For the third series in a row, the New York Knicks will be matching up against a team coming fresh off of a seven game slugfest. They've done their part, too, sweeping the Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers in back-to-back series.
By winning on Thursday night, though, the San Antonio Spurs created the need for a Game 7 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Especially given Thursday's reports that Mitchell Robinson has a broken right pinky finger, the Knicks will have as much of a rest advantage as possible against whoever they wind up facing in the NBA Finals.
The Spurs just helped Knicks get the best rest advantage possible
The final playoff series of the 2026 NBA season has been set to tip off on June 3rd for quite some time – regardless of the Knicks' sweep, or the fact that the Thunder and Spurs just pushed their series to its maximum length.
All the Knicks could do on their end to earn some additional time for recovery was finish off their opponent in the Eastern Conference Finals as quickly as possible. They did so, needing just four games to tally four wins against the Cavaliers. And Landry Shamet even told ESPN's studio crew, after the series, that the team had plans to prevent another slow start.
It was the Knicks' rust that got them into a 22-point hole, in Game 1 against Cleveland. And necessitated the mounting of a momentous comeback in front of their fans at Madison Square Garden. It's clear that frustrated them as a group, with starting wing Mikal Bridges also addressing the need to begin the series with intensity after practice on Thursday.
On the other side of the bracket, though, Victor Wembanyama is making his case for being the best player in the world. And as the two Western Conference teams continue to duke it out, they're wearing each other down. It's a thin, silver lining in the wake of Robinson's injury from the Knicks' point of view.
By forcing each other into a full seven-game bout, the Thunder and Spurs are ensuring that the Knicks' eventual opponent will, once again, be working off of as little rest as possible.
That won't heal Robinson's pinky finger, which isn't likely to have fully recovered by the time the NBA Finals get underway. But it just might help to level the playing field for the final two teams standing.
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