The New York Knicks are your 2026 Eastern Conference champions. For the first time since 1999, they will play in the NBA Finals, and if they win four more games, they’ll hoist their first championship trophy since 1973. The Knick drought has never been in more danger than it is today. Of course, the hardest part still remains.
On the other side of the country, the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are playing a Western Conference Finals series that many assume will wind up serving as the true Finals. They were the two best teams in the regular season. They have two of the best players in the NBA in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama. Either of them will be favored in a matchup with the Knicks.
That series still has a ways to go. The two sides are tied 2-2. The series will shift back to Oklahoma for Game 5 on Tuesday, so the defending champions do have home-court advantage, but they’re severely shorthanded at this point. Both Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell missed Game 4 due to injury. Without them, the Thunder have really struggled to generate offense.
We don’t yet know who the Knicks will be playing in the Finals. We do at least know when the Finals will tip off. The Knicks, for the second consecutive round, will have a lengthy gap between games as the Finals begin in more than a week. Fortunately for the exhausted Western Conference champions, they will at least get a few days to recover from this brutal series before hosting New York for Game 1. Here is the schedule for the 2026 NBA Finals.
2026 NBA Finals schedule
Wednesday, June 3
- Game 1: Thunder/Spurs vs. Knicks, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo
Friday, June 5
- Game 2: Thunder/Spurs vs. Knicks, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo
Monday, June 8
- Game 3: Knicks vs. Thunder/Spurs, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo
Wednesday, June 10
- Game 4: Knicks vs. Thunder/Spurs, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo
Saturday, June 13
- Game 5*: Thunder/Spurs vs. Knicks, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo
Tuesday, June 16
- Game 6*: Knicks vs. Thunder/Spurs, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo
Friday, June 19
- Game 7*: Thunder/Spurs vs. Knicks, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo
2026 NBA Finals odds
Odds as of May 25 via FanDuel
- Thunder: +100
- Knicks: +220
- Spurs: +270
The last NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden was Game 5 in 1999, which came on June 25. When the Knicks host Game 3 in two weeks, it will be the first Finals game at MSG in 9,845 days. If the Spurs are able to win the West, it will set up a rematch of the 1999 Finals, which San Antonio won in five games.
The Knicks have won 11 straight playoff games in dominant fashion. They have not lost since Game 3 of their first-round series vs. the Hawks on April 23.
