GETTING READY FOR NBA FINALS GAME 2

TOWNS MORE THAN HELD HIS OWN AGAINST WEMBANYAMA, AND KNICKS LOOKING FOR MORE IN GAME 2 OF FINALS

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Karl-Anthony Towns’ first two baskets of the NBA Finals were like countless others in his career. The New York forward got the ball 30 feet from the basket, surveyed the scene, drove right past his defender and scored at the rim.

These buckets, however, were not ordinary.

They were against Victor Wembanyama.

Towns helped set a tone for the Knicks in Game 1 on Wednesday night by going right at San Antonio’s best player — and the unanimous pick as Defensive Player of the Year — twice in the opening minutes. Towns didn’t get any more field goals against Wembanyama over the remainder of the game and didn’t have to, finishing with 18 points in New York’s 105-95 win.

“You just trust your work and you trust your decision-making, and I always say about being aggressive in playmaking: It may not be for the shot or get someone else a shot or get the hockey assist going,” Towns said. “For me, when I go out there, I try to be aggressive in playmaking.”

That holds true against the best defensive player on the planet.

The Knicks did a lot right in Game 1, but perhaps tops on that list was not letting the 7-foor-4 Wembanyama take over the game or even get into a rhythm on either side of the court. Wembanyama scored 26 points — on 6-for-21 shooting from the floor — and got a text from former Spurs coach Gregg Popovich between the end of Game 1 and Thursday afternoon’s practice.

The message from Pop? That “I’ve been bad and I’m better than this,” Wembanyama revealed.

While that may be true, the Knicks believe Towns deserved a lot of credit for not letting Wembanyama become completely dominant in the series opener.

“Wemby, man, obviously iconic player, you’re not going to stop him, you hope he misses,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “You’ve got to throw different people, different coverages at him. You got to try not to send him to the free-throw line. We sent him to the free-throw line 13 times, but KAT himself did a pretty decent job of trying to lead with his chest while being physical. Again, I think it’s all due to him wanting to do whatever he can to help the team while being present.”

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SPURS KNOW THEY HAVE TO BE BETTER IN GAME 2 OF THE NBA FINALS, AND KNICKS FEEL THE SAME WAY

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The road to the NBA Finals was not exactly smooth for the San Antonio Spurs.

They had — and lost — home-court advantage in Round 1 against Portland, before recovering to win the series. In Round 2 against Minnesota, the same thing happened. In the Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City, they trailed 2-1 before finding a way to oust the defending champion Thunder in seven games.

And now, the finals. They had home-court advantage and lost it in Game 1 against the New York Knicks. Adversity, hello again.

“We’ve been consistent in that regard,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said Thursday as his team prepares for Game 2 on Friday night. “I think one thing we have learned in our three series is that series are long. Games are long. Things shift quickly, whether that’s health, who’s playing well or hot, quote-unquote, at the time. Teams at this stage typically have shown the ability to evolve on the fly and improve within a series.”

That’s what will be required if the Spurs are going to head to New York with this series knotted at a game apiece.

They shot poorly in Game 1 (36%), extremely poorly from 3-point range (26%, missing 32 of 43 tries), had 16 assists (nowhere near enough), got outscored in the paint 50-42 and couldn’t hold a 14-point third-quarter lead. The Knicks deserve credit for creating a whole lot of those issues, but the Spurs know they’re capable of much better play.

NEW YORK CITY IS IN A KNICKS FRENZY FOR ITS BELOVED TEAM’S 1ST NBA FINALS IN 27 YEARS

NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen Brunson was wowed upon hearing how high the price had climbed on the secondary market for the cheapest ticket in New York for Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and Spurs.

What left the Knicks star nearly stumped was determining what he would deem worthy of spending $7,500 to go see.

“That’s a good question,” Brunson said Thursday. He paused for a few seconds before delivering his answer: “A live Michael Jackson performance.”

Thriller, indeed.

From Bay Ridge to the Bronx and beyond, the Big Apple has gone nuts for the Knicks.

The team is not only in the NBA Finals for the first time in 27 years, New York is riding a 12-0 roll after rallying from a 14-point second-half deficit in a 105-95 win at San Antonio in Game 1 on Wednesday night. Game 2 is Friday night in San Antonio before the series shifts to New York on Monday.

It seems as if the entire city is on board. There were the thousands who filled Madison Square Garden to watch the game on the big screen, only to be matched by the thousands more celebrating outside in the shadow of the Empire State Building lit up in the Knicks’ blue and orange.

The MTA — the city’s transit authority — got into the spirit by painting several subway stops around the arena in Knicks colors. And Mayor Zohran Mamdani even signed an executive order temporarily lifting children’s bedtime hours.

“Knicks in Four!” chants erupted shortly after midnight, as fans climbed light posts and even on an ambulance outside of MSG.

Similar scenes were captured at a free watch party in Central Park, and across the five boroughs.

At a bar in Brooklyn, fans spilled out onto the outside sidewalk to watch the game on the TV inside. At a pizzeria a few doors down, fans gathered around a flat screen TV someone erected in the trunk of a car.

All of this for a chance to be a part of what could be history 53 years in the making, since Willis Reed and company last brought an NBA title to what was and evidently remains a basketball-mad metropolis. The buzz in the city has overwhelmed much talk of the World Cup, which opens in a week.

“Honestly, I just feel grateful to be here and experience the New York Knicks, doing what we haven’t done in a long time,” Owen Odigie said, celebrating the Game 1 win inside Madison Square Garden. “It’s special. It’s beautiful.”

Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns could feel the Big Apple energy some 1,800 miles away in San Antonio following Game 1.

“You feel the energy in the city, the grit, the grind, the hard work you’ve got to put in to make it in the city,” said Towns, who hails from New Jersey. “I think we reflect all our fans … when we step on that court with a Knicks jersey.”

Knicks fans even made their presence felt in San Antonio, beyond the familiar celebrities of Spike Lee, Tracy Morgan, Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller and more. The crowd in San Antonio was made up of an estimated 20% Knicks fans, some of whom made their voices heard in yelling, “Let’s go, Knicks,” during the national anthem.

In reality, given the soaring prices at home, it was reasonably cheaper for Knicks fans to make the trip to San Antonio, even when taking into account flight and lodging costs. Tickets for Game 1 started at around $750 on the secondary market.

Spurs guard Julian Champagnie — a native New Yorker — wasn’t surprised to see the Knicks contingent.

“I kind of expected that,” Champagnie said. “I’m from New York. I know how New York fans travel and stuff like that, so I kind of expected that.”

Towns said he couldn’t be more appreciative of the love being shown by Knicks fans. But he said he also prays for the New York police officers tasked with keeping people safe amid the frenzy.

“All those men and women out there that are not only protecting everybody … they are huge fans of the Knicks and support the Knicks fans in their ability to show how much they love the Knicks and being as lenient as possible without causing chaos,” Towns said. “So, shout-out to the men and women of the NYPD.”

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