{"id":317228,"date":"2026-06-01T05:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T05:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/317228\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T05:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T05:58:13","slug":"2026-nba-finals-picking-a-winner-between-new-york-and-san-antonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/317228\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA Finals: Picking a Winner Between New York and San Antonio"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 NBA Finals are almost here. The San Antonio Spurs<\/a> finished off the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> on Saturday night, dethroning the defending champions in a hard-fought seven games.<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks<\/a> have been waiting and resting since they swept the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> early last week. There are so many incredible storylines in this series, and all of them will contribute to who wins the championship. Let’s take a look and make a prediction.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\"<aStephon Castle<\/a> #5 is helped up by Victor Wembanyama<\/a> #1 of the San Antonio Spurs against the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> during Round One Game Two of the 2026 NBA Playoffs on April 21, 2026 at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. <\/p>\n

&lpar;Photos by Michael Gonzales&sol;NBAE via Getty Images&rpar;<\/p>\n

The Spurs are the second-youngest team ever to go to the NBA Finals. It’s crazy to see the boyish faces of stars like Dylan Harper<\/a> and Stephon Castle celebrating after knocking off the champs in the road Game 7. Will the inexperience of San Antonio catch up to them in this series?<\/p>\n

I would wager that the fearless drive of Victor Wembanyama and his talented co-stars will overcome any jitters the team might experience in the early stages of the series. There are no historical precedents for this Spurs team, but that’s the way they like it.<\/p>\n

Is Jalen Brunson<\/a> good enough to lead a team to a title?\"<p>Gregory<\/p>\n

Gregory Shamus&sol;Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson is one of the great underdog stories in basketball. He was dispatched from the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> in free agency several years ago, and his rise to the top of the Eastern Conference’s stars has been slow and steady.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The Knicks will need every bit of Brunson’s nearly 27 points per game in these playoffs to continue their hot streak against a Spurs team that is head and shoulders above the previous opponents New York has faced. We know that Brunson is as determined as they come, but he’s not as good as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>. The Thunder’s MVP guard shot well below his usual percentages against the Spurs. San Antonio’s defense will be ready to limit Brunson.<\/p>\n

The prediction: Spurs in 6<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Men’s Journal<\/a> on Jun 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NBA Finals are almost here. The San Antonio Spurs finished off the Oklahoma City Thunder on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6388,2582,2715,31021,6537,6396,6382,6391,82,84,83,1066,41611,1504,4847,509],"class_list":["post-317228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dylan-harper","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-stephon-castle","tag-the-spurs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}