A Knicks NBA Finals Guide, From Nassau County's Varsity Basketball Coaches

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — The New York Knicks won game one of the NBA Finals Wednesday night, defeating the San Antonio Spurs 105-95 to take a 1-0 lead in the series that could make the Knicks NBA champions for the first time since 1973.

For the Knicks, Wednesday night’s win gave them the upper hand in their toughest series yet. For Knicks fans, Wednesday night raised an important question: Are they actually about to do this?

To answer that question, Patch enlisted the help of a few people who know the game: Baldwin boys’ basketball coach Darius Burton, Massapequa girls’ basketball coach Billy Herr, and Massapequa boys’ basketball coach Chris CaFiero.

In the Knicks’ game one win, the presence of Spurs center Victor Wembanyama was one that was impossible to miss: Not only is the 22-year-old hard to miss, physically, standing 7-feet, 4-inches, but his impact on defense was undeniable. On multiple occasions, Knicks’ ballhandlers dribbled past a defender into the lane, where a player would normally drive to the rim for a dunk, only to make what broadcasters called a “U-Turn” away from the hoop to avoid being blocked by the French prodigy.

On one occasion, Knicks guard Josh Hart tried to do what shorter players are taught to do when trying to score against larger defenders: Hart ran right at the taller Wembanyama, making body-to-body contact before accelerating past him. The problem for the Knicks, in this series, is that some of those fundamentals don’t work against “Wemby.” In Hart’s case, Wembanyama pivoted, turned toward the basket and swatted Hart’s shot off the backboard. Wembanyama, also nicknamed “The Alien,” didn’t have to jump to reach the ball.

In their own ways, Burton, CaFiero and Herr all have experience with trying to take a dominant big out of a game — or at least trying to minimize their impact on it.

CaFiero, a Massapequa High School basketball alumnus, played against a seven-footer on the dominant 1990s Hempstead High School teams that featured Norris Bell and Larry Ford.

“He was easily the tallest kid we’ve had to go against at Massapequa,” CaFiero said. “A lot of the time, in high school, you can slough off those bigs and let them shoot. You can’t do that against Wembanyama…You have your plan on either ‘fronting’ the post and having help on the weak side behind, or sending a double-team and rotating, and forcing their shooters to shoot, but this guy is just really, really difficult.”

[Editors's note: "fronting the post" refers to the practice of putting a defender in front of a taller offensive player, forcing the offense to attempt a loftier, more risky pass over the defender to get the ball near the basket.]

In Burton’s case, he said he has coached against seven-foot-tall centers before. The winner of over 450 games (and counting), Burton said his best advice to his team was to play physically on defense, trying to bump the seven-footer away from the parts of the court he liked to shoot from. On offense, Burton said his Baldwin teams employed a similar tactic to one the Knicks used Wednesday night: Try to draw the big man away from the basket.

“They’ve got KAT [Knicks Center Karl Anthony Towns], and KAT can both shoot and facilitate, so ‘The Alien’ has to step out there to guard him,” Burton told Patch. “KAT did a good job on Wemby, though. They tried to pressure him with Wemby, and there were a couple of times where KAT drove right by him.”

In Herr’s case, the biggest player his teams have faced was 6’4” Sachem East center Danielle Cosgrove, who would go on to play for Notre Dame and St. John’s at the collegiate level.

“We tried to put a smaller, more physical, more aggressive guard on her, that we thought could pester her the whole game, because we just didn’t have the size to match up. So we tried to, for lack of a better term, chop the tree down at the bottom,” Herr said. “The Knicks have two guys, in Towns and Robinson, who have enough height to contend. And Mitchell Robinson is an excellent defender, and the use of both of them doesn’t give Wemby a rest when he’s in the paint. You don’t have that one-two combo on a lot of teams.”

That smaller guard approach is one the Oklahoma City Thunder tried against Wembanyama in the Western Conference Finals, enlisting 6-foot, 5-inch Alex Caruso to guard the man more than a foot taller.

While Towns was impactful for the Knicks Wednesday night — recording 18 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists while guarding Wembanyama for much of the game — the game will almost certainly be remembered for the awe-inspiring play of Jalen Brunson, who caught fire in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting in the game’s final frame.

For Burton, the remarkable part of Brunson’s effort wasn’t just that he was making shots, it was the fact that the diminutive point guard looked like he wanted the ball in that big situation.

“That’s the most important thing, he wants the ball. He has shown he’s the best closer right now, and he doesn’t even need to score the ball, although he’s doing that a-million-and-one times. He’s making the right plays. San Antonio sent a double [team] at him last night, and the Knicks immediately flashed somebody in the high post, Brunson hit him and they had a three-point shooter open in either corner. He’s making the right plays.”

The coaches also heaped praise on Hart, who Burton said has a "knack for the ball" and "plays bigger than his height."

"He's the kind of type of guy, every coach wants," CaFiero said.

CaFiero said he has been watching Brunson, Bridges and Hart since they were freshmen at Villanova University. Thanks to a connection between former Massapequa head coach Martin Voigt and Villanova’s legendary head coach Jay Wright — they were on the same coaching staff at Hofstra once upon a time — Massapequa teams have had something of a connection with the Big East powerhouse. While the NBA Finals might seem like a bigger stage, CaFiero said the work that trio is putting in — especially Brunson — is at the same level it has always been.

“This is what I’ve been watching with these guys since they were freshmen at Villanova,” CaFiero said. “They’re tough competitors, they don’t fail to seize the moment, and it seemed like the game slows down to them and they get calm in the game’s biggest moments.”

As for where the Knicks might have advantages, the coaches gave variations on the same theme: A group with plenty of depth that’s playing excellent team basketball right now.

“I think they’ve shown it over the last 12 straight wins, any one of their five starters can be their go-to guy in any moment, in any game,” Herr said. “It’s really tough to defend when they move the ball as quickly as they do, and any one of them can be their leading scorer…I think the Knicks have played phenomenal team ball.”

“They’re just clicking on all cylinders, everybody knows their role, everyone is doing their part,” Burton added.

“They’re deep,” CaFiero said. “They can send a bunch of guys into the game, they have shooters coming off the bench, and you’re dealing with some of these guards from San Antonio who are young guys, their team is young. The Knicks have experience, they’ve been there, they’ve been in big situations in the past. Now, they’re deep.”

For Burton, the pick before the series was the same as the one he projected Thursday: Knicks in six games.

Herr, meanwhile, said his belief in the Knicks had gotten stronger after game one.

“They played their worst game possible, in the playoffs, and still won by 10,” Herr said. “My change in my opinion is that it might be a quicker series than most people expected.”

“I’m a diehard Knicks fan, I’ve been a Knicks fan since I was a little kid,” CaFiero said. “I still have dreams of Charles Smith missing layups underneath the basket, Patrick Ewing fading away against the Pacers and hitting the back rim…The Knicks are my pick, with my heart and with my gut.”

The Knicks will play game two of the NBA Finals Friday night at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. Tip-off is listed at 8:30 p.m. The series will come to Madison Square Garden for games three, four and six (if necessary).