The Knicks Return to the NBA Finals, and How to Blow Up the Cavs With KOC

The Mismatch

The Ringer

Sports

4.7 • 5.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Verno and Jacoby return to react to the Knicks returning to the NBA Finals after sweeping the Cavs in the Eastern conference finals and preview Game 5 of Spurs-Thunder. Then they are joined by Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor to discuss the issues with the Cavs’ roster, the Knicks’ chances in the NBA championship, and the new NBA lottery rules. Welcome to The Mismatch! (00:00) Knicks destroy Cavs 130-93, punch ticket to NBA Finals (2:22) Knicks run out opponents with 11 straight playoff wins (12:29) Gotham stands tall: first NBA Finals since 1999 (19:10) Cleveland lame: Knicks’ average margin of victory +18.5 ppg (26:48) Cavs future retool: Mitchell + Mobley close to contending (30:38) Thunder-Spurs preview: OKC’s lack of offense, series tied 2-2 (38:59) Kevin O’Connor from Yahoo Sports joins the show (42:51) Cavs autopsy report: KOC breaks down the future of the Cavs (49:45) Knicks favorites to win it all? (53:19) KOC headline: Wemby turns SGA into DeMar DeRozan (01:01:30) KOC the FIXER: how the NBA is f**king over the Grizzlies Leave us a message on our Mismatch voicemail line! (323) 389-5091 Protect your summer today at WeatherTech.com Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Guest: Kevin O’Connor Producers: Stefan Anderson and Jeff Shearin Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Some follow the noise.
0:03.0	Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion-dollar swings.
0:08.9	There's a money-side to every story.
0:11.4	Get the money-side of the story.
0:13.5	Subscribe now atger.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. I have nothing to say. I'm just going to lay it. I don't even know what to say. I'm floored. I'm absolutely floored. I'm absolutely floored. I have to be honest, I doubted this team so many times over the course of this year.
0:56.3	Over the course of this year, you check in with me in November.
0:58.4	You check him with me in January.
1:00.1	You check in with me like going into the Cavs series.
1:04.8	I had concerns.
1:07.0	And for them to be like this, to hit on all cylinders, to have everyone wearing a Nick uniform being the perfect version of that they can be for each other in the playoffs and win 11 straight.
1:22.4	I just, I'm floored.
1:25.1	They're going to win the finals.
1:26.5	They're going to win the finals.
1:28.0	An absolute buzz saw.
1:32.5	We're the New York Knicks in another closeout game.
1:36.9	We just watched them beat the Cleveland Cavaliers by 37 points as we're recording this right
1:42.6	after the game ends on Monday night.
1:45.3	A quick update.
1:46.3	Our old buddy, Kevin O'Connor, is going to join us a little bit later.
1:49.9	We'll give his thoughts on the Eastern and Western Conference Finals and also a big story he broke about the future of the NBA draft and the draft lottery.
2:00.0	This episode of The Mismatch is presented to you by WeatherTech.
2:04.8	Everyone knows Winter is the MVP in making a mess.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 15 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Ringer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Ringer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.