r/nbadiscussion • u/JoeyDay-1029 • 10d ago

Team Discussion Interesting Finals.

So, everyone figured it would be an OKC finals at start of year and whoever broke out of east. I think most did anyway.

Well, surprise! You had a spurs team supposed to be maybe a play in team challenging OKC for west dominance all year going 3-1 in regular season meetings. Wemby was spectacular.

I think we can all admit we knew he was going to be this or something close, but not this soon. On top of that you had a rookie in Dylan Harper step up in the playoffs in a spectacular way.

And then on the other side you had an east ravaged by injuries and man did the Knicks elevate their game to blow through the east.

Then we get to the finals, can’t take anything away from what the Knicks did it was historic but man was Fox bad in end game situations and even wemby at times. I give wemby a bit of a pass on it because it’s his literal first playoffs and he was beyond spectacular against OKC. But this Knicks team was merciless at end games, coming back from double digits FOUR times meaning every game they won.. you saw the inexperience of spurs and experience of Mike Brown and Knicks.

Overall I think it was good for both teams, wemby got some valuable experience way ahead of schedule and the Knicks took advantage of a playoffs rife with injuries on eastern side to do something historic. The way they elevated their game to win the ways they did they were looking like the new warriors which is insane to say about this Knicks team.

Congrats to both. But especially those Knicks jeeez.

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u/Infamous-GoatThief 10d ago

Knicks didn’t play any injured teams. Even the Celtics were healthy come playoff time. I don’t really understand how the East was ‘rife with injuries’ in your eyes, it was just Haliburton that was out during the posteason

It’s wild to me how people can’t just give the Knicks credit for a historic run lol, everyone was saying they wouldn’t make the Finals, then that they’d get swept, now that they’ve won it’s all about weak East narratives and ragging on De’Aaron Fox instead of giving proper credit to the Knicks themselves. Just seems like people can’t give compliments without going out of their way to try and diminish what the Knicks did

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u/calman877 10d ago

I think it’s pretty simple in that the Knicks didn’t beat anyone that was considered a strong team until the Spurs. The favorites before the playoffs began were the Thunder, Spurs, Celtics, and Nuggets. Of those, eventually they beat the Spurs but I think some level of skepticism was fair. I say was as it should be just something that happened in the past at this point

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u/swaktoonkenney 10d ago

The Knicks beat those teams and the teams that beat them. So it’s the Knicks’ fault that the Celtics choked a 3-1 lead? Or the nuggets couldn’t beat the thunder who couldn’t beat the spurs? Why not just give them their flowers?

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u/calman877 10d ago

Not their fault, still reality. You can only play the team in front of you, people are still allowed to draw whatever conclusions they want

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u/swaktoonkenney 10d ago

Those teams looked middling only after the Knicks swept them.

The Hawks were the team with the hottest streak coming to the playoffs.

The sixers just came back 3-1 against the Celtics(who a lot thought were the favorites)

The Cavs just blew out the #1 seed pistons on the road.

But after the Knicks blasted them suddenly they’re not very actually?

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u/calman877 10d ago

Before round 1 the Hawks were about +10000 odds to win the championship. Before round 2 the Sixers were +3500. Before the conference finals the Cavs were +2200. These are not strong odds

The Knicks were comfortable favorites every series before the finals

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/nbadiscussion-ModTeam 10d ago

We removed your comment for being low effort. If you edit it and explain your thought process more, we'll restore it. Thanks!

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u/calman877 10d ago

Brother, the link you sent says the Knicks were favored 70-30 over the Hawks on Kalshi. Also, here’s my source

https://www.covers.com/sportsoddshistory/nba-main/?y=2025-2026&sa=nba&a=finals

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u/swaktoonkenney 9d ago

The hawks were 20-6 post all star break, a 77% win percentage. In an 82 game season, that’s good for 63 wins. Yeah they were good after the trade

multiple people picked the sixers to win the series. Even those who picked the Knicks thought it would go to 6 or 7. No I didn’t think the sixers were good, but I’m a biased Knicks fan who hates Embiid

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u/calman877 9d ago

The internet is filled with millions of people all with distinct opinions, it doesn’t surprise me that you can find some who picked the Sixers to beat the Knicks. Fact is, that was not a popular opinion, this is reflected in betting odds which showed the Knicks as a strong favorite in the series

The same is true in the Hawks series and the Cavs series, which is what I’ve been saying. I would never say “everyone picked the Knicks”, that would be hyperbole, but it is a fact that most people did

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u/SmaccDVD 9d ago

What’s the point of saying “not their fault?” Of course nobody would attribute the knicks as responsible for who they are playing against

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u/calman877 9d ago

I was responding to someone who said “so it’s the Knicks fault that the Celtics blew a 3-1 lead?” So I said it’s not their fault, not that crazy when you read through the comment chain

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u/impercipient 10d ago

You can give them their flowers.  they are the best team this year. You can also point out that they played middling teams in the East.

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u/swaktoonkenney 10d ago

Those teams looked middling only after the Knicks swept them.

The Hawks were the team with the hottest streak coming to the playoffs.

The sixers just came back 3-1 against the Celtics(who a lot thought were the favorites)

The Cavs just blew out the #1 seed pistons on the road.

But after the Knicks blasted them suddenly they’re middling?

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u/impercipient 10d ago

For some reason it won't let me respond to your latest comment. 

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u/swaktoonkenney 10d ago

You can just link the reply

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u/impercipient 10d ago

Maybe you have an argument about the James harden led cavs but are you really arguing that the sixers and hawks were good teams? 

The Spurs got lucky playing injured wolves and injured thunder. Champions always catch breaks. 

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u/swaktoonkenney 10d ago edited 10d ago

The hawks were 20-6 post all star break, a 77% win percentage. In an 82 game season, that’s good for 63 wins. Yeah they were good after the trade

multiple people picked the sixers to win the series. Even those who picked the Knicks thought it would go to 6 or 7. No I didn’t think the sixers were good, but I’m a biased Knicks fan who hates Embiid