NBA Cup Takeaways: Knicks, Spurs Make Statements, League Sours on Las Vegas

New York’s defense and depth were on full display in a win that raised real championship expectations, while San Antonio is further ahead of schedule than expected.

The New York Knicks celebrate after winning the NBA Cup over the San Antonio Spurs. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Picked up pieces from New York’s NBA Cup–claiming win over San Antonio while wondering just where they will hang that banner at Madison Square Garden … 

The Knicks are for real

The expectations were sky high for New York coming into this season—NBA Finals or bust was a phrase heard often on the corner of 33rd and 7th—but so far the Knicks look like a team ready to clear them. Tuesday’s win offered a little of everything: Brilliance from Jalen Brunson (25 points, eight assists), shotmaking from OG Anunoby (28 points) and Karl-Anthony Towns (16), rebound vacuuming from Mitchell Robinson (15, including 10 on the offensive glass). New York’s defense held San Antonio to 41.4% shooting and the minutes-restricted Victor Wembanyama to 7 of 17. The Spurs entered Tuesday night 12–3 in clutch games this season. In the fourth quarter, the Knicks outscored them 35–19. 

“Our standards are about sacrificing, connectivity, competitive spirit, a belief in the process and a belief in each other, which is huge,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “No matter who’s out there, [there is] belief in each other while holding everybody accountable.”

The Knicks are rolling. The Cup championship win was New York’s sixth straight (unofficially—Cup title games don’t count toward regular-season records). The Knicks have lost once since Thanksgiving. The offense is better (and more modern) than last season, and the defense is hovering around the top 10. Brunson is an MVP candidate, Towns is close to an automatic 20-10 and Brown has pushed all the right buttons. When it comes time to compete for the real championship, this team will be tough to beat. 

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So are the Spurs

It wasn’t supposed to happen this fast. This was supposed to be the fun year, the feisty year, the year a Spurs team loaded with early 20-somethings clawed its way to the playoffs and threw a first-round scare into the Thunder or Nuggets. 

Uh, about that. 

San Antonio is loaded. Its three-guard rotation of De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper is dynamic. Fox can score, Castle (12 assists on Tuesday) has emerged as an elite playmaker and Harper is a menace off the dribble. Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell and Harrison Barnes are reliable wing scorers. 

Then there is Wembanyama. Wemby is ridiculous. The Cup final wasn’t Wembanyama’s best—he scored 18 points and collected six boards in 25 minutes, revealing after the game that he had lost someone close to him on Tuesday—but he found ways to make an impact. When he was not catching alley-oops, he was knocking down stepback threes. He’s so intimidating in the paint that driving guards often don’t even look to get shots up on the rim. A 12-game absence with a calf injury is the only thing keeping him out of the MVP conversation. 

Granted, there is a different level of intensity in the postseason, one the likes of Wembanyama, Castle and Harper can’t prepare for. But this Spurs team has been ruthlessly efficient during these Cup games. They outplayed Oklahoma City in the semifinals and have wins over the Lakers, Magic and Nuggets in the last month. They execute like a team filled with seasoned veterans—and Tuesday night was just the second game the full rotation has played together. After the game, Mitch Johnson noted that “25 games in, I believe, that we’ve shown some signs that we can be a pretty good team.” Indeed. Maybe more.  

The Cup is cool

Do you remember December games pre-Cup? Me neither, which in itself makes the Cup worth the NBA’s investment in it. In a pregame news conference, NBA commissioner Adam Silver reiterated his support for the league’s in-season tournament, dismissing suggestions that the Cup schedule contributed to an uptick in injuries this season. 

“All I can deal with is the data itself,” said Silver. “And the data we have so far this season is we have the lowest number of injuries in the last three years.”

The NBA will happily provide reporters with a fact sheet touting the Cup’s success. Ratings are up, the number of competitive games, all that. The intensity of the Cup final backs that up. Remember—this game does not count. The Knicks can’t keep pace with the Pistons and the Spurs can’t climb over the Lakers. Yet on Tuesday, both teams traded haymakers. Towns came back into the game on a bad leg. There was a playoff-like intensity in a game played before Christmas. “You see how hard we are playing out there,” said Harper. “We are diving for loose balls, going to get offensive rebounds and just doing anything we could do to help our team win.”

The league can’t ask for much more than that.

Is the NBA souring on Las Vegas?

The Cup semifinals will be played in home markets next season, a decision made back in September. Could the championship game be on the move, too? On the Amazon Prime Video pregame show Silver said that some “storied college locations” are under consideration for future championship games, which could phase Vegas out completely. 

As I reported in the Open Floor newsletter—subscribe here—the economic downturn in Las Vegas has generated concern among NBA owners and some league officials. The decline in tourism has hit the city hard. And with the league closing in on a decision on expansion—Silver said a determination would be made sometime next year—how Vegas bounces back will be something the NBA will be monitoring closely. 

“I don’t have any doubt that Las Vegas, despite all of the other major league teams that are here now, the other entertainment properties, that this city could support an NBA team,” said Silver. “I think now we’re in the process of working with our teams and gauging the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground for those particular teams and what a pro forma would look like for them.”

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