Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks struck first in a grueling Game 1 rock fight, pushing their legendary winning streak to 12 games. Tonight, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs find themselves desperate to protect their home floor and avoid a devastating series deficit before heading to Madison Square Garden.
To help you attack the board tonight, we are diving back into some of our signature alternate line betting strategies. Continue below for our NBA Finals Game 2 escalators, mineshafts, player prop bets for the second matchup between the Knicks and Spurs on Friday, June 5.
NBA Finals Game 2 Escalators, Mineshafts & Player Prop Bets
| Time (ET) | Player Prop |
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| 8:30 p.m. | |
| 8:30 p.m. | |
| 8:30 p.m. | |
Specific betting recommendations come from the sportsbook offering preferred odds as of writing. Always shop for the best price using our NBA Odds page, which automatically surfaces the best lines for every game. | |
Knicks vs. Spurs First Half Team Total Mineshaft
Knicks First Half Team Total Under 53.5 + Mineshaft
The Knicks are feeling themselves after winning 12 straight games, but the underlying data from that gross, 200-point rock fight shows the Spurs' defense is playing at a true championship level.
New York opened the game by hitting two fluky triples to go up 8-2 in the first two minutes. My bet felt dead immediately. But over the remaining 10 minutes of the first quarter, the Spurs locked it down, holding New York to a miserable 11 points.
If you strip away the frantic two minutes at the opening tip and the empty 11-0 run the Knicks closed the game with, New York managed a meager 86 points over a 44-minute stretch. That is an offensive pace of under 95 points per game.
Jalen Brunson's late-game heroics masked a highly inefficient night where he finished 12-of-31 from the field with a dreadful 86 offensive rating.
San Antonio completely eliminated their interior process, forcing the Knicks to survive on an unsustainable 10-of-22 (45%) shooting display from deep by Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado, and Miles McBride.
The Spurs' half-court shell was elite; they just need to stop being overly aggressive when helping on the perimeter.
The situational trend for these teams has been clear all season: buy the Spurs early and back the Knicks late.
San Antonio will capture a desperate Game 2 home boost, but I simply don't trust their offense for a full 48 minutes against New York's rest advantage.
I am laying the standard tax on Knicks First-Half Team Total Under 53.5 (-110 at bet365), which has dropped a point but hasn't gone nearly far enough. From there, we open the mineshaft: give me Under 49.5 (+195 at bet365).
If you are equally skeptical of the Spurs' stagnant offensive generation, you can pivot to DraftKings and exploit the race metrics: Neither Team to Score 55 Points in the First Half sits at a juicy +245, while Neither Team to Score 50 is priced at +850.
Pick: Knicks First Half Team Total Under 53.5 + Mineshaft
Knicks vs. Spurs Prop Escalator
Dylan Harper Points / Rebounds Super Escalator
We should be terrified of trusting children on a big stage like this, but the sportsbooks simply have not caught up to the star trajectory of Dylan Harper.
He and Julian Champagnie were the only functional offensive options for the Spurs in Game 1.
Harper turned in a stellar 16 points and 8 rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting in 28 minutes, showcasing an elite, shifting finishing package at the rim that is absurd for a rookie.
The casual market looks at his playoff log and sees an erratic floor, but you have to filter for context.
Harper suffered an injury in Game 2 against the Thunder. If you throw out the game he got injured and the subsequent seven-day window where he was clearly laboring through limited minutes, his production baseline is much higher.
Harper's Last 7 Healthy Postseason Outings
- 24 Pts / 7 Reb
- 12 Pts / 10 Reb (Double-Double)
- 15 Pts / 5 Reb
- 24 Pts / 11 Reb (Double-Double)
- 18 Pts / 6 Reb
- 12 Pts / 7 Reb
- 16 Pts / 8 Reb (Game 1 vs. NYK)
- Healthy Baselines: 17.3 PPG / 7.6 RPG / 25.0 PR
The standard combo market lists his Points & Rebounds line at 17.5, but the pricing isn't enticing.
Because I don't trust the Spurs to fully maximize Harper's minutes over a struggling De'Aaron Fox, we are bypassing the base PR combo and attacking the individual props piece-by-piece to construct a correlated, eight-step super escalator.
Harper has cleared the base 11.5 points line and the 4.5 rebounds threshold in a perfect seven consecutive healthy games.
This line is still pricing in an injury baseline that he has clearly outgrown on the floor. He is too physically built for New York's guard length.
Points / Rebounds Super Escalator
- Over 11.5 Points (-120, BetMGM)
- Over 4.5 Rebounds (-106, BetRivers)
- 15+ Points (+220, bet365)
- 18+ Points (+450, bet365)
- 7+ Rebounds (+375, bet365)
- Double-Double (+2000, Hard Rock)
- Over 11.5 Points / Over 4.5 Rebounds (+195, BetMGM)
- 15+ Points / 7+ Rebounds (+750, BetMGM)
Pick: Dylan Harper Points / Rebounds Super Escalator
Knicks vs. Spurs Player Prop Bet
De'Aaron Fox Under 14.5 Points
Watching De'Aaron Fox clog up the half-court spacing down the stretch of Game 1 was basketball malpractice.
He finished with a horrific "triple-single" box score: 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists on an incredibly wasteful 3-of-13 from the field, including an 0-for-4 display from deep and 3 costly turnovers across 38 massive minutes.
Fox generated exactly one made bucket in the half-court all night. It was an offensive performance so utterly devastating to San Antonio's efficiency that I found myself sarcastically checking to see if I could vote Fox as the Finals MVP on behalf of the Knicks.
The underlying problem isn't just a poor Game 1 adjustment; it is that Fox hasn't look right since returning from his ankle injury.
Over his last six games back on the floor, he is averaging a meager 10.5 points per game while turning in an ugly 34% mark from the field, 42% on inside twos, and a sub-20% clip from deep.
Even if the Spurs remain stubbornly unwilling to drop Fox's floor time or shift his usage off the ball to empower a surging Harper, Fox simply doesn't possess the lift or speed required to puncture the Knicks' point-of-attack shell right now. Every mid-range pull-up he takes has felt like an empty possession lately.
I'm taking De'Aaron Fox Under 14.5 Points (-111 at BetMGM). He has stayed under this line in four of his six games since returning, finishing with exactly 15 in the other two outliers.
To get a bit more aggressive with the fade, we are dropping down into the mineshaft and taking Under 10.5 Points (+270 at bet365), a single-digit floor he has already hit in three of his last six outings.
What does the Fox say? Clang, clang, clang goes the ball off the iron.
