The 2026 NBA postseason began with 20 teams on April 14, and now we're down to two.
The San Antonio Spurs ended the Oklahoma City Thunder's hopes of becoming the first team since the Kevin Durant-led Golden State Warriors of 2017 and 2018 to win back-to-back titles, returning to the Finals for the first time since raising their fifth banner in 2014.
In their way are the red-hot New York Knicks, who stormed through the Eastern Conference, winning 11 consecutive games by an average of 23.8 points to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 -- when their title hopes were dashed by Tim Duncan and the Spurs.
Will Victor Wembanyama cement his early rise to NBA dominance, or will Jalen Brunson captain the Knicks' first NBA title in 53 years?
Note: Series odds provided by DraftKings.
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The stakes -- and significance -- for both teams
Whichever team manages to emerge from this Spurs-Knicks series victorious will etch themselves into NBA history in different, but massively significant, ways.
Despite possessing a roster devoid of virtually any playoff experience before this season -- and literally none for the team's troika of young stars Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper -- the Spurs dispatched the NBA's two-time reigning MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the defending champion Thunder across seven hard-fought games.
This very well could be the "Thanos moment" for Wembanyama, whose 41-point, 24-rebound performance in Game 1 against OKC elicited flashbacks of LeBron James' "48 special" against the Detroit Pistons in the 2007 Eastern Conference finals. The other obvious comparison for this Spurs team is the 1995 Orlando Magic -- another group led by a young, dominant center in Shaquille O'Neal, a rising young star guard in Anfernee Hardaway and that had no previous playoff success together.