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New York Knicks star Josh Hart knew the San Antonio Spurs were in trouble well before they stepped on the same floor in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Hart, 31, said the Spurs’ blunder came during their celebration after winning Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals over the Oklahoma City Thunder. After the Spurs knocked out the reigning champions to advance, Victor Wembanyama was brought to tears.
“Everyone’s talking to them about, ‘Yo, they’ve got to beat OKC. OKC’s going to repeat,’” Hart said during a recent episode of “The Roommates Show” with teammate Jalen Brunson recorded at Madison Square Garden on Friday.
“They beat OKC. For a young team, I feel like that was the mountaintop for them. That’s when I looked at (Brunson) and I was like, ‘You see that reaction? Because like they think they’re going to win it. They think it’s over.'”
Hart contrasted the Spurs’ jubilation after beating the Thunder to the Knicks’ mindset after sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers to advance to the franchise’s first NBA Finals since 1999.
“You look at our reaction after we beat Cleveland – it was tough to celebrate because we were like, ‘We got four more.’ Obviously winning the Eastern Conference is an amazing accomplishment, but we all looked at this like this is just a step. This isn’t the destination. This is just a step,” Hart said.
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“The reaction after Game 4 in Cleveland showed that.”
Hart’s summation proved to be correct, as the youthful Spurs blew a double-digit lead in all four of their losses to the Knicks.
The Knicks’ poise and their resilience were the team’s defining trademarks, as three of the five largest comebacks in NBA Finals history came during this series against the Spurs.
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The Knicks players only began celebrating after they defeated the Spurs in Game 5, as they constantly stated their mindset was that the series was “0-0” after every game.
Hart was his usual self in the NBA Finals, playing strong defense while serving as a strong rebounder and facilitator on offense. In the team’s 19 playoff games, Hart averaged 10.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.7 steals per game.
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