NBA Cup title gave Knicks greater confidence and belief in themselves
The Spurs' Victor Wembanyama drives to the basket against the Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges in the NBA Cup championship on Dec. 16 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Credit: Getty Images/Ethan Miller
SAN ANTONIO — In the strange world of the NBA Cup, the championship game doesn’t exist in the standings or the statistics, and there will be no banner hanging to commemorate it for history.
But it happened. The Knicks defeated Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in Las Vegas, capturing their first championship of any sort in more than 50 years. But check the NBA statistics and you will find it doesn’t count, doesn’t exist.
In the world that fills the record books, the Knicks still have much to prove. The Oklahoma City Thunder have the best record in the NBA. The Detroit Pistons have the best record in the Eastern Conference. And the Spurs, even if they were beaten by the Knicks in the Cup Final, occupy the top spot in the NBA’s power rankings with three wins over the defending champion Thunder in a span of two weeks this month.
The NBA may not count the NBA Cup victory, but for the Knicks it was another step forward, building something that can’t be measured in statistics or recorded in the standings.
Belief.
The Knicks have had their flaws on display since the Cup, defensive failings and injuries that have sidelined key pieces. Wednesday night they won’t have Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson, and they won’t have home court. And beating the team ranked at the top of the NBA, the one that knocked off the Thunder already three times, might back up their belief.
They’ve done it in an expected fashion, relying on Jalen Brunson on nearly every night, Karl-Anthony Towns on most nights, and a starting five as experienced and solid as any in the league. But they’ve also done it by finding contributions up and down the roster, unexpected play from rookies and little-used second-round picks. And now, as a group, they believe.
Allow them to hang in the game and they will find a way.
“We find a way to win,” Brunson said after the Knicks’ win in New Orleans Monday, a game in which they struggled much of the night until taking over in the fourth quarter. “I think we have a growing confidence as a team, not necessarily just in fourth quarters. We understand how we started was unacceptable. And we got to figure out how to win a game from where we were. So we got a lot of confidence in each other. But we got to start better. And we got to play better, honestly, throughout the whole game. But we found a way to win.”
They depended on contributions from the likes of their own French youngster, Mo Diawara, who has started in place of Hart on this road trip. However, Diawara is a far cry from the level of Wembanyama, who has returned from injury to lead this Spurs team. But somehow the Knicks have found help in Diawara, the 51st pick in the 2025 draft, in a second-rounder from last season, Tyler Kolek, and even Kevin McCullar Jr., who has only recently begun to find his way back from knee troubles suffered his last year of college.
“At the end of the day it’s all of our standards,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “Sacrifice. When you play 12 guys and guys don’t care when they come in and out, you’ve seen that. People are sacrificing for their teammates. You play 12 guys and guys just keep plugging away, there’s a connectivity. It doesn’t matter if we’re up 10, down 10, our guys just keep staying with it. That shows the competitive spirit.
“More importantly, it’s the belief, the belief in the process . . . That belief not only in the process, but in each other, it helps out. And we’re all being held accountable on the sidelines. When you have that from a group, man, you can do a lot of things.”
Belief is good and still, stars are better. Brunson and Towns, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, will be the basis of whatever the Knicks can achieve. The Spurs enter this game with two straight losses and things of their own to prove, a team driven by Wembanyama, but with a talented and athletic cast of budding stars.
San Antonio has accelerated its path, arriving perhaps quicker than most expected. But the Knicks are built for today, a team that has been to the playoffs three straight seasons and reached the Eastern Conference finals last season. The Knicks’ time is now and this game is a chance to prove that they are up to it.
Notes & quotes: Robinson is listed as out for a second straight game with left ankle load management. Kolek is probable with right ankle soreness. Ariel Hukporti is questionable after suffering a mouth laceration in Monday’s win.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
