Basketball gods blessed fans with most compelling NBA Finals since Warriors-Cavs

Precisely when it is apparent that Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and LeBron James are descending from their peaks, the basketball gods bless us with the most compelling NBA Finals since all three were featured in firefights between the Warriors and Cavaliers.The NBA’s New York headquarters is alive with the clinking of champagne glasses and the ringing of slot-machine jackpots. Maybe singing. The celebration began Saturday night, and the league hopes it continues through June 19, when Game 7 is scheduled.On one side, the hoop gods are giving us the veteran New York Knicks, with their devout and long-suffering fan base, standing behind an undersized star while representing America’s largest city. Many consider New York basketball heaven and Madison Square Garden the mecca.On the other side, we’re getting the youthful San Antonio Spurs, more than a decade removed from metronomic excellence. Now, featuring Victor Wembanyama, the global game’s latest phenomenon, a 22-year-old wunderkind reaching to seize the royal torch from Steph, KD and LeBron.Such disparate characterizations ought to make this battle immune to apathy. Both fan bases are rabid, but some of that energy already is spreading (mostly toward the Spurs). It’s tough for any fan to avoid interest, or at least a measure of curiosity.Which is why Game 1 on Wednesday projects to be the first this century to attract more than 20 million viewers, blowing past the 2016 Finals opener – Curry and the Warriors vs. James and the Cavs – to become, if not surpass, the most-watched Finals Game 1 ever with Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.Game 1 might be the most consequential of these Finals.If the Spurs prevail, it will sprinkle plenty of seasoning on their internal confidence. Moreover, they will have flattened the momentum the Knicks generated while winning 11 consecutive playoff games by a record-setting margin of 24.8 points. New York likely would recover, but the shield of invincibility that carried them into June will be shattered.If the Knicks, after eight days without a game, stroll into Frost Bank Center and emerge victorious, it could put doubt in the minds of the Spurs. After methodically conquering Western Conference foes on increasingly larger stages, including defending champion Oklahoma City, are the much younger but wholly impetuous Spurs mature enough to stay solid on the ultimate stage?Their coach, Mitch Johnson, thinks they are.“With just how young and talented (we) are, to be able to be this resilient, especially against some teams that have been here,” Johnson told reporters over the weekend. “Playing Minnesota, they’ve been in the conference finals the last two years. OKC has been to the conference finals last two years, been the 1 seed the last three years and just won a championship.“Being able to do it against those types of teams, I think prepares you for whatever you’re going to see at the end.”The Knicks, however, bring a whole different level of experience, overall and in the postseason. Their rotation is laden with players between 28 and 31 years old, prime years. Aside from 25-year-old guard Miles McBride, New York’s top eight players have a combined 464 games of playoff experience.New York is new to The Finals, its first since 1973, but this is a very familiar path.This is Johnson’s first full season as head coach; he has coached 18 playoff games. He has done a tremendous job, but The Finals can raise the heat to an altogether different level. There is some uncertainty about whether the Spurs, with their talented but occasionally erratic youngsters, are ready for this.The oddsmakers don’t think they are. One reason is the postseason experience not only of players but of coach Mike Brown. He has 100 playoff games as head coach, with four different franchises: the Cavaliers, Lakers, Kings and now the Knicks. That’s in addition to his 12-0 record as temporary head coach of the Warriors when Steve Kerr was sidelined for medical reasons.Brown believes the Knicks, as their record indicates, are peaking.“Our group is playing good basketball, and they’re doing it in different ways,” Brown told reporters last week. “They’re doing it differently depending on who our opponent is. And when you show that type of versatility on both ends of the floor, it just adds to your belief.”“I’ve said it before, you use regular season to get ready for the postseason. And our guys did a hell of a job with that.”New York will face a level of physicality not felt on its road through the Eastern Conference. But previous postseason setbacks have left the kind of wounds that result in scar tissue. These Spurs, by contrast, barely have been scratched.This series, however, is about more than deciding a champion. It’s about one team exorcising decades of despair and the other introducing a monster capable of terrorizing the league for many years.The marquee is appealing, the lights are bright and eyeballs will be plentiful. These Finals bring the kind of spectator nirvana not seen since 2016, when Curry and Warriors – after coming back to eliminate Durant and Thunder in the conference finals– took a 3-1 lead over James and the Cavs, only to fall in seven.May we get seven games in these Finals. No doubt the NBA wants it. And why wouldn’t its fans?Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

Basketball gods blessed fans with most compelling NBA Finals since Warriors-Cavs

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