New York Knicks-San Antonio Spurs NBA Finals 2026 Live Updates

New York has a lot riding on the underdog Knicks.

At DraftKings Sportsbook in New York, the Knicks have attracted nearly half of all money wagered on the NBA Finals winner this season -- almost as much as every other team combined.

Now, Victor Wembanyama and the favored San Antonio Spurs are all that stand in the way. On Saturday night, the Spurs opened as high as -220 favorites to win the Finals, with the Knicks installed as approximately +180 underdogs. The price quickly gravitated toward the rested Knicks, and as of Sunday morning, the Spurs were down to -200 favorites.

New York swept its two previous series in the Eastern Conference playoffs and has won 11 straight games. The Knicks haven't played since Monday and will have had eight days off when they tip off against the Spurs on Wednesday in Game 1 of the Finals in San Antonio.

The Spurs, who survived an intense seven-game series against the Oklahoma City Thunder to reach the Finals, are 4.5-point favorites in Game 1.

This is the ninth Finals matchup between a team that swept its previous series and an opponent that was forced to go seven games. The team coming off the sweep went 5-3 in the previous Finals matchups, according to ESPN Research.

Both teams were supported heavily at sportsbooks this season. The Spurs entered the season at 65-1 to win the title at DraftKings Sportsbook and would become the biggest preseason underdogs to win the title in at least 40 seasons, according to archive SportsOddsHistory.com.

The Knicks began the season at 10-1 and saw their championship odds drift to as long as 19-1 during an up-and-down regular season. They reached 35-1 briefly in the postseason, as they struggled with the Atlanta Hawks in their first-round playoff series.

"Knicks are unsurprisingly very heavily bet on in New York, more so than any other state, both per game and in the futures." Caesars Sportsbook lead NBA trader David Lieberman told ESPN, adding that both the Knicks and Spurs are liabilities for the house in the book's futures market.

Wembanyama, who last month was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year, is a -185 favorite to be named Finals MVP at DraftKings Sportsbooks. Since the DPOY was first awarded in 1983, the only player to win that award and Finals MVP in the same season was Hakeem Olajuwon in 1994, according to ESPN Research.br/]

The New York Knicks are back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, and they'll face the same opponent they did then, the San Antonio Spurs. You can watch the entire NBA Finals on ABC 7 and the ESPN app.

Game 1: June 3 at Spurs
Game 2: June 5 at Spurs
Game 3: June 8 at Knicks
Game 4: June 10 at Knicks
Game 5*: June 13 at Spurs
Game 6*: June 16 at Knicks
Game 7*: June 19 at Spurs

* if necessary
All games tip off at 8:30 p.m. ET

Dec. 16: Knicks 124, Spurs 113
Dec. 31: Spurs 134, Knicks 132
March 1: Knicks 114, Spurs 89

After Feb. 1, the Spurs lost just two games in which Wembanyama played in the regular season. One was an overtime classic in Denver at the end of it. The other was a Sunday afternoon beatdown at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks defense was suffocating, forcing 21 turnovers and allowing the Spurs to shoot just 41%. Mikal Bridges led the Knicks with 25 points, five steals and five rebounds. It was a glimpse of what the Knicks could do defensively when locked in and continued a level of mastery over Wembanyama, who they slowed in December's NBA Cup title game in Las Vegas. -- Vincent Goodwill

New York must bottle up what helped it steamroll through the East bracket. It hasn't been just the Brunson show, although he gets a lion's share of credit. Every starter has had his moment in these playoffs.

Bridges, whose game has awakened after calls for his benching in the first three games of the first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, is shooting nearly 60% from the field. The unsung Anunoby is scoring nearly 20 points per game on elite efficiency. And when Towns stays out of foul trouble, his ability to stretch the floor and be a secondary facilitator could help keep Wembanyama out of the paint.

Have the Knicks, who will enter next week's Finals with nine days rest, been tested enough throughout this run? Closer games will be the expectation, but that's where Brunson comes in. There's no easy individual matchup for him to hunt late in games -- he will have to be fresh and excellent in the clutch to help the Knicks capture their first ring since 1973. -- Vincent Goodwill