Chapter 1: What were the key moments in the Knicks' celebration after winning the NBA Cup?
Hello and welcome to the NBA Daily. I'm Dave DeFore. This is Espera Henney, Zena Cato. We are live right after the Knicks captured the 2025 NBA Cup Championship. It just means more, guys.
Absolutely.
And actually, look, I want to start with the finish of the game, the celebration by the Knicks. It did seem like it meant a lot to them. Mike Brown giving a shout out to the fact that full of Knicks fans in this crowd. Yes. Who acted like this game mattered a lot. The players celebrated like it mattered quite a bit. And they played like this game meant something.
I thought Mike Brown's point after the game, anytime you can be the last team standing, no matter what, you can't act like it doesn't mean it.
Yeah, exactly. Look, this is a team that hasn't won a thing since 1973. Their fans needed something. And this is why the cup is good. This is exactly why the cup is actually important because it gives teams that even though the Knicks have contending hopes and championship aspirations, you get something else that you can win. That's why that was awesome. I love the cat was really into it as well.
He was animated. It's good when guys care about it.
It was a genuine rush out onto the court when they won. I mean, I would have loved them. They did the La Liga thing, but they didn't swing. They didn't swing the trophy. They should have done that. More practice required. Yeah, Dennis Schroeder can help them with that. But in general, I just loved the fact that they were genuinely excited.
Yeah, Jalen Brunson wins NBA Cup Tournament MVP, rightfully so. In this game, guys, I mean, we're going to talk about the difference makers in the games for the Knicks. But starting with Jalen Brunson, puts up 25 points. This is the smallest lead guard in the NBA. He's an all-NBA guy. He's an MVP candidate. And when you're out there against Victor Wiminyama,
You just think this guy's going to be intimidated. But the way that he plays, getting into the lane, it didn't matter when Wimby was on him. He was still creating space to try to get shots up. And he wasn't super effective, but he did carry him down the stretch of this game. I mean, Jalen Brunson is the reason that they won the game.
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Chapter 2: How did Jalen Brunson contribute to the Knicks' victory?
I'm glad you brought up the pace, because the story of this game is that the bench unit for the Knicks turned up the intensity and the speed of the Spurs and just took over. Tyler Kolek, Jordan Clarkson, Mitchell Robinson. These guys came in off the bench, and it changed the game. They dominated the Spurs bench. That included Victor Wimanyama.
victor women yama finishes this game minus 18 and again we will talk specifically about victor's game itself but the way that that the knicks bench actually just they gang rebounded gang offensive rebounded but i want to start with mitchell robinson hit 10 offensive rebounds insane dominates this game from the middle of the third quarter to the middle of the fourth to the point where that won the knicks this game
Yeah, there was nothing they could do when he was inside in terms of, one, the putbacks on top of the offensive rebounds. But it's so funny. It's like in the second half is when he really got a lot of those rebounds. But even in the first half when he was playing, it was tip outs.
It was just keeping the ball alive for them, which they needed, especially because the Spurs were recklessly, like rebounding with reckless abandon in the first half versus the second half. That's where in the first half, Spurs 24 on the glass versus 25 for the Knicks. In the second half, 18 for the Spurs, 34. For New York. That's all. Complete difference.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's just it's exactly what they need him for. And that's why he's so important. Him staying healthy this year is going to be such a big ceiling changer for them, because if he can be that like 15 minutes a night, 20 minutes a night, go out there and grab 10 offensive rebounds for you. That changes.
One of the secrets for the Knicks this season has been how often they win the possession battle because they they're a really good offensive rebounding team. They're a low turnover team for the most part. And then on the other hand, conversely, for the Spurs tonight, they blew this game by not being able to finish possessions by getting a defensive rebound.
I mean, there was there's one possession where there's like seven missed shots and all of them were. Mitchell Robinson, but he stays active on the glass. Tyler, you know, you've got Tyler Kolek out there just kind of making things happen. Josh Hart making plays around the rim.
And there was just a time where I'm talking to you guys saying they might need to bring in Luke Cornett to play next to Victor Wiminyama because of how they're getting crushed on the glass. Exercise.
And one thing I'll give a lot of credit to Mitchell Robinson is that he plays the pick and roll and he plays his position incredibly well. It's hard sometimes to get a post to understand exactly when you're supposed to roll off of the screen and also how you position yourself. You saw many times when Mitchell Robinson would go up to set the screen at the top of the key or on the wing and he...
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Chapter 3: What role did OG Anunoby play in the Knicks' strategy against the Spurs?
They have that. That is a prerequisite to winning basketball games in the postseason. They absolutely have the guard play available to do that. Also, their guards are big.
They are.
Steph Cash is 6'5". Dylan Harper is a solid 6'6", 6'7". And then you look at De'Aaron Fox, who's 6'3", 6'4", but also fast. They have that level of size that works for them defensively. They push in transition like crazy. And they find so many good looks in transition because of it.
The question you have for them moving forward is, hey, can you blend that style, that identity they figured out without Wemby? with the way Wemby wants to play as well.
I thought the guards tonight, it was a difference of halves in terms of shot making. And their energy seemed to go in the second half when they weren't dropping the threes that they were dropping in the first half. We did still see the defensive, that high school championship type of defense from Dylan Harper on Jalen Brunson towards the end of the game. There was still effort there.
Don't get me wrong. But it felt as if once the shots weren't falling, especially in transition, like they were in the first half, then they were met with the task of let's find a way to score in the half court. And in the second half, that half court offense just dropped. It was not efficient. And it all has to do with the fact that they try to put what Victor Mioma started the fourth quarter.
Yeah. Right. As opposed to coming off the bench like he was against OKC. And it just felt like that. They have the one particular play that they like. Victor comes up, they come off the flare and a ball screen is happening. And it just nothing was happening with it because Victor wasn't rolling. Right. He kept popping and the guards didn't know what to do this time with that.
And it just was a difference of half for them.
Can we talk about the Knicks little guard situation? Yeah, okay. The Kolek Clarkson. Yeah, we had to. I thought that was shots.
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Chapter 4: How did the Knicks' bench players change the momentum of the game?
This is a different team than last year. They play differently. They're more unselfish. They're playing with faster pace. They're actually looking to get shots up. And they're deeper. We just talked about how they're missing Landry Shaman and Deuce McBride, two guys who are Pretty important to their rotation. But now you have Tyler Kolek. Now you have Jordan Clarkson stepping into those roles.
This is like an 11-man deep roster, which is important in today's NBA.
Exactly. If you want to make it to the final destination, you need those extra bodies.
I still have concerns about their defense. But when you can rebound like this, You can mitigate that because if you're going to take 12, 15 extra shots than your opponents every night, you're going to win a lot of games. And I will say this, the Knicks did not shoot the ball particularly well. They generated really great looks from three, but they left a lot on the table tonight too.
That's another thing that's probably going to get lost in the score is that this game really could have been a blowout if the Knicks had been canning shots, especially early on. First half of this game, it felt like they had a lot of in and out shots.
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Chapter 5: What impact did Mitchell Robinson have on the game with his rebounding?
But offensively, I believe them. I believe in them. I think that they are the best offensive team in the Eastern Conference. And you said offense wins championships.
Offense wins games.
Defense wins championships. Offense does win cups.
It's a guard tournament, guys.
Anyway, okay. Let's wrap up on this. NBA Cup, 2025 NBA Cup. We're here again. What's your takeaway from the experience?
My takeaway from the experience is that I'm looking forward and as we are have to make shift to work this around because we're getting teared down all over the place.
They got a hockey game here tomorrow.
Yes. My main takeaway is that I'm excited to see teams care about this more and more as the history develops for the NBA Cup. You see the Knicks care about it. I think it'll be more interesting when the semifinals get hosted in the actual home arenas. I'm very curious to see if they end up going to Vegas for the finals or if they switch that up as well. But the Cup is awesome.
Yeah.
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