GT vs KKR, IPL 2026: Catch the scores and updates from the IPL 2026 encounter between the Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday, April 17.
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How Can Astronauts Tell How Fast They’re Going?<div><p class="paywall">Let’s use our car again, but this time we’ll get real numbers from the accelerometer in our smartphone. Say we start at a red light and then accelerate at 2 m/s<sup>2</sup> (meters per second squared) for five seconds. From the equation above, <strong>Δv<sub>1</sub></strong> would be 2 x 5 = 10 m/s, so that’s our velocity. Now, after cruising for a while, we accelerate again at 1 m/s<sup>2</sup> for five more seconds. <strong>Δv<sub>2</sub></strong> is then 1 x 5 = 5 m/s. Adding these two changes, our velocity is now 15 m/s. And so on.</p><p class="paywall">The only problem is that inertial measurement isn’t as accurate as the Doppler method over long periods, because small errors will keep accumulating. That means you need to recalibrate your system periodically using some other method.</p><h2 class="paywall">Optical Navigation</h2><p class="paywall">On Earth, people have long navigated by the stars. In the northern hemisphere, just find Polaris. It’s called the North Star because Earth’s axis of rotation points right at it. That’s why it appears stationary, while the other stars seem to revolve around it. If you point a finger at Polaris you’ll be pointing north, and you can use that orientation to go in whatever direction you want.</p><p class="paywall">Now, if you can measure the angle of Polaris above the horizon, you’ll also know your latitude. If the angle is 30 degrees, you’re at latitude 30 degrees. See, it’s easy. And once you can measure position, you just need to do it twice and record the time interval to find your velocity.</p><p class="paywall">But celestial navigation works because we know how the Earth rotates, and that doesn’t help in a spacecraft. Oh well, can we just use the stars like you would use the cows on the side of the road? Nope. The stars are so far away, astronauts would need to travel for many, many generations to detect any shift in their position. Like the airplane flying over the sea, you’d seem to be stationary, even while traveling 25,000 mph.</p><p class="paywall">But we can still use the basic idea. For optical navigation in space, a spacecraft can locate other objects in the solar system. By knowing the precise location of these objects (which change over time) and where they appear relative to the viewer, it’s possible to triangulate a position. And again, by taking multiple position measurements over time, you can calculate a velocity.</p><p class="paywall">In the end, even though spaceships lack speedometers, it’s possible to track their speed indirectly with a little physics. But it’s just another example of how <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/in-orbit-you-have-to-slow-down-to-speed-up" class="text link">flying in space is really, totally different</a>—and way more complicated—than driving or flying on Earth.</p></div>#Astronauts #Fast #Theyredot physics,physics,astronomy,space,spacecraft,moon landing,navigation,acceleration
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Deadspin | Craig Albernaz, Orioles seeks better result in reunion with Guardians <div id=""><section id="0" class=" w-full"><div class="xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0"><img src="https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/28740248.jpg" srcset="https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/28740248.jpg" alt="MLB: San Francisco Giants at Baltimore Orioles" class="w-full" fetchpriority="high" loading="eager"/><span class="text-0.8 leading-tight">Apr 11, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles manager Craig Albernaz looks on during the fourth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> </span></div></section><section id="section-1"> <p>Craig Albernaz spent plenty of time in the home manager’s office during the last two seasons as a coach with the Cleveland Guardians.</p> </section><section id="section-2"> <p>Now managing the Baltimore Orioles, he is spending this weekend in the other clubhouse while going against his longtime friend, Cleveland skipper Stephen Vogt.</p> </section><section id="section-3"> <p>Orioles right-hander Chris Bassitt (0-2, 9.00 ERA) takes on Guardians right-hander Tanner Bibee (0-2, 6.38) in the second game of the four-game series on Friday.</p> </section><section id="section-4"> <p>“We used to say it to each other all the time in the past two years: Can you believe they let us do this?” Albernaz said. “And if you had told me Vogty and I would be managing together, I would say you were out of your mind. There was no way this would happen.”</p> </section><section id="section-5"> <p>Vogt named Albernaz his bench coach upon being hired ahead of the 2024 season, then promoted him to associate manager the next year. They guided the Guardians to back-to-back American League Central Division titles, in addition to a trip to the 2024 American League Championship Series.</p> </section><section id="section-6"> <p>When the Orioles wanted to interview Albernaz for their open position last winter, Vogt gave them a glowing review of his work. He later traveled to Baltimore to support “Alby” at his introductory press conference.</p> </section><section id="section-7"> <p>“We talk all the time, but it’s always good to catch up in person,” said Vogt, who won AL Manager of the Year each of his first two seasons on the job. “It’s going to be a fun series.”</p> </section><section id="section-8"> <p>Vogt rolled out the welcome mat and some new decor for Albernaz before the series opener on Thursday, which saw Cleveland rookie Parker Messick carry a no-hitter into the ninth inning in the Guardians’ 4-2 win.</p> </section><br/><section id="section-9"> <p>All of the standard furniture in the visiting manager’s office was replaced with kid-sized versions, along with Spider-Man designs in the private bathroom. Bluey was the primary character in the former.</p> </section> <section id="section-10"> <p>“That was awesome,” Albernaz said. “I’m going to have all of it sent back to Baltimore and make sure he gets the shipping receipt so he can pay for it.”</p> </section><section id="section-11"> <p>The Orioles dropped their third straight game, thanks to Messick’s near-masterpiece, but scored twice in the ninth after Cade Smith entered. Leody Taveras’ leadoff single broke up the no-hit bid and sparked a rally that saw Baltimore put the potential tying run in scoring position.</p> </section><section id="section-12"> <p>Messick was charged with both runs in eight-plus innings. The left-hander tied his career high with nine strikeouts in his longest outing as a professional, but he admitted disappointment after coming close to making history.</p> </section><section id="section-13"> <p>“I’ve never thrown a no-hitter, so from about the sixth inning on, I prayed pretty much between every inning,” said Messick, who surrendered two hits and two walks. “It was a good game, just one pitch (got away), and he snuck it through the hole.”</p> </section><section id="section-14"> <p>While Messick has sparkled with a 3-0 record and 1.05 ERA through four starts, both Bassitt and Bibee have been disappointing.</p> </section><section id="section-15"> <p>Bassitt signed as a free agent in February and has failed to get through the fifth in his three outings. The Ohio native is 1-3 with a 3.95 ERA in seven career starts against Cleveland, the last occurring on May 2, 2025, when he surrendered three runs in 5 1/3 innings while pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays.</p> </section><section id="section-16"> <p>Bibee was rocked for eight runs and 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings in a 13-1 loss at Atlanta on Sunday. In three career starts against Baltimore, he is 2-1 with a 4.82 ERA and has given up four homers in 18 2/3 innings.</p> </section><section id="section-17"> <p>–Field Level Media</p> </section></div> #Deadspin #Craig #Albernaz #Orioles #seeks #result #reunion #Guardians
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#Deadspin #Rays #Shane #McClanahan #puts #stellar #streak #line #Marlins">Deadspin | Rays’ Shane McClanahan puts stellar streak on line vs. Marlins 
May 31, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan (18) throws a pitch during the second inning against Los Angeles Angels at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Pablo Robles-Imagn Images
#Deadspin #Rays #Shane #McClanahan #puts #stellar #streak #line #Marlins
May 31, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan (18) throws a pitch during the second inning against Los Angeles Angels at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Pablo Robles-Imagn Images The Tampa Bay Rays will turn to their most reliable pitcher of late when left-hander Shane McClanahan takes the mound Saturday afternoon in the second contest of a three-game series against the host Miami Marlins.
McClanahan (6-2, 2.45 ERA) will have a tough act to follow after Drew Rasmussen frustrated the Marlins, tossing seven shutout innings in a 6-0 win on Friday.
Miami trailed 3-0 after the first inning and could produce just one hit against Rasmussen, who retired 17 straight batters at one point.
The Marlins managed just two hits overall, including a ninth-inning bunt single by Esteury Ruiz, and a walk. The club was hitless in its lone at-bat with runners in scoring position.
“It’s one of those nights you tip your cap (to Rasmussen),” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said of the right-hander’s dominant nine-strikeout outing. “His ability to execute and locate his fastball. … I think our first 2-0 count in the whole game was in the eighth inning with two outs.
“We just didn’t have an answer, but a lot of that is just him executing at a really high rate. We just never got into any kind of a threat. … We couldn’t combat his fastball.”
Three of McClanahan’s first four starts lasted fewer than five innings, and the production was mediocre or just downright poor in all three. He still was getting accustomed to being back on the mound after missing more than full two seasons due to injuries.
However, starting with the Rays’ 6-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on April 25, McClanahan has been incredibly sharp.
After winning four of six starts and posting a 1.41 ERA in May, the left-hander is 5-0 with a 1.22 ERA dating back to beating the Twins.
Over those 37 innings, McClanahan has allowed just five runs, 24 hits and one home run. His good work has resulted in 35 strikeouts and eight walks.
He’s not his old self, lasering triple-digit fastballs by hitters. as the 29-year-old is more pitcher than flamethrower these days, post-injuries.
“I’m still pretty hard on myself,” he said. “I think that kind of makes me who I am just as a competitor. … I’m not going to go out there and try and be average or mediocre and just accept anything but my best.”
McClanahan has been exceptional in two career starts against the Marlins, posting a 2-0 record and a 0.82 ERA in 11 innings. He has given up one run on 10 hits while striking out a dozen batters and walking three.
He has not pitched against the Marlins since 2022.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said outfielder Chandler Simpson, who left Friday’s game after the second inning, has a bruised left thumb and is day-to-day.
Miami’s Lake Bachar (0-0, 3.45) will make his 20th appearance and second start Sunday when he serves as the opener in a bullpen game.
The right-hander started Tuesday and tossed 2 2/3 hitless and scoreless innings against the Washington Nationals. He struck out three batters and walked one.
In three career relief appearances against the Rays, Bachar has a 6.00 ERA without a decision over three innings.
McCullough said Ryan Gusto, the opener on Friday, would be the only reliever unavailable out of the bullpen on Saturday.
“We’re in a really good spot (Saturday) coming off the off day,” McCullough said.
–Field Level Media
SAN ANTONIO – New York ran up 2-0 in the 2026 NBA Finals on Friday. Shoved past the Spurs in Game 2 by a 105-104 score after Victor Wembanyama unleashed a too-strong 17-footer in the final seconds, the 22-year old center clanging an opportunity to tie the series.
On San Antonio’s previous defensive possession Wembanyama fouled Jalen Brunson, and Brunson’s 84 percent free throw percentage, Brunson split a pair for the game’s deciding points. During San Antonio’s previous offensive possession, the 2024 Rookie of the Year (Wemby) threw the ball off the back of the 2025 Rookie of the Year (and Spurs teammate) Stephon Castle, Brunson gathering the loose ball ahead of that Wembanyama foul. It was an odd ending.
There is an odd-sounding word, it is gestalt, I learned it in 1996 when the NBA used its 50th anniversary season to spend an inordinate time celebrating the two-time Knick championship teams from the 1970s. Gestalt theory is an idea I return to about once a year and usually in June, when a team turns a corner, providing proof of something stronger that what’s listed in the lineup.
This year’s Knicks may not take the 2026 NBA title, there are still two wins left to grab before it turns official, but the Knicks have grown taller than all of themselves stacked together. This group improves with every outing and against competition which stiffens with each round. You’d need anti-inflammatories too, after battling these Knicks.
The development, the advancement from April through June and 13 consecutive playoff victories, would be unique among NBA champions. What is typical is the gestalt, the way we’re assured something larger than the image New York presents.
Nothing’s fazed them in Mike Brown’s first postseason with the Knicks. Be they down 2-1 to C.J. McCollum’s third team in 12 months, debated as favorites in the second round because Joel Embiid looked OK for four days, and then, well, Cleveland. There was no dramatic or even minor obstacle in the Cleveland series, analytically or otherwise.
San Antonio, once favored by many, isn’t fazed. Maybe a little tired, probably a more than a little impressed. Nobody doubted the talent on this Knicks team, individual or collected. What is astonishing is how well the talent on the New York Knicks performs when it works alongside one another. The elastic defense and deliberate offense, the absence of self, the dedication, devotion, the turning on the nighttime into the day.
That’s a Dire Straits song, and not an example of gestalt theory, but straits certainly indicating where the San Antonio Spurs while boarding the flight to New York. Five games to win four, three in NYC, they ain’t won a first yet.
San Antonio came close on Friday, reeling in Knick momentum long enough to eliminate the 14-point lead the visitors established with six minutes remaining in Game 2. De’Aaron Fox, Wembanyama and Dylan Harper combined to battle for buckets until the contest was tied, ten seconds left, Wemby with the ball and, uh oh, here comes infamy.
Threw it right off Stephon Castle’s back. Ball bounced to Brunson whom Wemby fouled, sending Jalen to the line for a game-winning free throw.
Stephon wasn’t looking while running up the court, I noticed this before Wemby let loose and said “heads up!” while standing at press row but there was no way Castle heard me. I’m sensitive to these things because I let a ball bounce off my back on the same spot in the court in an intramural basketball tournament in college, and I don’t think I will get over what happened to me before Game 3 on Monday and it happened 26 years ago. So I’m not sure how Stephon can blot his out in three days.
The Spurs will need other exhibits to shape up. The transition defense was strong but not strong enough, New York scored 19 points on the break, San Antonio’s worst mark of the postseason. New York’s offensive rebounding was bound to happen, but did it all have to happen in the second half? And when did San Antonio start missing dunks?
Meanwhile, Karl-Anthony Towns’ elbow torquing cleanly under each three-pointer is an absolute picture of actualized alignment and precision. Towns scored 17 in the first half. His dives from the Domantas Spot turned this series, it isn’t an adventure when KAT (21 points, 13 rebounds, four assists) puts the ball on the floor and against a team with Wemby on that floor.
The word “gestalt” entered my mind repeatedly in that second quarter, watching the Knick bust tail defensively, one movement anticipating another. We’ll hear a lot about the 1970 and 1973 championship Knicks over the next few days, and I’m glad the first guy who reminded me of them was the Knick fan with the inexpensive “HARLEM” tattoo up in the 200 section of the Spurs’ arena, weeping, well, no, crying while he walked with his buddy a few minutes after Game 2. “I’ve waited my whole life for this,” he told his friend, and I’m assuming this isn’t about visiting the Alamo on Saturday.
If it was about the Alamo, wow. What a weekend for him!
He’d removed himself from the upper concourse’s PG-rated pogo pit, Knick fans streaming and phoning home and popping jerseys together. It was a block party and I posted up inside a closed nachos stand, happy to watch one pleasant New Yorker after another thanking San Antonio fans for their grace and hospitality and congratulating the Spurs on its bright future, Knick fans going out of their way to throw trash in the appropriate receptacle, clearing room for the elderly, the infirm, the small children in Spurs uniforms squeaking by the sea of blue and orange.
The next time I saw nachos was in a gas station parking lot, in the hand of the single publicly inebriated Knick fan I saw among hundreds of publicly Knick fans during three nights in the heart of San Antonio.
Clinging to his nachos and teetering around the parking lot with the rest of us who decided the rideshare rate from the arena was too much and decided to walk to a more affordable spot. My Nacho Guy was in an Allan Houston uniform, beaming, 20 minutes after I’d walked by Allan Houston in a sweater, beaming.
While I gathered to call my wife to tell her how cheap I was, another Knick fan plopped down on the gas station stoop next to me, awaiting his rideshare, cordial and curious, noshing, asking me who I wrote for and what I thought about Game 2 while offering immediate analysis: Mikal Bridges and Jose Alvarado down the stretch of the third quarter with Towns and Brunson off the floor, San Antonio’s youth and inability to get to their spots, Wemby’s obvious fatigue, the growing capability of Mike Brown.
You know, pal, I was gonna write all that.
The young man was irrepressible, hopping in his rideshare Mercedes right next to a mother and kids cleaning out their van at a gas pump minutes past midnight on a Saturday morning. The gas station was so replete with polite Knick fans that the families selling shaved ice in the parking lot began courting them with Knick chants. Kids on their first Friday night off from school chased each other around the tire inflator/car vacuum machine, one of them in a DeMar DeRozan Spurs jersey likely as old as she is.
Every bus stop on Commerce St. featured a Knick couple waiting on that rideshare, completely unsure of what they just watched less than a mile away, less than an hour ago. San Antonio on a Friday night, streets filled with New Yorkers. It’s almost like it’s their world, and we just live in it.
SAN ANTONIO – New York ran up 2-0 in the 2026 NBA Finals on Friday. Shoved past the Spurs in Game 2 by a 105-104 score after Victor Wembanyama unleashed a too-strong 17-footer in the final seconds, the 22-year old center clanging an opportunity to tie the series.
On San Antonio’s previous defensive possession Wembanyama fouled Jalen Brunson, and Brunson’s 84 percent free throw percentage, Brunson split a pair for the game’s deciding points. During San Antonio’s previous offensive possession, the 2024 Rookie of the Year (Wemby) threw the ball off the back of the 2025 Rookie of the Year (and Spurs teammate) Stephon Castle, Brunson gathering the loose ball ahead of that Wembanyama foul. It was an odd ending.
There is an odd-sounding word, it is gestalt, I learned it in 1996 when the NBA used its 50th anniversary season to spend an inordinate time celebrating the two-time Knick championship teams from the 1970s. Gestalt theory is an idea I return to about once a year and usually in June, when a team turns a corner, providing proof of something stronger that what’s listed in the lineup.
This year’s Knicks may not take the 2026 NBA title, there are still two wins left to grab before it turns official, but the Knicks have grown taller than all of themselves stacked together. This group improves with every outing and against competition which stiffens with each round. You’d need anti-inflammatories too, after battling these Knicks.
The development, the advancement from April through June and 13 consecutive playoff victories, would be unique among NBA champions. What is typical is the gestalt, the way we’re assured something larger than the image New York presents.
Nothing’s fazed them in Mike Brown’s first postseason with the Knicks. Be they down 2-1 to C.J. McCollum’s third team in 12 months, debated as favorites in the second round because Joel Embiid looked OK for four days, and then, well, Cleveland. There was no dramatic or even minor obstacle in the Cleveland series, analytically or otherwise.
San Antonio, once favored by many, isn’t fazed. Maybe a little tired, probably a more than a little impressed. Nobody doubted the talent on this Knicks team, individual or collected. What is astonishing is how well the talent on the New York Knicks performs when it works alongside one another. The elastic defense and deliberate offense, the absence of self, the dedication, devotion, the turning on the nighttime into the day.
That’s a Dire Straits song, and not an example of gestalt theory, but straits certainly indicating where the San Antonio Spurs while boarding the flight to New York. Five games to win four, three in NYC, they ain’t won a first yet.
San Antonio came close on Friday, reeling in Knick momentum long enough to eliminate the 14-point lead the visitors established with six minutes remaining in Game 2. De’Aaron Fox, Wembanyama and Dylan Harper combined to battle for buckets until the contest was tied, ten seconds left, Wemby with the ball and, uh oh, here comes infamy.
Threw it right off Stephon Castle’s back. Ball bounced to Brunson whom Wemby fouled, sending Jalen to the line for a game-winning free throw.
Stephon wasn’t looking while running up the court, I noticed this before Wemby let loose and said “heads up!” while standing at press row but there was no way Castle heard me. I’m sensitive to these things because I let a ball bounce off my back on the same spot in the court in an intramural basketball tournament in college, and I don’t think I will get over what happened to me before Game 3 on Monday and it happened 26 years ago. So I’m not sure how Stephon can blot his out in three days.
The Spurs will need other exhibits to shape up. The transition defense was strong but not strong enough, New York scored 19 points on the break, San Antonio’s worst mark of the postseason. New York’s offensive rebounding was bound to happen, but did it all have to happen in the second half? And when did San Antonio start missing dunks?
Meanwhile, Karl-Anthony Towns’ elbow torquing cleanly under each three-pointer is an absolute picture of actualized alignment and precision. Towns scored 17 in the first half. His dives from the Domantas Spot turned this series, it isn’t an adventure when KAT (21 points, 13 rebounds, four assists) puts the ball on the floor and against a team with Wemby on that floor.
The word “gestalt” entered my mind repeatedly in that second quarter, watching the Knick bust tail defensively, one movement anticipating another. We’ll hear a lot about the 1970 and 1973 championship Knicks over the next few days, and I’m glad the first guy who reminded me of them was the Knick fan with the inexpensive “HARLEM” tattoo up in the 200 section of the Spurs’ arena, weeping, well, no, crying while he walked with his buddy a few minutes after Game 2. “I’ve waited my whole life for this,” he told his friend, and I’m assuming this isn’t about visiting the Alamo on Saturday.
If it was about the Alamo, wow. What a weekend for him!
He’d removed himself from the upper concourse’s PG-rated pogo pit, Knick fans streaming and phoning home and popping jerseys together. It was a block party and I posted up inside a closed nachos stand, happy to watch one pleasant New Yorker after another thanking San Antonio fans for their grace and hospitality and congratulating the Spurs on its bright future, Knick fans going out of their way to throw trash in the appropriate receptacle, clearing room for the elderly, the infirm, the small children in Spurs uniforms squeaking by the sea of blue and orange.
The next time I saw nachos was in a gas station parking lot, in the hand of the single publicly inebriated Knick fan I saw among hundreds of publicly Knick fans during three nights in the heart of San Antonio.
Clinging to his nachos and teetering around the parking lot with the rest of us who decided the rideshare rate from the arena was too much and decided to walk to a more affordable spot. My Nacho Guy was in an Allan Houston uniform, beaming, 20 minutes after I’d walked by Allan Houston in a sweater, beaming.
While I gathered to call my wife to tell her how cheap I was, another Knick fan plopped down on the gas station stoop next to me, awaiting his rideshare, cordial and curious, noshing, asking me who I wrote for and what I thought about Game 2 while offering immediate analysis: Mikal Bridges and Jose Alvarado down the stretch of the third quarter with Towns and Brunson off the floor, San Antonio’s youth and inability to get to their spots, Wemby’s obvious fatigue, the growing capability of Mike Brown.
You know, pal, I was gonna write all that.
The young man was irrepressible, hopping in his rideshare Mercedes right next to a mother and kids cleaning out their van at a gas pump minutes past midnight on a Saturday morning. The gas station was so replete with polite Knick fans that the families selling shaved ice in the parking lot began courting them with Knick chants. Kids on their first Friday night off from school chased each other around the tire inflator/car vacuum machine, one of them in a DeMar DeRozan Spurs jersey likely as old as she is.
Every bus stop on Commerce St. featured a Knick couple waiting on that rideshare, completely unsure of what they just watched less than a mile away, less than an hour ago. San Antonio on a Friday night, streets filled with New Yorkers. It’s almost like it’s their world, and we just live in it.
SAN ANTONIO – New York ran up 2-0 in the 2026 NBA Finals on Friday. Shoved past the Spurs in Game 2 by a 105-104 score after Victor Wembanyama unleashed a too-strong 17-footer in the final seconds, the 22-year old center clanging an opportunity to tie the series.
On San Antonio’s previous defensive possession Wembanyama fouled Jalen Brunson, and Brunson’s 84 percent free throw percentage, Brunson split a pair for the game’s deciding points. During San Antonio’s previous offensive possession, the 2024 Rookie of the Year (Wemby) threw the ball off the back of the 2025 Rookie of the Year (and Spurs teammate) Stephon Castle, Brunson gathering the loose ball ahead of that Wembanyama foul. It was an odd ending.
There is an odd-sounding word, it is gestalt, I learned it in 1996 when the NBA used its 50th anniversary season to spend an inordinate time celebrating the two-time Knick championship teams from the 1970s. Gestalt theory is an idea I return to about once a year and usually in June, when a team turns a corner, providing proof of something stronger that what’s listed in the lineup.
This year’s Knicks may not take the 2026 NBA title, there are still two wins left to grab before it turns official, but the Knicks have grown taller than all of themselves stacked together. This group improves with every outing and against competition which stiffens with each round. You’d need anti-inflammatories too, after battling these Knicks.
The development, the advancement from April through June and 13 consecutive playoff victories, would be unique among NBA champions. What is typical is the gestalt, the way we’re assured something larger than the image New York presents.
Nothing’s fazed them in Mike Brown’s first postseason with the Knicks. Be they down 2-1 to C.J. McCollum’s third team in 12 months, debated as favorites in the second round because Joel Embiid looked OK for four days, and then, well, Cleveland. There was no dramatic or even minor obstacle in the Cleveland series, analytically or otherwise.
San Antonio, once favored by many, isn’t fazed. Maybe a little tired, probably a more than a little impressed. Nobody doubted the talent on this Knicks team, individual or collected. What is astonishing is how well the talent on the New York Knicks performs when it works alongside one another. The elastic defense and deliberate offense, the absence of self, the dedication, devotion, the turning on the nighttime into the day.
That’s a Dire Straits song, and not an example of gestalt theory, but straits certainly indicating where the San Antonio Spurs while boarding the flight to New York. Five games to win four, three in NYC, they ain’t won a first yet.
San Antonio came close on Friday, reeling in Knick momentum long enough to eliminate the 14-point lead the visitors established with six minutes remaining in Game 2. De’Aaron Fox, Wembanyama and Dylan Harper combined to battle for buckets until the contest was tied, ten seconds left, Wemby with the ball and, uh oh, here comes infamy.
Threw it right off Stephon Castle’s back. Ball bounced to Brunson whom Wemby fouled, sending Jalen to the line for a game-winning free throw.
Stephon wasn’t looking while running up the court, I noticed this before Wemby let loose and said “heads up!” while standing at press row but there was no way Castle heard me. I’m sensitive to these things because I let a ball bounce off my back on the same spot in the court in an intramural basketball tournament in college, and I don’t think I will get over what happened to me before Game 3 on Monday and it happened 26 years ago. So I’m not sure how Stephon can blot his out in three days.
The Spurs will need other exhibits to shape up. The transition defense was strong but not strong enough, New York scored 19 points on the break, San Antonio’s worst mark of the postseason. New York’s offensive rebounding was bound to happen, but did it all have to happen in the second half? And when did San Antonio start missing dunks?
Meanwhile, Karl-Anthony Towns’ elbow torquing cleanly under each three-pointer is an absolute picture of actualized alignment and precision. Towns scored 17 in the first half. His dives from the Domantas Spot turned this series, it isn’t an adventure when KAT (21 points, 13 rebounds, four assists) puts the ball on the floor and against a team with Wemby on that floor.
The word “gestalt” entered my mind repeatedly in that second quarter, watching the Knick bust tail defensively, one movement anticipating another. We’ll hear a lot about the 1970 and 1973 championship Knicks over the next few days, and I’m glad the first guy who reminded me of them was the Knick fan with the inexpensive “HARLEM” tattoo up in the 200 section of the Spurs’ arena, weeping, well, no, crying while he walked with his buddy a few minutes after Game 2. “I’ve waited my whole life for this,” he told his friend, and I’m assuming this isn’t about visiting the Alamo on Saturday.
If it was about the Alamo, wow. What a weekend for him!
He’d removed himself from the upper concourse’s PG-rated pogo pit, Knick fans streaming and phoning home and popping jerseys together. It was a block party and I posted up inside a closed nachos stand, happy to watch one pleasant New Yorker after another thanking San Antonio fans for their grace and hospitality and congratulating the Spurs on its bright future, Knick fans going out of their way to throw trash in the appropriate receptacle, clearing room for the elderly, the infirm, the small children in Spurs uniforms squeaking by the sea of blue and orange.
The next time I saw nachos was in a gas station parking lot, in the hand of the single publicly inebriated Knick fan I saw among hundreds of publicly Knick fans during three nights in the heart of San Antonio.
Clinging to his nachos and teetering around the parking lot with the rest of us who decided the rideshare rate from the arena was too much and decided to walk to a more affordable spot. My Nacho Guy was in an Allan Houston uniform, beaming, 20 minutes after I’d walked by Allan Houston in a sweater, beaming.
While I gathered to call my wife to tell her how cheap I was, another Knick fan plopped down on the gas station stoop next to me, awaiting his rideshare, cordial and curious, noshing, asking me who I wrote for and what I thought about Game 2 while offering immediate analysis: Mikal Bridges and Jose Alvarado down the stretch of the third quarter with Towns and Brunson off the floor, San Antonio’s youth and inability to get to their spots, Wemby’s obvious fatigue, the growing capability of Mike Brown.
You know, pal, I was gonna write all that.
The young man was irrepressible, hopping in his rideshare Mercedes right next to a mother and kids cleaning out their van at a gas pump minutes past midnight on a Saturday morning. The gas station was so replete with polite Knick fans that the families selling shaved ice in the parking lot began courting them with Knick chants. Kids on their first Friday night off from school chased each other around the tire inflator/car vacuum machine, one of them in a DeMar DeRozan Spurs jersey likely as old as she is.
Every bus stop on Commerce St. featured a Knick couple waiting on that rideshare, completely unsure of what they just watched less than a mile away, less than an hour ago. San Antonio on a Friday night, streets filled with New Yorkers. It’s almost like it’s their world, and we just live in it.
SAN ANTONIO – New York ran up 2-0 in the 2026 NBA Finals on Friday. Shoved past the Spurs in Game 2 by a 105-104 score after Victor Wembanyama unleashed a too-strong 17-footer in the final seconds, the 22-year old center clanging an opportunity to tie the series.
On San Antonio’s previous defensive possession Wembanyama fouled Jalen Brunson, and Brunson’s 84 percent free throw percentage, Brunson split a pair for the game’s deciding points. During San Antonio’s previous offensive possession, the 2024 Rookie of the Year (Wemby) threw the ball off the back of the 2025 Rookie of the Year (and Spurs teammate) Stephon Castle, Brunson gathering the loose ball ahead of that Wembanyama foul. It was an odd ending.
There is an odd-sounding word, it is gestalt, I learned it in 1996 when the NBA used its 50th anniversary season to spend an inordinate time celebrating the two-time Knick championship teams from the 1970s. Gestalt theory is an idea I return to about once a year and usually in June, when a team turns a corner, providing proof of something stronger that what’s listed in the lineup.
This year’s Knicks may not take the 2026 NBA title, there are still two wins left to grab before it turns official, but the Knicks have grown taller than all of themselves stacked together. This group improves with every outing and against competition which stiffens with each round. You’d need anti-inflammatories too, after battling these Knicks.
The development, the advancement from April through June and 13 consecutive playoff victories, would be unique among NBA champions. What is typical is the gestalt, the way we’re assured something larger than the image New York presents.
Nothing’s fazed them in Mike Brown’s first postseason with the Knicks. Be they down 2-1 to C.J. McCollum’s third team in 12 months, debated as favorites in the second round because Joel Embiid looked OK for four days, and then, well, Cleveland. There was no dramatic or even minor obstacle in the Cleveland series, analytically or otherwise.
San Antonio, once favored by many, isn’t fazed. Maybe a little tired, probably a more than a little impressed. Nobody doubted the talent on this Knicks team, individual or collected. What is astonishing is how well the talent on the New York Knicks performs when it works alongside one another. The elastic defense and deliberate offense, the absence of self, the dedication, devotion, the turning on the nighttime into the day.
That’s a Dire Straits song, and not an example of gestalt theory, but straits certainly indicating where the San Antonio Spurs while boarding the flight to New York. Five games to win four, three in NYC, they ain’t won a first yet.
San Antonio came close on Friday, reeling in Knick momentum long enough to eliminate the 14-point lead the visitors established with six minutes remaining in Game 2. De’Aaron Fox, Wembanyama and Dylan Harper combined to battle for buckets until the contest was tied, ten seconds left, Wemby with the ball and, uh oh, here comes infamy.
Threw it right off Stephon Castle’s back. Ball bounced to Brunson whom Wemby fouled, sending Jalen to the line for a game-winning free throw.
Stephon wasn’t looking while running up the court, I noticed this before Wemby let loose and said “heads up!” while standing at press row but there was no way Castle heard me. I’m sensitive to these things because I let a ball bounce off my back on the same spot in the court in an intramural basketball tournament in college, and I don’t think I will get over what happened to me before Game 3 on Monday and it happened 26 years ago. So I’m not sure how Stephon can blot his out in three days.
The Spurs will need other exhibits to shape up. The transition defense was strong but not strong enough, New York scored 19 points on the break, San Antonio’s worst mark of the postseason. New York’s offensive rebounding was bound to happen, but did it all have to happen in the second half? And when did San Antonio start missing dunks?
Meanwhile, Karl-Anthony Towns’ elbow torquing cleanly under each three-pointer is an absolute picture of actualized alignment and precision. Towns scored 17 in the first half. His dives from the Domantas Spot turned this series, it isn’t an adventure when KAT (21 points, 13 rebounds, four assists) puts the ball on the floor and against a team with Wemby on that floor.
The word “gestalt” entered my mind repeatedly in that second quarter, watching the Knick bust tail defensively, one movement anticipating another. We’ll hear a lot about the 1970 and 1973 championship Knicks over the next few days, and I’m glad the first guy who reminded me of them was the Knick fan with the inexpensive “HARLEM” tattoo up in the 200 section of the Spurs’ arena, weeping, well, no, crying while he walked with his buddy a few minutes after Game 2. “I’ve waited my whole life for this,” he told his friend, and I’m assuming this isn’t about visiting the Alamo on Saturday.
If it was about the Alamo, wow. What a weekend for him!
He’d removed himself from the upper concourse’s PG-rated pogo pit, Knick fans streaming and phoning home and popping jerseys together. It was a block party and I posted up inside a closed nachos stand, happy to watch one pleasant New Yorker after another thanking San Antonio fans for their grace and hospitality and congratulating the Spurs on its bright future, Knick fans going out of their way to throw trash in the appropriate receptacle, clearing room for the elderly, the infirm, the small children in Spurs uniforms squeaking by the sea of blue and orange.
The next time I saw nachos was in a gas station parking lot, in the hand of the single publicly inebriated Knick fan I saw among hundreds of publicly Knick fans during three nights in the heart of San Antonio.
Clinging to his nachos and teetering around the parking lot with the rest of us who decided the rideshare rate from the arena was too much and decided to walk to a more affordable spot. My Nacho Guy was in an Allan Houston uniform, beaming, 20 minutes after I’d walked by Allan Houston in a sweater, beaming.
While I gathered to call my wife to tell her how cheap I was, another Knick fan plopped down on the gas station stoop next to me, awaiting his rideshare, cordial and curious, noshing, asking me who I wrote for and what I thought about Game 2 while offering immediate analysis: Mikal Bridges and Jose Alvarado down the stretch of the third quarter with Towns and Brunson off the floor, San Antonio’s youth and inability to get to their spots, Wemby’s obvious fatigue, the growing capability of Mike Brown.
You know, pal, I was gonna write all that.
The young man was irrepressible, hopping in his rideshare Mercedes right next to a mother and kids cleaning out their van at a gas pump minutes past midnight on a Saturday morning. The gas station was so replete with polite Knick fans that the families selling shaved ice in the parking lot began courting them with Knick chants. Kids on their first Friday night off from school chased each other around the tire inflator/car vacuum machine, one of them in a DeMar DeRozan Spurs jersey likely as old as she is.
Every bus stop on Commerce St. featured a Knick couple waiting on that rideshare, completely unsure of what they just watched less than a mile away, less than an hour ago. San Antonio on a Friday night, streets filled with New Yorkers. It’s almost like it’s their world, and we just live in it.
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