The New York Knicks are two games into the NBA Finals with a lead almost no team before them has built, and they are going out of their way not to make much of it.
New York held off a late San Antonio rally to win Game 2 by a 105-104 final on Friday night, taking control of the series before it returns to Madison Square Garden for Game 3 on Monday. The Knicks have now won 13 consecutive playoff games.
History On New York's Side
In sealing the win, they became just the third team in league history to win the first two games of an NBA Finals on the road. The 1993 Chicago Bulls, behind Michael Jordan, took the opening two in Phoenix and closed out the Suns in Game 6 on John Paxson’s championship-winning 3-pointer. The 1995 Houston Rockets, a sixth seed behind Phi Slamma Jamma teammates Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, stole the first two in Orlando and swept the Magic to become the lowest-seeded champion in NBA history at the time. Both teams won the title. The broader math is just as lopsided, as teams that have taken a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals are 32-5 all-time, and Friday marked the first 2-0 Finals lead in franchise history for the Knicks.
Knicks players, though, declined to treat any of it as meaningful.
“It’s still 0-0 as far as we’re concerned,” Josh Hart said. “Being up 2-0 means really nothing. This team is going to come out on Monday with an unbelievable amount of energy and desperation, and we’ve got to be better.”
Jalen Brunson, who has set the tone for that approach all postseason, said the mindset has not shifted with the series lead.
“I think our mindset was 0-0, not being up 1-0,” Brunson said. “Even with the series it is now, next game, mindset has to be 0-0 again. You can’t be comfortable.”
"Keep playing desperate. ... We ain't got nothing else after this, it's the offseason."
— ESPN (@espn) June 6, 2026
Mikal Bridges joins Inside the NBA to discuss the Knicks' perspective following a clutch Game 2 victory 😤 pic.twitter.com/Zw6x3FDllm
Mikal Bridges Has Been There
No one on the roster has more reason to preach caution than Mikal Bridges. Bridges reached the Finals with the Phoenix Suns in 2021, a series Phoenix led 2-0 before dropping four straight to Milwaukee. He carried that memory into Friday night, scoring 20 points in another terrific two-way performance from the eighth-year pro out of Villanova.
“Same situation, up 2-0, and I’ve got to be able to talk to these guys and just keep level-headed and just keep playing desperate,” Bridges said.
All of that resolve was tested in the fourth quarter, when New York pushed its lead to 14 points, only to watch San Antonio chip away at it and briefly take the lead behind a 14-0 run. As the game tightened, the Knicks leaned on Mitchell Robinson, who had been a target for intentional fouls earlier in the night and had answered by making half of his free throws (3-of-6). He wound up guarding Victor Wembanyama on the possessions that decided the game.
“A heck of a job by Mitch guarding the most iconic player in the world on two possessions to possibly win the game,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.
In the final seconds, Wembanyama grabbed a rebound and instead of bringing the ball up, he quickly looked for an hit ahead pass, but it glanced off teammate Stephon Castle (who was turned away and looking to get into position by filling the lane or hedging out to the corner) and Brunson recovered it. He was fouled and made a free throw with 9.5 seconds remaining to set the final margin. Wembanyama got one more look right before the buzzer, but Robinson contested the pick and pop jumper, and it came up just long.
Bedlam In Gotham City
The series goes to New York next, as Madison Square Garden has not seen a Finals game in 27 years. The last one came in 1999 and the Knicks lost it to these same Spurs in five games. The franchise’s title drought runs even longer, back to 1973. The appetite for the return showed up on the resale market, where even the worst seats at the Garden were going for close to five figures on Friday night.
San Antonio is not conceding anything. Wembanyama scored 29 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in Game 2, and the Spurs showed in the fourth quarter that they can trade runs with anyone.
“We can’t change the past,” Wembanyama said. “We’re already thinking about Game 3.”
The history confronting the Spurs, though, is daunting.
No team has ever come back to win an NBA Finals series after losing the first two games at home, and each of the five teams that has erased an 0-2 Finals deficit did so after dropping the opening two on the road. The cushion of returning home for Games 3 and 4 in those five series was a key factor. San Antonio surrendered both of its home games and now faces a daunting, uphill battle
For now, the Knicks head home two wins from a title, insisting the series is still even.
Game 3 tips off Monday at 8:30 p.m. ET at a Madison Square Garden that figures to be pure bedlam. Can the Spurs respond, or will these upcoming Knicks home games be the beginning of a big party that has been over 50 years in the making?
