Six Adjustments That Will Decide Game 2 of the NBA Finals
Here's what the Knicks and the Spurs have to address before tonights showdown in San Antonio.
Nobody in NBA Finals history has come back from losing the first two games at home. The Spurs locker room is too smart not to know that. That’s gotta be like a loaded gun in their psyche. Mitch Johnson will adjust the game plan from Wednesday night. While Mike Brown can build off a 10-point win while shooting 18.8 percent from the midrange. Obviously, the Knicks haven’t come close to their ceiling yet.
Here are the six adjustments we will see in Game 2. Rock and roll, let’s go.
Check out our podcast postgame of Game 1 of the Finals!
San Antonio Spurs
Adjustment 1: Get Wembanyama Off Towns and Back to the Rim
The only way San Antonio comes back in this series is getting Wembanyama back as a rim anchor. Spurs hold opponents to the low to mid forties when he is. In Game 1, when chasing Towns through screens on the perimeter, the Knicks shot 65.5 percent at the rim.
Towns can bomb from the perimeter. And leaving him unguarded creates open threes. We get it. But sending your seven-foot-four franchise cornerstone 30 feet from the basket to chase through ball screens is absurd. Put Vassell or Castle on Towns. Let them battle over screens, contest while making him earn every touch. That way, Wembanyama protects the paint.
Unless you want to give up 65 percent shooting in the paint again.
The Knicks shot 18.8 percent from the midrange and 3 of 23 from above the break. Those are Spurs wins. Put Wembanyama back at the rim on Friday, and see what happens. No more walking into open layups. Make the Knicks not named Brunson create off the dribble. They have to make difficult shots.
Adjustment 2: Run the Offense Through Harper
De’Aaron Fox went 3 - 13 from the field in Game 1 and 0 - 4 from three. He’s been grinding through an ankle injury, and his explosiveness is gone. Fox should bounce back and play better than he did on Wednesday. But the Spurs can’t wait for him to find his legs.
Dylan Harper gave them buckets off the bench. 16 points on 6-10 shooting, eight rebounds in 28 minutes. He was the best perimeter player San Antonio had. The rookie attacked New York’s guards in the paint with zero hesitation as a 19-year-old neophyte.
Either start Harper next to Fox or get him on the floor within the first three minutes and let him run an extended two-man game with Wembanyama. That pairing is a matchup problem for New York. Harper is too strong for Brunson to handle at the point of attack and moves too well in space for Bridges to contain. When he gets downhill and pulls the second defender, Wembanyama rolls to the basket against a scrambling Knicks defense. That’s one of the hardest actions in basketball to stop. Spam that shit. San Antonio barely ran it in Game 1. They need to build their entire offensive structure around it in Game 2.
The ripple effects echo down the rotation. When the Knicks load up to cut off Harper’s drive, Fox catches in the midrange with nobody attached to him. That’s a shot he still has in his bag of tricks. When they commit to taking away the roll, Wembanyama catches the ball with space and a clear runway to the basket. The Harper and Wembanyama two-man game is San Antonio's most lethal offensive weapon right now. They left it on the table on Wednesday night. Don’t eff it up!
Adjustment 3: Stick With Ghost Coverage on Hart
Cleveland abandoned the ghost coverage on Hart, and it cost them the series. The Spurs never ran it in Game 1. What a gift for the Kncks! Hart had 27 minutes of completely unrestricted basketball. Notching 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals, one block, and a plus-22 rating despite scoring three points on five field goal attempts.
Ghost coverage is straightforward to execute. Park Wembanyama near the basket, dare Hart to beat you from the perimeter, and take away his driving lanes by keeping the paint clogged. In a normal defensive scheme, Hart going 1-for-5 from three is a win for the defense.
It's not just about Hart, though. When Wembanyama’s in the paint, Brunson loses his driving lanes. More so, Towns loses the open pick and roll looks he got all night, since the Spurs’ weak side defender doesn’t have to rotate off Hart to protect the rim. OG and Bridges lose kick-out threes because the defense never has to collapse. It’s the best defense against New York’s motion principles.
Hart’s an extraordinary basketball player. He’s truly one of one. But dude isn’t beating anyone with his jump shot in the NBA Finals. Mitch Johnson has to see the light for them to avoid belt to ass.
New York Knicks
Adjustment 1: Attack Luke Kornet’s Minutes Without Mercy
Luke Kornet played ten minutes in Game 1. If that repeats, Knicks have to make them hell for Kornet.
The second Wembanyama walks to the bench, New York’s got to attack immediately before the Spurs can organize their defense to hide Kornet’s weaknesses. Brunson needs to probe the paint on the very first touch of every possession in those stretches. Towns needs to demand the ball at the short corner and put Kornet straight into pick-and-roll situations where he faces two bad options. Either hedge hard and give up threes, or drop coverage and hand Brunson a runway to the rim. San Antonio loses either way, and New York wins either way.
Mitch Johnson knows these minutes are a problem, and he’ll try to hide Kornet in help positions where the Knicks can’t get a direct look at him. New York has to read that shit and drag Kornet into uncomfortable spots before his teammates can bail him out. If Kornet switches onto Brunson off a ball screen, Brunson has to attack him immediately and make him pay before help arrives. If Kornet sits in drop coverage, Towns sets a high screen, and Brunson pulls up in the midrange before the coverage recovers. The Knicks already won these minutes in Game 1. Winning them by a bigger margin on Friday could bury San Antonio.
Mike Brown also needs to stagger his rotations deliberately to put Brunson on the floor during as many Wembanyama rest stretches as possible. That combination gave New York its most efficient offensive possessions in Game 1. The more Brown can engineer those overlapping minutes in Game 2, the faster the Knicks can build a lead the Spurs can’t match.
Adjustment 2: Faceguard Julian Champagnie
Julian Champagnie went 5 -10 from three in the first half of Game 1. His shots came from the corner and off movement. Not to mention the off catch-and-shoot looks the Knicks gifted him by losing track of his cuts and relocations. The second half adjustment saw New York tighten their rotations and stay attached to him off the ball. Guess what? He didn’t make another three for the rest of the night.
Now bring that same discipline to the opening possession rather than spending the first half getting smoked. Champagnie can’t create for himself. Do you ever see him put the ball on the floor? Hell no. He doesn’t create his own shots or beat you off the dribble. But dammit, he’s one of the most dangerous off-ball shooters in this series, and he has a keen sense of where to run to when the Knicks chase other actions.
Keep a body on him through every single action, regardless of where the ball is. When Wembanyama runs pick and roll on the strong side, Champagnie is already cutting or relocating to the weak side corner on the other end of the floor. If the Knicks help defender loses him for even a second, Wembanyama finds him with a skip pass, resetting in San Antonio’s favor. Take him away from the start, and San Antonio’s offense becomes far more predictable.
Adjustment 3: Go Five Out In The 4th
Mike Brown went to the five-out lineup with Alvarado, McBride, Shamet, OG Anunoby, and Towns in Game 1, and it cooked. Either Wembanyama follows Towns to the perimeter, and the paint opens up completely for drivers, or he stays at the rim, and Towns has an open three with nobody closing out in time.
Brown needs to lean into that unit earlier and more aggressively in Game 2 rather than saving it for late-game situations. When the Spurs make the inevitable adjustment of putting a smaller body on Towns to keep Wembanyama at the rim, the five-out creates driving lanes for Alvarado and McBride that a conventional lineup can’t. Alvarado going downhill against Castle or Fox with Towns and three shooters spread around him is a nightmare to guard because every help rotation gives up an open look somewhere on the floor.
When all five players on the floor can shoot threes and punish closeouts, the defense scrambles. Brown used it in spots on Wednesday. In Game 2, it should be how New York plays from the jump.
What It Comes Down To
San Antonio has the talent to win Game 2.
But the Knicks won Game 1 without their juggernaut offense. It’s coming. If Brown tightens the defensive attention on Champagnie from the jump and leans into the five-out spacing, the Knicks will go up 2-0.
Game 2 tips off Friday night in San Antonio. Both coaches watched the same film. Both know what needs to change.
Who punches first?