The Zach Lowe Show
A Knicks vs. Spurs NBA Finals Preview! Plus, What's Next for the Thunder?
02 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the expectations for the Knicks vs. Spurs NBA Finals?
Coming up on the Zach Lowe Show, I am in a scorching San Antonio, Texas. The NBA Finals are about to start. The Knicks and the Spurs. Moe DeKeele, my old friend, he also just arrived in San Antonio. We're going to give you, hopefully, the best, most in-depth preview of this series you can get. We're going to look at both sides of the floor. X's and O's. Who's Wemba Nyama guarding? Who?
is going to guard Wimbinyama? What lineups are going to be key? The Mitchell Robinson factor, how big of a deal is that? Can the Knicks, underdogs again in the finals, can they finally pull this off and break the 53-year no championship streak? We're going to make predictions.
I hope I'm going to force Mo to make a prediction and talk everything in the finals, the matchup, the X's and O's, the adjustments to the adjustments, the stakes, the big picture stuff, the fun stuff, all of it. Both these cities are going to be absolutely on fire. What a series we have in store. And then Andrew Schlecht from the Down to Dunk podcast over at The Athletic. He's their thunder guy.
He's in Oklahoma City. We're going to talk about the fallout of the Thunder losing to the Spurs in the conference finals, losing four, I'm sorry, losing eight of their 12 meetings to the Spurs this season. Is this a seismic change? Do they just have no answer for women, Yama? What the hell happened to Chet Holmgren? What are they going to do in the offseason? Is it going to be a quiet one?
Chapter 2: How will the Knicks defend Victor Wembanyama?
Is it going to be a loud one? Is it going to be a crazy one?
Chapter 3: What role could Mitchell Robinson play in the Finals?
We'll talk all things Thunder, the would-be dynasty that has already been interrupted. That's all coming up on the Zach Lowe Show. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. The NBA finals are here. 28 teams are gone. Two are left. And boy, oh boy, what a fantastic finals matchup we have. The New York Knicks attempting to end a 53-year title drought.
And if they do it, would just about break New York City in half against the San Antonio Spurs and the most telegenic, most curiosity-inducing superstar that the league has had since young LeBron James in Victor Wembanyama, already here, crying, weeping, hugging for joy upon vanquishing. the would-be dynastic Oklahoma City Thunder.
Moe DeKeele, my excitement level, as you can see, is a 15 out of 10. I am in San Antonio. I would like game one to be tomorrow. It's not tomorrow. I am afraid of how insane New York City is going to be when this series comes to New York. Could not be more hyped about this series between Wemby and the young, hungry Spurs and a Knicks team that has found magic, real magic,
Chapter 4: What strategies will the Knicks use against the Spurs' defense?
in the playoffs, just 10 out of 10 matchup, 15 out of 10 excitement. I might be drunk right now. You'll never know. It's just going to be awesome. Mo welcome to San Antonio.
Yeah, I'm in San Antonio, too. I'm hyped up. I'm ready to go. You can see it in the streets as I was in the Lyft on my way to the hotel, seeing every street store has signs and everybody's pumped up. My Lyft driver had a Spurs jersey on. Everybody's ready to roll with all that. My only thing, this would be a little bit more fun if Game 1 was in New York.
No, I think we get to wait.
Chapter 5: How does the Thunder's offseason plan look after the playoffs?
We get to wait, and I don't even think it matters if it's 2-0 Spurs. I don't think the vibe will be any different than if it were 1-1 and the Knicks would have home court. God forbid it's 2-0 Knicks. I mean, the Statue of Liberty might already be torn down if that's the case. I will say that I was in New York yesterday on Sunday with my family. We did just say, hey, finals are starting.
There's no games tonight. I don't have Bill's podcast tonight because we did it Saturday. Let's have a nice family day. We went into Tribeca, played mini golf. We went to a nice playground there. I defended my family mini golf championship, which is now I'm undefeated. And the amount of people wearing Knicks stuff, is like nothing I've ever seen before in New York.
The amount of people shouting go Knicks at each other, at me, at anybody wearing Knicks stuff that they see is unlike anything I've ever seen before. And here's, you know, Mo, 15, 20 years ago, there was a small, I'm not proud of it. There was a small part of me that would have been a little snobby about like, oh, here come the bandwagon fans.
Chapter 6: What challenges does Chet Holmgren face moving forward?
How do you even know, you know, who Mitchell Robinson is? Can you tell me about Cat's career trajectory to this moment? Here you go, jumping on the bandwagon. And I'm here to tell you that in my soft old age, I've completely changed. Welcome to all the Fairweather fans. Because you know what Fairweather fans are truly, for the most part? There are some real newbies.
And by the way, welcome in, newbies. Here's this awesome sport that's going to stay awesome. And you're going to learn all sorts of stuff about it. It's going to be fun. But Fairweather fans are fantastic. Fans whose love of the team is still there, it's just latent. It's just been pushed down by the team's sucking, by adulthood and other commitments that you have to make as a normal human being.
And I say this from my own perspective as a Mets fan. I became a fair weather Mets fan. I lost touch with the team. Other things became more important to me. I had a wife. I had a kid. I had a career. The Mets were up and down and mostly down. And when I had some time again and the Mets became good again, I got back into it. I'm sticking into it. Doesn't make me less of a fan.
It's just it was always in my soul. So welcome everybody into this series because this has a chance to be a doozy, Mo. I will get into picks at the end. But I am just so excited for this matchup because both of these teams, the Spurs were an elite team start to finish, and they have the best player in the NBA. Are we just ready to say it out loud now?
And certainly the one that casual fans are just like, what is this? Has he been like this for a while? How tall is he?
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Chapter 7: Will the Thunder pursue a big name like Giannis in the offseason?
What's he listed at? Everyone's curious. And this Knicks team... has just obliterated the playoffs and found Nirvana. And it's real, it's spectacular, it's sustainable, and I just can't wait to see what happens. Where should we even start, Mo?
I mean, I think we have to start just on the most important question, which is, you know, how are the Knicks going to defend Wemby? Right. I think that's where the starting point of this whole series is. It's a defensive end for the Knicks. It's the offensive end for the Spurs. And where do we like to me? That's the question.
One, when I was prepping for the finals, that was the first thing I was looking at was studying, making sure I was watching it. I'm keeping a track on all that stuff. Had to rewatch a game because I felt so focused on that. I kind of missed everything else that happened in the game. But that's how important this is going to be. You know, how do you defend Wemby if you're the Knicks?
And I think that's something we need to keep an eye on. And I think that's the starting point, Zach. For me, that's the starting point of the series.
Well, let's just start there then with Victor Wemenyama, who is the nexus of the series on both ends of the floor, because conventional stuff either doesn't work or is just a non-starter for both teams on both ends of the floor. If you want to start Spurs offense, fine. Project number one is we've got to keep him away from the rim. Good luck.
His wingspan is like a thousand feet and the Spurs have gotten better and better just throwing the ball into the vicinity at the rim. Um, I would expect Cat to start the series guarding Wemenyama, but as many people have noted, Ananobi has been one of the best Victor Wemenyama defenders in the league and has guarded him a lot in three regular season matchups.
The Knicks fared well in those matchups, two and one. They won the cup.
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Chapter 8: What are the predictions for the NBA Finals outcomes?
Poulin, Weedeater, Kia, Sprite, Taco Bell, Emirates Cup. And they beat them in March in MSG in what was one of their best performances. I mean, before whatever's happening now happened of the season. And Ananobi was able to guard Wemenyama in a lot of those matchups because the Knicks had a pretty safe hiding place for Carl Anthony Towns.
Like, if the big is not going to guard the big, he's got to guard somebody. In a lot of those games, in most of those three games, it was Harrison Barnes.
who was starting over Julian Champagny, that was a seismic change the Spurs made, a gutsy one, and one that has really unlocked their team, in part because it really made it more complicated for teams to put their big men on anybody other than Wenbenyama. And the Spurs want opposing centers on Wenbenyama because of their difficulty in tracking him around the floor.
That option is gone at the start of games for the Knicks. So that's why I wouldn't be surprised if they just started traditionally and put Cat on Wenbenyama. Which, by the way, would have the benefit of sometimes Wemba Nyama would be stuck on Cat on the other end of the floor.
And I think as many times as the Knicks find that, they should go to Cat pick and pops and just try to get open threes, try to get pump and go drives, try to maybe draw some fouls on Wemba Nyama. But if they could go the other way and just start with Anadolbe on them right away. And then the question is, where do you put Cat? I don't really know what the answer is.
I don't think Vassell's a great hiding spot. I don't think Fox is a great hiding spot. I don't think Champagny's a great hiding spot, although that's where the Thunder had Chet. And Stephon Castle has proven, like, it's not going to really work that well on me as Donovan Klingin. So what would you do if you were the Knicks?
I think I would start out, and I have it in my notes, I would start with Cat on Wemby. And for everything you said, but the other thing too that I think matters also is like, I think OG is the ace in the hole for them in terms of defending Wemby at some point. But to me, I don't want to show my card that early. I don't want to play that hand that early.
Like we've seen in important games, like Kawhi, for example, may not guard the most important guy for two or three quarters, but then fourth quarter, we switch Kawhi on him. And then it's the whole thing where it throws sort of a little bit discombobulation, makes it a little bit more difficult. Now, the question that does become extremely difficult is where do you put Cat at that point?
Because then you have to figure out how you're going to deal with it. I still put him on Champagny in that instance. But I start with Cat on Wemby. And the most important thing, and this is going to be critical for Cat, he cannot pick up a dumb quick foul.
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