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Welcome back to Court Sense ☘️ A newsletter that never believed in home-court advantage
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Three games into the NBA Finals, three wins for the road team. Who needs home-court anyway?
The Knicks lead the Spurs, 2-1, in the title matchup, with both teams yet to win a game on their home floor.
New York, a modest underdog after demolishing the Eastern Conference all spring, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the series and extended its playoff win streak to 13 games, the second-longest in postseason history.
The Knicks stole Game 1 in San Antonio, finishing on an 11-0 run behind a few very clutch buckets from Jalen Brunson. Brunson also stole Game 2 a little more literally, capitalizing on an all-time bad turnover from the Spurs.
Then came Monday's Game 3, which, folks, if you thought World Cup ticket prices were steep, try getting into the first Finals game in New York since 1999. In the hours before tip-off, prices plunged — yes, plunged — to around $5,000 for the cheapest seats. At one point over the weekend, the cheapest tickets available were approaching $10,000.
Did Knicks fans get their money's worth? Well, kind of. The game was exciting, going down to the final minute again. Getting in was a nightmare with one particularly noteworthy guest requiring a little extra security. All that, plus paying a couple months' mortgage to see your team lose, is one way to spend your Monday.
Behind 32 points and eight rebounds from Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs finally got on the board. Guard De'Aaron Fox largely struggled from the field, shooting just 4 of 14, but he delivered when it mattered, hitting a clutch fallaway jumper to give San Antonio a 5-point lead with 12 seconds to play.
The Spurs have struggled a bit offensively in this series, but their defense is really something to watch when they're humming. When they're flying around like this — and Wembanyama exists — I'm not really sure how anyone scores against San Antonio.
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The Spurs took Game 3 on the road in New York on Monday. (AP)
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It's been a great series so far, with the result of all three games still in the balance in the final minutes. The Knicks have shown that they're not anything close to a walkover coming out of the East, and the Spurs showed Monday night that, despite their youth, this moment might not be too big for them after dropping two games at home.
One player I continue to be so impressed by is Dylan Harper, the precocious rookie who is playing so far beyond his years (he only turned 20 in March).
The brother of Celtics guard Ron Harper Jr., San Antonio's young star is averaging 13.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in the playoffs while shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
He hasn't shot well in the Finals — just 2 of 15 from deep — but the kid just makes plays. This dunk last night was the big highlight, but Harper has been so fearless throughout the postseason, getting to the rim for buckets like this all spring.
Game 4 is on Wednesday in New York. Whether you're watching as a neutral, pulling for Luke Kornet, or hate-watching the Knicks (hi, Dan), this series is shaping up to be a great watch.
Otherwise, there's not a ton going in Celtics world. Jaylen Brown is selling his Seaport penthouse, if you happen to have $4.9 million laying around and you're interested in what realtor George Sarkis called "the MVP of townhouses," whatever that means.
(Before you take this as evidence of Brown wanting out of Boston — he also put it up for sale in 2024. He's been renting it out for a while, and I'm pretty sure he just lives in Wellesley or something.)
While his realtors handle the tours, Brown is out in China, doing, uh, things.
Hey, a Shaolin summer seemed to work just fine for Wembanyama last year. Maybe it'll do wonders for Brown, too, though I'm not sure he needs as much work on his inner peace as his off-hand dribbling, but who am I to argue.
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Victor Wembanyama had 32 points for the Spurs in Game 3. (Getty)
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The Spurs figured some things out in Game 3, and showed that the NBA Finals are far from over
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With every excuse to succumb to the raucous, once-in-a-century atmosphere at Madison Square Garden in the Knicks’ first home NBA Finals game since the debut of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the Spurs vastly improved on the late-game execution that cost them the first two games in San Antonio.
The Knicks were returning home after two late-game rallies earned them a decisive advantage in this series and hoped to erase any suspense with a third win, this time in front of a crowd that included President Trump, former Yankees star Derek Jeter, and tennis legend John McEnroe.
The Knicks are seeking their first championship in 53 years — the Celtics have won seven titles in that span — and the title-hungry town was eagerly anticipating the home team would capitalize on its environment and overwhelm the younger Spurs.
That was not the case in Monday’s Game 3. The Spurs punched first, then rallied from a 7-point halftime deficit and held on for a 115-111 victory, giving this evenly matched series some intrigue because of the poise of Stephon Castle, clutch shooting of De’Aaron Fox, and overall dominance of 7-foot-4-inch center Victor Wembanyama.
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Other top stories we're watching ...
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Each week, we’ll be asking a piece of Celtics trivia to test your knowledge on the 18-time champions.
Congratulations to Grace Bartini of Charlottesville, Va., the first person to correctly answer last week's question. As a refresher, we asked you to name the Celtics Hall of Famer who briefly served in the Marines before joining the team in 1969.
The answer is the Jo Jo White, whose entrance into the NBA was all over the place. He slipped in the NBA Draft in part because he had been drafted by the Army during the Vietnam War, but instead served briefly as a reserve in the Marines.
His time in the Marines was so short, the story goes, because of a little string-pulling from Red Auerbach to get White on the floor sooner than the two-year military commitment would suggest.
(I have a lot of questions about that, and might need to do some added research this week. Does anyone have Bob Ryan's phone number?)
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Jo Jo White was a key contributor to the Celtics' championships in the 1970s. (Globe Archives)
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Here's this week's question: The Celtics retired No. 23 for which lifelong Kentuckian, who has also been considered the NBA's first prominent sixth man?
Know the answer? Send us an email at court...@globe.com, and the first person to write in with the correct answer will get a shoutout when the answer is revealed in next week's newsletter. Good luck!
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The Joe Mazzulla Quote of the Week
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Congratulations to Knicks coach Mike Brown, a first-time winner of the Joe Mazzulla Quote of the Week.
After the Knicks stole Game 1 of the NBA Finals on the road, Brown had some interesting insight into his approach with the officials, as he recognized mid-game that he was focusing his energy in the wrong place.
"We were all [expletive] too much at the officials. [Assistant coach] Rick Brunson was great, he told me to shut the hell up — sorry, mom, he told me to shut up, or be quiet — and he told the rest of the team to be quiet and leave the officials alone," Brown explained. "It was great of him, because we were kind of losing our mind."
A refreshing take, honestly. Though, that lasted for less than a week, as Brown spent almost five minutes on Monday night complaining about the officiating in Game 3. So, you know, the grace for the officials comes and goes.
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