With the NBA Finals beginning today, it is one of the first in many years where no one really knows who will claim the Larry O'Brien trophy. It will be a rematch of the 1999 Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks in what is sure to be a series packed with storylines and excitement.
The Spurs are one of the youngest teams to ever make the big dance and are looking to start their dynastic dominance, backed by an unprecedented amount of raw talent that has trumped some of the league's best teams during their playoff run.
While the Knicks have finally gotten over the hump of decades of playoff failure to reach their moment and try to reclaim the biggest achievement in the sport.
Going into the series, the Spurs are the favourites, but the Knicks are no ordinary underdog, with them already claiming the season series against the Spurs and beating them in the Emirates Cup. So how can the Spurs knock off a white-hot Knicks team and move on to claim their sixth banner?
Battle-ready and shades of the past
Compared to the clearly weaker Eastern Conference, the Spurs have claimed some serious scalps over the likes of the Timberwolves, who made the Conference Finals the last two years and the former champions in the first seed, the Oklahoma City Thunder, with their home-court advantage. These series have tested the Spurs' depth and flexibility, with physicality being thrown at Wembanyama through Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert and Isaiah Hartenstein, as well as their defence through facing up against some of the league's top isolation scorers in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Edwards.
New York is a similar team to the Thunder in how they have one primary isolation scorer and a part from that, no one else in particular who can go get you a bucket on the go. The key here is to sometimes sacrifice the points and let the star player do his thing so that no one else around him steps up and also contributes. It's a tactic the Spurs did last series and one they will hope to emulate again.
