The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, and they did it in five games. Jalen Brunson’s clutch shot-making, OG Anunoby’s physical edge, and Karl-Anthony Towns’ willingness to go at Victor Wembanyama all played a part in the finish.
But even with the series ending quickly, it wasn’t a clean sweep of dominance from start to finish. The Spurs were often in position to steal games late, only to let fourth-quarter leads slip away. New York deserves credit for closing those moments, but former Spurs assistant coach Sean Sweeney had another explanation for why San Antonio came up short.
“One, I think there's a little attrition having to go through the previous series. Two, bad luck,” Sweeney said on The Ryen Russillo Show.
“They told me if the games were like 46 minutes or whatever, we would have won 4-1. Jalen obviously had a monster game in that last one.
You know, [I] coached him in Dallas, like happy for him, kind of. But like, I think there's some of that.
And I think we just made more mistakes than we made in the previous series. And you could maybe say some youth to that, but like, you don't do what you did and just all of a sudden become young.”
Sweeney is now the head coach of the Orlando Magic. And while blaming youth for a Finals loss at least fits the way the Spurs played at times, calling it bad luck doesn’t really hold up. NBA games are played for 48 minutes, not 46.
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