Knicks, up 2-0 in NBA Finals, say the job is far from over. And the Spurs aren't conceding anything
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<p>The New York Knicks are up 2-0. They say they&#8217;re unfazed.</p>
<p>The San Antonio Spurs are down 0-2. They say they&#8217;re unfazed.</p>
<p>Such is the state of things in the <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/nba">NBA Finals,</a> where both teams were taking a travel day on Saturday. Practices resume Sunday and Game 3 of the title series is Monday night at Madison Square Garden, where <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-finals-trump-knicks-fb92362773e69ae042c3700fd0955a9b">President Donald Trump</a> will be watching alongside fans who are willing to pay nearly $10,000 for seats so far from the court that 7-foot-4 Spurs center <a href="https://apnews.com/article/spurs-victor-wembanyama-knicks-nba-finals-c7e32c398eeb18a616541dd6199cd880">Victor Wembanyama</a> will look tiny.</p>
<p>The Knicks insist they&#8217;re not celebrating yet. The Spurs insist they&#8217;re not defeated yet.</p>
<p>&#8220;Every single day, we chip away and try to be the best that we can be. &#8230; Even with the series it is now, next game, mindset has to be 0-0 again,&#8221; said Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, the late-game hero in both the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-finals-knicks-jalen-brunson-db7a809e7a85129b4e5f29ed032f56c2">Game 1</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-finals-game-2-knicks-spurs-a40b8d9e1e48cb7f3070d13bef98cc52">Game 2</a> wins that New York got in San Antonio to take an absolute stranglehold on the series. &#8220;It&#8217;s just how it has to be. You can&#8217;t be comfortable. You can&#8217;t be satisfied with anything. Just got to continue to push forward.&#8221;</p>
<p>That&#8217;s all they&#8217;ve done for a month and a half now.</p>
<p>They&#8217;ve won 13 consecutive games, the second-longest single-season playoff run in NBA history behind only a 15-game winning streak by Golden State in the 2017 postseason. They have a chance to be the first team in NBA history to make it through the last three rounds of the playoffs — the conference semifinals, conference final and NBA Finals — unbeaten.</p>
<p>&#8220;One of the things that we preach is being present,&#8221; Knicks coach Mike Brown said. &#8220;In order to be present, you can&#8217;t think about the past, you can&#8217;t think about the future. For all of us as humans, that&#8217;s hard as heck to do. I constantly, boom, flick myself in the head, tell myself, &#8216;Be present, be present, be present.&#8217; I obviously mention it to the group, too. With those guys being who they are, they&#8217;ve really embraced it, and they&#8217;re really trying to live it every single moment during this run.&#8221;</p>
<p>They don&#8217;t get rattled, even on this stage. Counting the NBA Cup final, which isn&#8217;t recognized in standings or official league stats, the Knicks are 4-1 against the Spurs this season. The four wins by New York all have something in common: the Knicks trailed by double digits in each of those games.</p>
<p>— Cup final in Vegas, the Spurs led by 11 (and lost by 11).</p>
<p>— Regular-season game at MSG, the Spurs led by 12 (and lost by 25).</p>
<p>— Game 1 of the finals, the Spurs led by 14 (and lost by 10).</p>
<p>— Game 2 of the finals, the Spurs led by 12 (and lost by one).</p>
<p>&#8220;We just need to figure it out,&#8221; Wembanyama said. &#8220;We need to keep working on it.&#8221;</p>
<p>The only Spurs win over New York was the regular-season game at home, where they won by two after trailing by 19 and never leading by more than six.</p>
<p>Go figure.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was going to take everything to win the series anyway,&#8221; Spurs guard Stephon Castle said. &#8220;Putting ourselves in this type of predicament is going to be tough, but I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s anything we can&#8217;t handle.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Knicks have an idea of what&#8217;s coming on Monday.</p>
<p>The Garden will be shaking to its core, since people who spent the kind of money that they&#8217;re spending to come see a basketball game likely won&#8217;t decide to sit quietly in their seats. The energy in the city will be beyond compare, with a 53-year wait for another NBA championship now just two games away and oddsmakers — who have the Knicks at -550 to win the series — basically saying it&#8217;s inevitable. And the Spurs will come out throwing whatever punches they have left to throw.</p>
<p>&#8220;Knowing them, there&#8217;s going to be another level,&#8221; Brunson said. &#8220;We have to be prepared and be ready to match it and play for 48 minutes. No matter what goes on in the game, we have to have each other&#8217;s back, what&#8217;s going on, who is on a run, what&#8217;s not, who is up, who is down, making sure we are playing together for 48 minutes is really important.&#8221;</p>
<p>If the Knicks could use a cautionary tale, they need look no further than Mikal Bridges. He was with Phoenix when the Suns took a 2-0 lead in the 2021 finals against Milwaukee. The Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo won that series in six games. It&#8217;s a different situation now — those two Suns wins were in Phoenix, not on the road — but it is a reminder that two wins aren&#8217;t enough.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s still 0-0 as far as we&#8217;re concerned,&#8221; Knicks forward Josh Hart said. &#8220;Being up 2-0 means really nothing. This (San Antonio) team is going to come out on Monday with an unbelievable amount of energy and desperation, and we&#8217;ve got to be better.&#8221;</p>
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<p>AP NBA: <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/NBA">https://apnews.com/hub/NBA</a></p>

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