New York Knicks at San Antonio Spurs Preview: How, Who to Watch in Chase For 2nd
The New York Knicks are perhaps a little too used to playing games vital for playoff positioning. This chase, however, is a bit sweeter.
New York is the new owner of the Eastern Conference's current third seed, but it now has second in its sights after the Milwaukee Bucks fell in New Orleans on Thursday. Now, the Knicks have a prime opportunity to make Good Friday a good Friday: a win over the lowly San Antonio Spurs would move them a half-game away from the runner-up spot, where they haven't finished since 2012-13.
In a rather bizarre turn of events, the Knicks are the only team among the Eastern Conference's top eight to own any form of winning streak, having prevailed in each of their past three. Following a loss in Denver last week, New York has fully taken advantage of subpar competition, fattening up on Brooklyn, Detroit, and Toronto with an average margin of victory sitting at 27 points after a 145-101 shellacking in Ontario on Wednesday. The Knicks would be wise to enjoy this stretch while they still can: after Friday's game, all but one of their remaining nine opponents linger in their respective conference's postseason chase.
San Antonio has been long removed from Western Conference contention, sustained primarily by the continued development of top overall pick Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs, to their credit, do enter as winners of each of their last two games, creating just their fifth winning streak so far this season. At no point has San Antonio won three in a row on their current ledger.
Friday will mark the second and final stage of the annual 1999 NBA Finals rematch and the Knicks have a chance at their second sweep of the set over the past three seasons. New York kept Wembanyama in check the first time around, as the regaled rookie shot 4-of-14 in a 126-105 defeat at Madison Square Garden back in November. The visit to San Antonio will also be the Knicks' last regular season road game against a Western Conference foe and they've accumulated a 6-8 record in such showdowns so far.
What: New York Knicks (44-28) @ San Antonio Spurs (17-56)
Where: Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, TX
When/Watch: Friday, 8 p.m. ET, MSG
Who's Favored: NYK -9.5
Keep An Eye On: Mitchell Robinson
Playoff seeding aside, the Knicks have a little something extra to play for over these final hours thanks to the return of Robinson, who had a 12-minute appearance on Wednesday in Toronto. Relatively consequence-free basketball (let's be real, any championship route the Knicks take will probably feature the Boston Celtics no matter where they end up) is a perfect chance to re-acclimate Robinson into the rotation and the Spurs provide a unique challenge thanks to Wembayama's prescience. Robinson happily accepted the challenge last time around and it'll be interesting to see the Knicks make him share the floor with the fantastic freshman as a bit of an extreme measuring stick of sorts.
Spur to Watch: Devin Vassell
This last stretch of Spurs basketball is anything but meaningless to the non-Wembanyama Spurs, many of whom will seek to prove why they should be allowed to stay for the potential good times ahead. Vassell's scoring outbursts could prove deadly if not contained: the Phoenix Suns found that out the hardway when he burned them for 26 on Monday night and he added 31 more in the effort that eliminated the Utah Jazz two nights later. Wembanyama is dangerous enough, but the Knicks can't forget about the role players looking to make a case for their professional futures.
They Said It
“I think it’s a good question, like, where does confidence come from? Well, it comes from your work that you put in, it comes from your preparation. Then I think when you see the results, and we saw it in practice, the volume of shots and the accuracy of his makes in practice, and then when he came back in training camp, it was clear. Now that his role is expanded, he’s got a good rhythm and he can really shoot the ball and then on top of that, his defense is top of the line. It was elite coming in, and it’s special to watch.”-Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau on Miles McBride's expanded role (h/t Peter Botte, New York Post)
Prediction
Yet another opportunity lingers for the Knicks to make a statement against a lesser opponent before an Easter gauntlet awaits. Even with Wembanyama offering hints of the nightmare that awaits the rest of the Association in the near future, there's little, if any, reason to believe that they'll be derailed by a Spurs group playing out the stretch.