Zach Lowe

the creativity they've shown against a defense that is not going to give them any easy answers.

Like I said, the Lechamot all-shooting lineup is going to be big in this series, but I just wouldn't assume if I were a Knicks fan that when we play that, the Spurs are going to suddenly just play traditional defense only with Victor Weminyama.

will put himself in a historic stratosphere that I'm not even sure he and his people understand yet what would happen if he's the best player on the first Knicks title team in 53 years.

And to beat, to beat the Spurs, you do need to have a guard who can make enough, your lead guy, your lead ball handler needs to make enough of what I call the before Wemby shots, the shots where it's just like, all right, I'm going, I'm going one-on-one or I have a guy on my hip in the pick and roll.

And Wemby's,

Not in the play yet.

He's lurking, but we're 19 feet from the rim.

He's not here yet.

And, yeah, there's a guy digging on me from over here, and, boy, do the Spurs just show and recover, show and recover.

They flinch.

They stunt.

They make you think.

The before-Wemby shot were the shots that Shea was hitting in Game 7, where it's just, I got a guy on me.

He's draped on me.

I just got to shoot this because we're not getting anything better.

And weirdly, in re-watching the Spurs-Knicks games and obviously just having watched Shea, the two-time MVP, against the Spurs seven times, I actually think Brunson is better at those shots, better at getting separation on those shots.

almost even than Shea is.

And I think he can make an, I mean, he's shorter than Shea.

He probably hit a lower percentage from mid range than Shea.

So this sounds sacrilegious.