NBA Finals Notes: Game 5, Wembanyama, Dynasty, Kornet

After watching their team rally from a 29-point deficit and pull out an improbable victory in the closing seconds of Game 4, Knicks fans lingered inside Madison Square Garden on Wednesday and celebrated like they had just won the championship, writes Steve Popper of Newsday (subscription required). However, the players and coaches can’t afford to get caught up in that jubilation, as they still need one more victory to close out the series.

“It is hard. We’re all human,” coach Mike Brown said. “It was hard even in the series that we swept. You win two, three, four, five games in a row, there’s a tendency to relax a little bit. That’s just in life. In your job, you have success for 10 months straight, maybe you feel like, I got this, I know what I’m doing. You’re not as sharp then because everybody’s been patting you on your back and telling you how great you are. Trying to manufacture things to help guys lock in, trying to talk to guys individually so they can continue to talk to their teammates to lock in, all that stuff is huge.”

Popper notes that the coaching staff had plenty of video to review with the players over the past two days of the mistakes that enabled the Spurs to build that huge advantage. San Antonio has charged out of the gate faster in every game of the series, holding leads of eight, nine, 11 and 19 points after the first quarter.

“We know they come out with a lot of energy,” Josh Hart said. “They’ve been doing it all playoffs. We’ve been very up and down with that a lot this year. So we’ve got to make sure we come in focused with a great attention to detail and taking things a possession at a time.”

There’s more on the NBA Finals:

• The Knicks have been able to wear down Victor Wembanyama by forcing him to switch onto dangerous shooters and not letting him relax in the lane, observes Jared Weiss of The Athletic. A “veer” attack has caused Wembanyama to guard Jalen Brunson on 27.9 partial possessions throughout the series, which brings him away from the basket and causes the rest of the defense to rotate.
• New York fans are hoping for a potential dynasty, but Ryan Dunleavy of The New York Post cautions them to enjoy this year and not get caught up in the future. He points out that the Knicks don’t have the kind of transcendent superstar that dynasties are usually built around, and 17 teams currently have younger rosters. Dunleavy suggests the upstart Spurs are a better dynasty candidate.
• Spurs coach Mitch Johnson confirmed that backup center Luke Kornet has been cleared to play in Game 5 after being listed as questionable with an illness (Twitter video link from Spurs Nation). “I didn’t hear about it in Game 4,” Johnson said in his pre-game press conference Saturday. “He’s been sick, but he’s getting better, and he’ll be available tonight.”