The Smartest Plays of the 2026 NBA Finals

With the season ending, let's look at the smartest plays of the finals between New York and San Antonio, starting with something fun. Jalen Brunson going for the four-point hack-a-mitch and draining it. Remember, Jalen tried to time this up while the Celtics intentionally fouled Mitchell Robinson earlier in the year without any success. And again in the finals, he saw the foul happening and just let it fly for a free roll at four possible points, and he did start his upward shooting motion before the whistle. Unfortunately, on review, the whistle was late and the actual hacking of Mitchell occurred before the shot, but one day Brunson's going to nail this trick. At number nine, we have tactics that officially worked. On this out-of-bounds situation, the Spurs move Victor Wembenyama onto Josh Hart so he can roll him around, and the Knicks immediately go to this high-low action with Karl-Anthony Towns. And Devin Vassell is fronting Towns to prevent a post-up, so the classic counters to draw Wemby out, then have Hart pass it over the top. Then in game three, it's the exact same situation, only Luke Kornet's in the game matched up with Hart. Josh flashes to the top, but this time the Spurs know the play, so it's a coverage interception for San Antonio. Nice little counter there. Victor Wembenyama always causes NBA players to second-guess themselves and regularly block shots that redefine the geometry of a basketball court. He also has some very smart blocks, like this sequence where the Knicks are trying to pull him into the pick-and-roll. Jose Alvarado tries to surprise everyone by going the other way, so Wemby spins the other way with him to meet the ball at its apex. And then there was this gem. This all starts with Katt bringing Wemby out near half-court. The Spurs have the weak side defender rotate to Katt so Wemby can rotate down to the corner. He tells Fox to cover the cutter, only just to chase down Hart at the last second. That's craziness. OG Ananobi almost had a similar half-court chase-down block himself, although Josh Hart stuffed that one first. So at number 8, let's go with this incredible play from Game 5. We've tracked the rise in these lob blocks over the years, where the defender chases the pass with the intention of challenging the catch, but I'm not sure we've ever had one as good as this aerial Hawk-Porty save in a championship clinching moment. Wemby's still in his own air when it comes to tipping the ball to himself, though. This pass is well short, so he's basically repassing it to himself just to finish this with one hand. And at number 7, the third time is the charm. Mike Brown was actually begging for a travel here, but this was two clean steps from Vic. Then he's almost passing it to himself on these tips, just to reach behind him while Cat pulls his other arm for the one-handed off-balance bank. Let's go back to the first round, where the Knicks found a ton of success with this flex action, with Brunson screening for OG Ananobi in the corner and Cat feeding him at the top for paydirt. So in Game 1 of the finals, they added a twist by running it with Towns opposite the corner screen that allows Brunson to curl off a down screen, which opens space for Ananobi to seal in the post. Only Wemby came running in to blow up that idea, and the Knicks ended up with a hard jumper. So the Spurs took this out of the Knicks playbook by just switching that Brunson screen and then playing their normal base defense, with Wemby mucking everything up at the rim. Except for our number 6 play from Game 2, where Brunson plays off Cat, Mikael Bridges cuts to the paint and is probably open, then this is total improvisation. Turning it into that corner screen, the Spurs do switch it, so Bridges cuts right behind that switch for a bunny. And I love cutting behind cutters, the Knicks did this in Game 1 against Cleveland for a Brunson floater, but the one against San Antonio was randomly finding this pet action that worked so well in the playoffs. Mike Brown cut his teeth as a defensive coach, and at number 5, let's go with his entire defensive game plan to stop Wemby's pick and rolls in the finals. The Knicks sold out with a high tag and a low tag to clog up Wemby's roll, and for the most part, that kept Wemenyama from catching deep and took away a bunch of his easy baskets. The Knicks were daring multiple shooters to beat them, especially coming from the top of the key one pass away to jam up Victor's roll before it even started. They were basically playing San Antonio's 2-man game with 4 or occasionally 5 bodies in the paint to take away Wemby's lobs. So when the Spurs ran their pet double-screen action, multiple Knicks were committed to bodying Victor, even if it meant leaving the outside open. And this strategy of never leaving Wemby remotely free on these actions helped the New York defense basically win the first two games of this series with that aggressive game plan. Naturally then, that takes us to the lone Spurs win of this series which came from countering the Knicks defense by sticking two players in the strong side corner to put one health defender in a bind and really take away the traffic and congestion on some of these pick and rolls. So instead of having that second defender up top, they pull him out of the play this way. That leaves a single defender behind that we actually saw some lobs this game. But my favorite counter was our number four play. Wemby's getting ready to detach from cat and screen. Towns is grappling so he can't sprint into that pick, so Wemby uses that to slingshot backdoor instead of screening. That is a wily dunk. New York's big comeback in Game 4 featured a ton of crafty sequences, including Jose Alvarado hiding behind Victor before screening for the offensive Grand Theft Alvarado or Grand Pick Alvarado. Either way, it freed up Brunson. And then there's this incredible random play where Bridges attacks Victor on a closeout. Wemby starts chasing him to the outside and cat sees this so he just screams his own man assuming Wemby won't chase McHale. The pitch to Brunson and screen then gives Jalen Daylight and he drills it. But at number three, let's go with Alvarado and this incredible sequence. This is that same Spurs defensive idea we saw earlier with two defenders going to Brunson, the nail defender rotates to Towns, Fox then bumps over one while Wemby recovers to the corner to take his man. Only Alvarado knows this, ball fakes and goes and that breaks the Spurs rotations. And then on the very next play, they're trying to hunt Wemby into the screening action, San Antonio pre-switches so Kat just clears out and they have Jose come set that screen to draw out Victor. Again, two defenders go to the ball, the weak side defender rotates over so Alvarado attacks, sees Wemby and U-turns only to spin cycle everyone into the ether and finish. I love that, Anyway, Jalen Brunson has infinite chutzpah. At the end of the game for a comeback, he wanted some one-on-one against a player 16 inches taller than him. And then in game five, the little hesitation and ball fake to shed Wemby to get home and cut it to six. On the very next possession, he wants to go after the French giant again, goes with the crossover and a huge hesitation move to throw Wemby off balance. Then a minute later, it's yet another transition head fake and hesitation to tie the game at 83. This time, the ball fake sent Luke Cornett flying out of his way on the drive. And so our number two entry is more vintage Brunson. This is peak Jalen Guile because he knows Wemby's waiting yet shoots it early off totally unexpected footwork to surprise Wembenyama. And finally, let's celebrate some of the beautiful game sequences from the Knicks in this series, stringing together multiple passes late in the clock. New York destroyed teams at the end of the shot clock in their playoff run. And this Carl Anthony Towns pass is certainly a candidate for the top spot here, as is another Knicks random possession where the ball touches multiple players before Landry Schama dribbles out toward Kat, pitches it like he's going to screen for Towns only to cut back door. And that's another great pass. But at number one, it's this incredible possession from game two where Brunson is the first Knick to touch the paint. Then there aren't just two driving kicks on this play. There aren't three driving kicks on this play. There are a whopping four driving kicks before Ananobi passes with 1.3 seconds on the clock. That is incredible. And as much as I love a smart late clock pass, watch McHale on this entire possession. He cuts into the paint, then tries to get out of Brunson's way and fills the other corner. Then his re-spacing on this play epitomizes the Knicks principles, changing sides twice to relocate for the corner dagger. A massive shot and a one point win that helped New York take its first title in 53 years. You can get Thinking Basketball content in the NBA app throughout the season. And if you want more right now, check out the Thinking Basketball channel on YouTube.