Odds are it will be a lot more than that. They might enter next year as the favorites, but there are too many things that can happen for me to give them a 50% chance of getting back here next year.
De'Aaron Fox just absolutely loves fouling at the end of games. At a minimum he could have at least looked at exactly what the differential was or tried to go for a trap. They had plenty of time to foul if it was deemed to be necessary. 4 second diff could have played it out.
FOUL UP THREE
I wrote earlier this postseason that the NBA's worst-case scenario was the Finals being decided by a foul instead of a game-tying jump shot attempt. Well...
espn.com/nba/story/_/id/4858…
While Jalen Brunson was clearly their best player, it says a lot about these Knicks that at various times in this series there would have been 3 different players who could have been chosen as MVP
San Antonio has 5 assists in the first half. That's fewest in a first half of a playoff game for the Spurs since Game 6 of the first round at Memphis on 4-27-17 (5 assists). According to ESPN's tracking, the Spurs were 3-of-12 on uncontested shots off a pass.