Knicks vs. Spurs Best Bets After Game 1 Box Score Review from NBA Finals Bracket

Are you not entertained?

OK, if you're a fan of the San Antonio Spurs, then the answer is probably no. Watching them lose hold of a 14-point second-half lead during their 105-95 loss to the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals probably wasn't the best time you've ever had.

For an impartial observer, though, that contest was a thrill ride. It was, for the most part, great basketball with some absurd shot-making, physical defense and the kind of fight you always expect to—but maybe don't always get to—see on the championship stage.

Let's look back on the action by dissecting a few of the most notable plots on the stat sheet before finishing with some best bet recommendations for Friday's Game 2.

Josh Hart Scored 3 Points, Was the Ultimate Difference-Maker

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You know the kind of gritty role players that coaches and eagle-eyed analysts will tell you over and over again impact the game in ways that go beyond the box score? Well, that's pretty much Knicks all-purpose swingman Josh Hart in a nutshell.

He seldom makes a big dent in the scoring column—the next time he averages 15-plus points would be the first—yet he routinely makes a big imprint on the actual result. Rarely was that more evident than on Wednesday night, when he grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, dished a game-high six assists (with nary a turnover) and swiped a game-high four steals (as many as San Antonio's team).

In the end, he finished with a game-high plus-22, despite scoring just three points on 1-of-5 shooting in 27 minutes.

"That's just who he is. He's always been that way. I can't explain it," Knicks guard and Hart's Villanova teammate Jalen Brunson told reporters. "He just has a knack for doing things like that, and in crucial times as well. It's a credit to who he is as a player."

While stars naturally shine brightest under basketball's brightest lights, role players who rise to the occasion can shift the outcome of a game, if not an entire series. If Hart makes an impact in this many ways, the Spurs could be in trouble.

Spurs Couldn't Get Victor Wembanyama in a Groove

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From a surface-level view, Victor Wembanyama's first taste of championship basketball was exquisite. As a 22-year-old who had never previously booked a playoff trip, he stepped onto the big stage and immediately delivered a fully loaded stat line: team-high 26 points, team-high 12 rebounds, game-high three blocks, two assists and one steal. Unofficially, he may have snuck a partridge in a pear tree in there, too.

Awesome stuff, right? In a way, yes. No one had tallied this many points, boards and blocks in a Finals game since Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2021.

The volume was deafening. But the efficiency was messy. He misfired on 15 of his 21 field-goal attempts and all but two of his nine long-range looks. He tripled those two assists with six turnovers. And while this stat wasn't totally on him, it's still notable that San Antonio lost his minutes by three points.

"I was bad tonight," Wembanyama told reporters afterward. "It's not more complicated than that."

The Knicks, of course, played a part in that performance and at least hinted at perhaps having the right blend of length, strength and size to contain the 7'4" megastar. It is just one game, though, and Wemby might make these shooting woes and turnover troubles a distant memory as soon as Friday night.

Two-Man Crew Carried Knicks to Finish Line

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After a third-quarter flurry, the Knicks entered the final frame with a tied score—and franchise focal point Jalen Brunson taking a breather. The contest could've gone either way, but an eight-point spurt in just over 90 seconds from OG Anunoby kept things even.

The scoreboard was once again knotted when Brunson returned at the 7:37 mark. He shook off an up-to-that-point tough shooting night and made it a personal mission to get things unknotted. During that closing stretch, he scored 13 of his 30 points, shooting 5-of-9 (was 7-of-22 in the first three quarters) from the field and hitting his lone three-point attempt (1-of-8 from range prior to that).

"He's a gamer, man," Knicks coach Mike Brown told reporters. "In the biggest moments, he shows up, and that's what MVPs are supposed to do. We put the ball in his hands and said we are going to live and die with him. And he got it done for us, and that's happened time after time after time."

Brunson and Anunoby scored a combined 25 points in the quarter, shooting 8-of-14 overall, 3-of-4 from distance and a perfect 6-of-6 at the foul line. San Antonio, meanwhile, tallied 19 points as a team, shooting just 6-of-21 from the field, 2-of-10 from three and 5-of-7 from the stripe.

The Knicks seemed to have a clearer direction for how they wanted to attack crunch time and where they'd go to get it done. The Spurs seemed to do a lot of scrambling and settling, though again, credit is probably due to New York's defense for making things appear that way.

Best Bets

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Spurs -5.5

The Spurs had Game 1 right where they wanted before letting things slip out of their grasp and never regaining control. Consider that a lesson learned for this young, largely unproven roster. Expect a more focused effort to finish the fight on Friday night.

Jalen Brunson 25+ Points (-128)

Brunson battled the Spurs' perimeter length and spotty shooting touch for much of the night on Wednesday and still found his way to 30 points. More importantly, he fired up 31 shots—10 more than Wembanyama, 15 more than anyone else—which highlights what Brown said about this bunch living or dying with its point guard.

De'Aaron Fox 6+ Assists (-130)

Fox has battled the injury bug throughout this postseason and didn't totally look like himself in Game 1, shooting 3-of-13 and missing all four of his three-point attempts. And yet, San Antonio kept having him initiate offense, because he remains the most reliable handler and playmaker on the roster. Look for the Spurs to keep putting the ball in his hands but probably nudge him toward deferring to distributing over shooting.

*Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook