world’s strongest off-arm, about how no, actually, it was the Thunder who were unfairly officiated in Game 4.
New York should be relishing in it all—knowing that, at minimum, the team it squares off with beginning on June 3 will be worse for wear.
The Knicks’ still need to capitalize on this opportunity
Granted, the Knicks’ own job isn’t done. They still need to do their part by dispatching the Cleveland Cavaliers as quickly as possible—preferably in Game 4.
Winning Monday would add a monstrous rest benefit to their suddenly mounting list of Finals advantages. Complete the sweep, and by the time they head to OKC or San Antonio for Game 1, they’ll have enjoyed nine days’ worth of recovery. This would come after having received nine days of rest in between Round 2 and the Eastern Conference Finals.
All told, the Knicks could feasibly enter the NBA Finals having played eight games over a 31-day span. Meanwhile, their opponent, whoever it is, will have just fought fiercely, ferociously for six or seven games against a fellow superpower.
Whether that would be enough to make New York favorites for Game 1, let alone the entire Finals, isn’t up for debate. It won’t. But as we’ve seen during the Knicks’ complete and total destruction of the Cavs, being the fresher team certainly doesn’t hurt.
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