A very solid performance by the NY Knicks in both of their Final Four wins over Orlando in the semis, then a double digit win over the San Antonio Spurs who were fresh off of their upset win over the OKC Thunder in he other semi.
Final score NY 124 San Antonio 113.
The Knicks were just the better team in this one. Older, more mature, and a team which as a group have a big-time game finisher in Jalen Brunson.
No one really expected the Spurs to win this tournament and in the end they didn’t have what it takes to win the Cup.
I would think this would propel the Knicks alongside the Detroit Pistons as perhaps the two teams in the East as favorites to win the Eastern Conference. But the Pistons like the Spurs are very young and have not naviagted any of this previously.
The LA Lakers won the first Emirates NBA Cup and it in no way propelled them to a special post season run in April and May. Same would be said about the Milawaukee Bucks who easily defeated the Thunder in last season’s Cup, then fizzled quickly in the Playoffs.
So there is no history yet per se of the Emirates Cup winner using this championship as a catalyst for bigger and better things. But for these Knicks, who last season made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, where the Indiana Pacers finally ousted them…I would think this if nothing else for this group under first year Knick head coach Mike Brown… could be the confidence builder of sorts this team needs to start thinking bigger and more seriously about what their goals should be as we begin to navigate the NBA Playoffs in April.
As far as the Thunder go we know even though they’ve played the softest schedule in the league to date–they are still the No. 1 seed in my Power Poll and most otherNBA bloggers and beat writers polls as well.
If I’ve written this once, I’ve written this a thousand times…the key to beating the Thunder is not turning over the ball and not giving them easy transition points when they try to bully teams with the Forty Minutes of Hell rountine. Because here’s the dirty little secret about the Thunder, when you take those easy points away from them they have shown a tendency to mentally press and have some genuinely horrific woes shooting the three ball.
That’s the Holy Grail to beating the Thunder…take care of ball and slow the pace. But sometimes much easier written on a blog than doing it on the floor at PayCom with someone like Scott Foster not calling any fouls on the home team when Forty Miniutes begins to crank up.
I mean…these guys remind me of Tarkanian’s teams at UNLV. Defense creates transition offense. Very simple. This is not complex.
The Thunder have two games coming up first versus at Minnesota and then at San Antonio on the 23rd. I look forward to covering both here on the blog.
My first of three Power Polls for the duration of the regular season thus goes in this manner not quite one-third of the way through.
MJ’s first 2025 NBA Power Poll goes…1 OKC Thunder, 2 Denver Nuggets, 3 Houston Rockets, 4 NY Knicks, 5 San Antonio Spurs, 6 Detroit Pistons, 7 Minnesota Timberwolves, 8 Orlando Magic, 9 LA Lakers, and 10 Boston Celtics.
I left the Cleveland Canaliers off this intial poll because I feel as if they’re somewhat too soft.
Have an incredible Christmas season and enjoy every moment with your loved ones.
Mike J