History says Knicks are going to win the championship

The Knicks are -500 favorites at DraftKings to win the 2026 NBA title. Up 2-0 on the Spurs, they are two wins away from ending a 53-year championship drought.

The odds may actually undersell them.

The numbers are staggering

Only three road teams have ever won the first two games of the NBA Finals. The Knicks are one of them. The other two, the 1993 Bulls and 1995 Rockets, both won the championship.

New York is also on a 13-game playoff winning streak. The only other team to accomplish that in a single postseason was the 2017 Warriors. They won the title too, coached for much of that run by current Knicks coach Mike Brown.

The Knicks have outscored their playoff opponents by 282 total points this postseason. That is the best point differential in playoff history. The next 12 teams on that list all won championships.

Zero-zero

None of it matters if the Knicks let up.

Mikal Bridges knows that better than anyone. His 2021 Suns blew a 2-0 Finals lead against the Bucks and lost four straight. After Game 2, Bridges had a simple message.

“Zero-zero. Stay desperate at all times,” he told reporters.

The Knicks have played with that desperation all postseason. They trailed Atlanta 2-1 in the first round. They lost the first two games of last year’s Eastern Conference finals at home to Indiana before rallying. They know what it feels like to be the Spurs right now.

That experience matters. So does the return to Madison Square Garden on Monday, where New York can close this out without ever boarding another plane.

History says they will. Now they just have to finish it.