The basketball community has been transfixed by this year’s unpredictable NBA Finals between San Antonio and New York. As the Knicks take a commanding 3-1 series lead into Game 5 on Saturday night, here are three big-picture takeaways from the matchup, some of which could contain lessons for the Nuggets to heed.
Immaturity and the most infamous NBA Finals blunders
The sweeping conclusion that playoff experience is no longer relevant turned out to be premature, it appears. For a fleeting moment, the Spurs tricked us into thinking it was a myth, this notion that every championship team has to take its lumps first. They shattered historical precedent. They slayed the dragon in Oklahoma City. They were favorites to win the Finals.
Not so fast.
The overarching story of these Finals has been that of the better team defeating itself, juxtaposed with the more experienced team keeping its composure. San Antonio has suffered a series of humbling tragicomedies, each more painful than the last. Somehow, blowing a 14-point lead in the second half of Game 1 hardly feels like a squandered opportunity anymore.
Twice at the end of regulation, the Spurs have had possession with the shot clock turned off, either tied or leading, which should guarantee overtime at the worst-case outcome. They lost both of those games in regulation. They’ve lacked poise, discipline and connectivity under pressure. They’ve made two shockingly lousy decisions that will be immortalized among the worst on-court mistakes in NBA history. Two decisions that might’ve been the difference between 3-1 Knicks and 3-1 Spurs.
Maybe it’s a little ironic that San Antonio’s most experienced star, De’Aaron Fox, was the player responsible for the fatal error in Game 4. But even the so-called veteran entered this postseason with only one playoff series of experience — zero series wins — in the first eight years of his career. This is all new for him, too.
And maybe it’s a little unfair that Fox’s ill-advised layup attempt up one will be forever remembered as the of this series, when it clearly took a team effort to cough up a 29-point lead. (Above all, the Spurs failed to realize how perimeter-reliant they were becoming in the third quarter as they cooled off from 3-point range. They were the first team in the playoffs this year to go an entire quarter without scoring in the paint, despite Victor Wembanyama being on the floor for 11 minutes of the frame.)
But this is the fabric of sports history. It’s how our memories are wired. Iconic games are known for their heroes and goats, who are usually determined by what happens at the fourth-quarter buzzer, or in the ninth inning, or after the two-minute warning. Whether a play endures or fades is fickle. Nuggets wing Torrey Craig made the same exact mistake as Fox with a few seconds left in Game 7 of a 2020 playoff series, but Mike Conley’s buzzer beater at the other end rimmed out, sparing Craig.
Fox wasn’t so lucky, nor did he help himself much. After OG Anunoby blocked his layup, Fox used San Antonio’s foul to give with five seconds to go, perhaps bailing the Knicks out of a disorganized final possession in which Jalen Brunson was nowhere near the ball. Instead, they regrouped. They were able to set up an inbound play. Anunoby was able to crash the offensive glass.
And so the missed layup will live on.
It will live on as one of the most significant Finals-altering blunders ever, near the top of a list that includes an even more notorious collapse by the Spurs.
: Big Fundamental on the bench. Gregg Popovich subbed out Hall of Fame big man Tim Duncan twice for defensive possessions in the last 30 seconds of regulation, first with a 94-89 lead, then 95-92. The idea was to put more perimeter quickness on the floor to switch screens and guard Miami’s 3-point attempts. The outcome was a pair of Heat offensive rebounds, both resulting in second-chance 3s to force overtime. Miami won the title in Game 7.
: Aw, nuts. Draymond Green got tangled with LeBron James and hit him in the groin, later earning Green a retroactive flagrant foul and an avoidable suspension for Game 5. The 73-win Warriors missed an opportunity to close out the championship at home without their best defender, and Cleveland flipped the series momentum en route to what remains the only 3-1 comeback in NBA Finals history.
: Four free throws. Orlando’s Nick Anderson, a career 70% free throw shooter at the time, missed two foul shots with 10.5 seconds left and a 110-107 lead. Then he got his own rebound and went back to the stripe with another chance to ice the game — only to miss both free throws again. Houston’s Kenny Smith buried a game-tying 3-pointer at the other end, and the Rockets went on to sweep the series.
: JR Smith forgets the score. After securing an offensive rebound on George Hill’s missed free throw, Smith dribbled the ball out of the paint and toward midcourt, thinking the Cavs were ahead by one point, much to LeBron’s dismay. They were, in fact, tied. Golden State won in overtime, and Cleveland’s upset chances fizzled almost immediately.
: Josh Howard calls timeout. With the Finals tied 2-2 and the Mavericks leading 100-99 on the road, Miami’s Dwayne Wade went to the foul line with 1.9 seconds left (following a controversial call). He tied it with the first shot. Then Howard, a young Dallas forward, asked for a timeout. The officials granted it. Mavericks coach Avery Johnson tried to take it back. But the damage was done. It was the Mavs’ last, preventing them from advancing the ball after Wade sank the second free throw. They settled for a 50-foot prayer instead of a designed play.
1984 Games 2, 4: . Magic committed a series of costly errors throughout the Finals, starting in Game 2 when he lost track of the time at the end of regulation and dribbled out the clock to unwittingly force OT. In Game 4, the Lakers had the last shot again, but Johnson turned it over, then missed two potential go-ahead free throws late in overtime. Los Angeles lost both games. Boston took Game 7 in another thriller.
: Don’t forget the inbounder. Especially when it’s “Big Shot Bob.” Leading 95-93 with nine seconds in overtime, Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace left Robert Horry to double-team Ginobili in the corner. It wasn’t an aggressive enough trap to be worth the gamble. Ginobili received the inbound pass and calmly passed it back to Horry on the left wing, where he hit an open 3-pointer with 5.9 seconds left for a 3-2 series lead. San Antonio prevailed in seven.
2026 Game 2: Wemby off his teammate’s back. The Spurs had the last shot after a defensive rebound, but Wembanyama threw a reckless outlet pass to an unsuspecting Stephon Castle, who was turning around to run the floor. Brunson lunged for the loose ball and got fouled. The turnover became a game-winning free throw for New York.
: Out-foxxed. The largest comeback in Finals history was capped by a fitting momentary lapse of judgment. With Anunoby in pursuit, Fox never had a chance to successfully finish a layup. He could’ve simply pulled the ball out to the perimeter, where the Knicks would’ve been forced to foul with a 106-105 deficit.
OG Anunoby, Victor Wembanyama and the Nuggets
On the other side of this dramatic series, there’s Anunoby, a half-tertiary star, half-super role player along the lines of Jrue Holiday or Aaron Gordon. In fact, he could’ve been Denver’s Aaron Gordon in an alternate universe, .
The Nuggets had the 13th pick in the 2017 draft. As the story goes, they were interested in Anunoby but thought he might be a reach at No. 13. Tim Connelly traded down for the 24th pick, receiving Trey Lyles from Utah in the deal. But Toronto, helmed by former Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri, snagged Anunoby at No. 23. The 13th pick became Donovan Mitchell for Utah. The 24th pick became Tyler Lydon, who played 26 NBA games.
In hindsight, it’s arguably the biggest misstep of Connelly’s tenure in Denver, sandwiched between two resoundingly successful drafts (Jamal Murray in 2016, Michael Porter Jr. in 2018). Anunoby won a championship in his second season as a Raptors bench contributor, but he wasn’t able to participate in their playoff run thanks to a poorly timed appendectomy. Since then, he’s developed into one of the most versatile defenders in the NBA and been traded to New York for RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley.
The Raptors and Knicks have both used the massive wing to guard Nikola Jokic over the years. Anunoby has been one of the best non-centers in the league at handling that matchup, and he’s similarly well equipped to defend Wembanyama. Perhaps his success in this series will serve as a reminder of Gordon’s importance, as Denver mulls over whether he should remain part of its future. They’re not exact mirror images of each other, but in addition to their similar skill sets, they share a knack for coming through in big moments. Both have scored multiple playoff game-winners now.
Late in the regular season this April, Gordon’s clutch-time defense against Wembanyama was downright heroic in what felt like a statement win. If the Nuggets end up trading the 30-year-old, they’ll have to eventually find Jokic another frontcourt partner who can replicate Gordon’s ability to guard elite big men from a size disadvantage. That’s not easy. There are only so many AGs and OGs.
KAT’s watershed moment? Beating Nikola Jokic
One of the most satisfying storylines to emerge from this series has been the critical reevaluation of Karl-Anthony Towns’ legacy. For years, he’s been labeled soft. His lack of rim deterrence has been roundly panned. His propensity for committing silly fouls has been a common talking point when his teams have underperformed.
He’s also been one of the best centers in the world for a decade. And it was his embrace of the Wembanyama matchup — at both ends — that set the tone against San Antonio. The 2015 No. 1 overall draft pick was possibly the No. 1 reason New York went up 2-0 on the road. KAT’s reputation as a shooting threat helped draw Wembanyama out to the perimeter, away from the rim. He attacked Wemby off the dribble several times early in the series for emphatic dunks.
And just as importantly, Towns brought enough defensive physicality to help discourage Wembanyama from going inside too often. The French phenom’s defining flaw, three years into his career, is his inconsistent willingness to impose his size on offense. (See Game 4.) That will surely improve with time, but for now, KAT and the Knicks have recognized it and combated it appropriately.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to Nuggets fans. The turning point in KAT’s career as a defender was two seasons ago, during Minnesota’s 2024 playoff run. It was the year he broke through to the conference finals for the first time. He did so by wearing down Jokic throughout a seven-game series. The Timberwolves were playing two centers together, and their preferred defensive scheme was to put Towns on Jokic as the primary 1-on-1 defender so that Rudy Gobert could roam off of Gordon (in the dunker spot or on the perimeter) as a help-side rim protector. Yes, it was a second layer of defense that most big men aren’t fortunate enough to have behind them. But a major part of Minnesota’s success in the series was KAT’s toughness at holding his ground in the post and pushing Jokic off his spots when the three-time MVP battled for positioning.
Jokic has proven as recently as April that he can maneuver around Wembanyama’s otherworldly defensive talent. The Nuggets should be less worried than most teams about that specific matchup. Relentless ball movement and floor-stretching bigs are clearly two of the best ways to get the Spurs out of their comfort zone a little bit. Having Jokic on the court inherently checks both of those boxes.
But stretching the floor means making 3s. Jokic’s touch has abandoned him at critical playoff moments since 2023, including both times he’s lost to Minnesota. Defenses will continue to sell out to defend the paint against him; he’s dominant enough offensively that his 3s are a shot most teams have to be willing to live with.
When the Nuggets evaluate why they’ve fallen short of a second championship, one of the most important reasons is a painfully simple one that must be fixed in order to get back to the Finals: Jokic has to shoot well to open up the offense.
