The New York Knicks returned to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 with a clinical 130-93 road victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, completing a four-game sweep of the Eastern Conference Finals. The win extended New York’s postseason winning streak to 11 games – matching the third-longest single-playoff run in league history – and was never in doubt after a 29-point second-quarter lead. Karl-Anthony Towns led with 19 points and 14 rebounds, while OG Anunoby added 17 and Jalen Brunson, unanimously named Eastern Conference finals MVP, contributed 15 points and orchestrated a balanced attack that saw six players score in double figures. The franchise, still seeking its first championship since 1973, now waits for the winner of a Western Conference finals locked at 2-2 between the San Antonio Spurs and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

For Cleveland, the defeat caps a series that unravelled dramatically after they surrendered a 22-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 1. Charles Barkley, on the “Inside the NBA” halftime show, declared the Cavaliers’ performance the verb “quit”, while the team’s own supporters began leaving Rocket Arena midway through the fourth. Donovan Mitchell, who scored 31 points in Game 4, faced immediate questions about his future with the franchise; he deflected but acknowledged the disappointment. James Harden’s 12-point, zero-three-pointer outing drew a brutal assessment from Shaquille O’Neal, who noted the veteran guard “is doing nothing”. The sense of a dispirited end was amplified by the absence of German point guard Dennis Schröder through illness, as reported by Bild.

Viewed from San Antonio, the Western Conference series has become a chess match, a metaphor invoked by the Argentine daily Clarín, recalling Victor Wembanyama’s impromptu chess games in a New York park last December. The Spurs levelled the series at 2-2 with a 103-82 Game 4 blowout, Wembanyama scoring 33 points and anchoring a defence that held Oklahoma City to 33% shooting. Injuries complicate Game 5: the Thunder’s Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell remain day-to-day, robbing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of his primary creators, while San Antonio’s De’Aaron Fox and rookie Dylan Harper are playing through pain. European observers note Wembanyama’s cultural footprint – from a San Antonio library’s “Read Like Wemby” campaign to his off-season training at China’s Shaolin Temple – as a defining storyline of these playoffs.

The Knicks’ renaissance under head coach Mike Brown – who likened Brunson’s quiet leadership to Tim Duncan and Steph Curry – has transformed a franchise long mired in mediocrity into a genuine title threat. Analysts in London point out that New York’s +23.7 average margin of victory over 11 games is historically dominant. Yet the road to a championship may require overcoming the same San Antonio outfit that beat them in five games in the 1999 Finals, a symmetry not lost on Knicks legends Walt Frazier and Patrick Ewing, who presented Brunson with the Larry Bird Trophy. As the Finals approach, the question is whether the Knicks’ surge is sustainable against either Wembanyama’s ascendant Spurs or a wounded but resilient Thunder. The answer will define a season already rich in narrative.