The New York Knicks may have been the underdogs heading into the NBA Finals, but Josh Hart believes his team saw a key weakness in the San Antonio Spurs before the series began.
Hart revealed that there was one moment after the Western Conference finals that immediately caught his eye.
“Everybody’s talking to them like, ‘Yo, they’ve got to beat OKC. OKC is going to do it again,'” Hart said on a live episode of The Roommates Show with teammate Jalen Brunson at Madison Square Garden. “They beat OKC. For a young team, I feel like it was the top of the mountain for them.
“That’s when I looked at (Brunson) and said, ‘You see that reaction? Because they think they’re going to win it. They think it’s over.’
One of the defining moments of the night was Victor Wembanyama getting emotional after the final touch, a sign of what that moment meant to the youth of San Antonio.
Meanwhile, the Knicks looked at their victory in the Eastern Conference Finals in a very different light.
After sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers to secure their first Finals appearance in 27 years, the focus quickly shifted to the championship series rather than celebrating the achievement itself.
That difference in mindset was evident throughout the Finals.
Despite San Antonio entering the series full of confidence after knocking off Oklahoma City, the experienced Knicks have looked more composed in the big moments.
New York won the championship in five games and erased double-digit deficits in all four of its victories.
The defining moment came in Game 4 when the Knicks produced a record 29-point comeback before eventually taking the series for good.
For Hart, the warning signs were there before Game 1 was even played. While the Spurs were celebrating reaching the finals, the Knicks were already focused on what was next.
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