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New York City, you just captured your first piece of NBA hardware since 1973.

Time to celebrate.

Today’s Lineup

🎉 Happy birthday Buddy Hield, GG Jackson II, and Guerschon Yabusele!  🎉

Game Recaps

Knicks defeat Spurs 124-113, take home the NBA cup

Let’s hear it for New York! 🗣️

The Knicks have a championship-contending roster, and though it may not be the NBA championship, taking home the Cup title Tuesday night at least adds some further truth to that claim.

New York won by double-digits, but the final score does not tell the full story. Rookie Dylan Harper (21 PTS) and Victor Wembanyama (18 PTS) kept the Spurs steady throughout most of the game, and San Antonio found themselves with the lead throughout the majority of the first three quarters.

A huge 13-1 run by the Knicks early in the fourth put them up by five, and they simply never looked back. The rally was led by OG Anunoby (28 PTS, 9 REB) and Jalen Brunson (25 PTS, 8 AST), though it was overall a balanced scoring attack from the Knicks, who had six players end in double figures.

Brunson recognized the valiant team effort in the postgame celebration: 😎

52 years later, the Knicks 1973 championship banner will finally have some company. Who knows, maybe this won’t be the only banner New York hangs this season…. 🤔

Nuggets outlast Rockets 128-125 in Overtime Thriller

The battle between the Rockets and Nuggets was so great on Monday night, it had us checking the calendar to make sure it wasn’t the middle of May. 😎

Even though it isn’t actually May yet, this game had a major playoff feel to it. The Nuggets, who are still without key starters in Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon, turned to their bread and butter duo of Nikola Jokić (39 PTS, 15 REB, 10 AST) and Jamal Murray (35 PTS, 14/15 FT) to lead the charge. Murray hit the game-tying free throw after an off-ball foul with two seconds to play in regulation, sending the game to OT.

Once we got to OT, other guys stepped up for Denver, most notably two-way rookie Spencer Jones (11 PTS) who hit a huge three that put his squad up seven. Talk about not being afraid of the moment!

This game saw four ties and four lead changes just in the final two minutes of regulation, which included a barrage of clutch threes from Reed Sheppard (14 PTS) and Kevin Durant (25 PTS). Alperen Sengun got up for his battle against Jokic, putting up a monstrous triple double line of 33 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. He made some clutch buckets of his own, but his game-tying three to force a second OT did not go down.

Basketball gods, we’re asking nicely to see these two teams match up in the playoffs. 🙏

Elsewhere around the NBA:

• Revenge is a dish best served with fallaway jumpshots in the clutch! After the Celtics ended the Pistons’ 13 game winning streak a few weeks back, Detroit came into Boston on Monday and got the win this time around, 112-105. Cade Cunningham (32 PTS, 10 REB) continues to own the fourth quarter like he has all season, and was able to withstand the late run by Jaylen Brown, who put up 34 points of his own. The Pistons (21-5) have won four straight, and create more separation from the rest of the pack out east. 👀

• Monday’s game between the Jazz and Mavs let us know the future of the league is in great hands. Cooper Flagg became the first 18 year old ever to drop 40 points in a game, going off for 42 (13/27 FG, 15/20 FT). It was Utah and their dynamic duo who got the last laugh though, with Keyonte George exploding for 37 points, while Lauri Markkannen poured in 33 to fuel their 140-133 win in OT. 🔥

• Whatever the opposite of homecourt advantage is, the Clippers seem to have it. The Clips drop their eighth straight game at the Intuit Dome, as Memphis comes in and dominates the second half to win 121-103. Jaren Jackson Jr. had 21 of his 31 points in the second half, Cam Spencer notched a career high 27, and Ja Morant (12 PTS) continues to get his reps in following his return from injury.

Wayback Wednesday

In 1988, he was working in a grocery store. By 1993, he was dunking on Michael Jordan. How did we get here? Well, let’s dive into one of the most unique paths to the NBA of all time, John Starks! 🔥

The story of John Starks feels quite literally out of a movie. As a senior in High School, he left the varsity team after two games to bag groceries, and it seemed his basketball career was already over. However, he was still playing intramural games in his spare time, and was discovered by an assistant coach of the Oklahoma Junior College squad….

The team gave him a shot, and he played well enough to earn himself a scholarship at Oklahoma State University. Though he put up great numbers there, it wasn’t enough for him to get selected in the 1988 NBA draft. He was picked up by the Warriors as an undrafted free agent, but was cut after one year and was demoted to the playing in the CBA. 😔

Most players would have given up here, but Starks was built different. He was determined to get back into the league, and he needed a little bit of luck to get there.

He struck gold when the Knicks gave him a tryout in 1990, and when Starks attempted to dunk on Patrick Ewing in that tryout, that was all the Knicks needed to see to give him a shot. From there, the rest is history.

By the 1992-93 season, Starks became a starter the Knicks team with the best record in the NBA. The ‘93 playoffs were his true coming out party. He went toe to toe with Hall of Famer Reggie Miller in round one, but the true test came in the Conference Finals against Michael Jordan and the Bulls….

Arguably his greatest career highlight came in that series, when he delivered a dagger blow to the Bulls in game 2, with a highlight that is now known famously around New York as “The Dunk.”

Take a look:

The following year, Starks was a major piece in the Knicks’ run to the 1994 NBA Finals, where they fell just one win shy of taking home the Larry O’Brien trophy. He made his first All-Star team (19.0 PTS, 5.9 AST) that season as well, and three years later he took home the 1997 Sixth Man of the Year award. Not too bad for a guy that was bagging groceries just a few years before!

John Starks has one of the most unorthodox stories in NBA history, and it should be viewed as an inspiration to many other aspiring pros that everyone’s path is different, and there’s no one way to make it to the league!

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Three in the Key

Signing Off

That’s all for today, Enjoyers! Thanks for taking some time out of your day with us. This week is the last push before the Holiday break, we’re almost there!

We’ll catch you on Friday.

Bobby Kasmire