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Kristian Winfield: With Wembanyama lurking, Knicks need to make quick work of Cavs' Evan Mobley

Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News on

Published in Basketball

NEW YORK — Victor Wembanyama watched his NBA Most Valuable Player trophy go to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Then he ripped the heart out of an entire Oklahoma City Thunder franchise hoping to repeat as NBA champions.

You’d better believe Wembanyama is like that, embracing all the smoke this inferior basketball league has to offer his generational talents. The 7-4 phenomenon came of age on the Western Conference finals stage as the youngest player in playoff history to post a 40-point, 20-rebound game. Wembanyama finished with 41 points and 24 rebounds in the San Antonio Spurs’ Game 1 stunner over Oklahoma City. He buried a near-halfcourt 3 to force double overtime, dunked all over Chet Holmgren and swatted a shot with seconds left to seal the win.

Which means one thing — and one thing only — for a Knicks team facing the Cleveland Cavaliers with a trip to the NBA Finals hanging in the balance:

Evan Mobley better be child’s play. Because Wembanyama is all grown up.

Mobley is Cleveland’s third offensive option behind the All-Star backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden. He’s an All-Star and a Defensive Player of the Year winner, a very good player still searching for the offensive leap the Cavaliers envisioned when they selected him third overall in 2022.

Mobley averaged 18 points, nine rebounds and 3.6 assists this season. He averaged 16 points in the second round against the Detroit Pistons and 18 points in the opening round against the Toronto Raptors.

But Wembanyama is different.

Mobley may make multiple All-Star teams. Wembanyama is going to spend the next decade living in MVP and Defensive Player of the Year conversations simultaneously.

And if the Knicks are serious about winning a championship, if they genuinely believe they can survive a potential Finals showdown with the Spurs, then handling Mobley has to be the easy part.

That responsibility starts with OG Anunoby, the Knicks’ defensive quarterback, and Mitchell Robinson who comes off the bench to anchor the paint behind him.

Mobley has averaged 16.4 points and 7.7 rebounds against the Knicks in games Anunoby has played, though he’s also shot a surprisingly efficient 53% from the field and 43% from 3 in those matchups. It’s the exact type of matchup the Knicks had in mind when they signed their starting forward to a franchise-record five-year, $212.5 million deal.

 

Still, there’s an argument to be made the Knicks are better equipped to deal with Wembanyama than The Thunder. Game 1 improved San Antonio’s record to 5-1 against the reigning champs this season. The Knicks are 2-1 against the Spurs and pose their own problems with the 7-foot duo of Robinson and Karl-Anthony Towns, a tandem head coach Mike Brown has leaned on more frequently in the playoffs.

Wembanyama towers over Anunoby by nearly a foot, but Anunoby has the strength advantage. Robinson gives the Knicks verticality and rim protection. Towns can pull Wembanyama away from the rim, opening driving (and cutting) lanes for everyone around him.

The Knicks also own the recent history: They beat the Spurs in the NBA Cup Final in December, then beat them again in March.

Of course, both teams barely resemble those earlier versions now.

The Knicks run far more offense through Towns as a playmaking hub. The Spurs attack in waves behind the Dylan Harper-Stephon Castle backcourt. And if De’Aaron Fox is healthy, San Antonio can unleash another All-Star creator into the mix.

Then there’s Wembanyama, the cheat code hovering over all of it.

Thirty-foot pull-up 3s. Impossible lob finishes. Turnaround jumpers over helpless defenders. Put-back dunks over entire frontcourts. Defensive recoveries no human his size should be capable of making.

When everything breaks down, the Spurs can simply hand him the ball and let basketball’s newest superweapon figure it out.

That’s tomorrow’s problem — if the Knicks are fortunate enough to get there.

Today’s problem is Mobley. And if if the Knicks want to win a title, Mobley shouldn’t be much of a problem at all.


©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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