Down 29. On the road. Against a team that made 14 threes in the first half alone. The New York Knicks didn’t blink. OG Anunoby’s tip-in off Jalen Brunson’s missed three-pointer, with 1.2 seconds left, sealed the largest comeback in NBA Finals history and left San Antonio one loss from elimination.
Knicks 107, Spurs 106. New York leads the series 3-1. Game 5 is Saturday.
The first half that should have ended it
San Antonio was clinical. Fourteen three-pointers in the opening half – an NBA Finals record – helped the Spurs reach 76 points on 59.6% shooting before the break. Victor Wembanyama (24 pts, 13 reb, 3 blk) was dominant on both ends. With 9:40 left in the third quarter, the lead was still 29.
The Knicks kept playing. That is the only way to describe it.
The collapse no one saw coming
The Spurs’ second half was a disappearing act – 8-for-39 from the floor (20.5%), three threes on 17 tries. The lead that looked permanent shrank by fives, then ones, then fractions.
Jalen Brunson, who finished with 36 points and 7 assists, refused to let New York fold. The Knicks outscored San Antonio 58-30 after halftime. With 1:47 to go, the Spurs clung to a 104-103 lead. Wembanyama stepped to the line to push it to two – and missed both free throws.
The window was open.
Anunoby’s moment
With 11.1 seconds left, OG Anunoby blocked De’Aaron Fox to force one final Knicks possession. Brunson drove, rose, and fired a three that rattled out. Anunoby crashed the boards, tipped the ball in, 1.2 seconds on the clock. The Garden went sideways.
He finished with 33 points on 10-of-15 shooting, 7-of-9 from three – a career playoff high. “Right hand from God,” Karl-Anthony Towns told reporters when it was over.
No team in NBA Finals history had come back from more than 24 points down. That record is gone.
What went wrong for San Antonio
Mitch Johnson kept it short postgame: “We got on our heels – we missed some shots.” Twenty-four minutes of near-perfect basketball, then 24 minutes of nothing. Wembanyama’s two missed free throws at 1:47 will be the image San Antonio fans carry home. The Spurs came into Game 4 off a dominant Game 3 win at MSG. They leave facing elimination Saturday.
What comes next
Game 5 is Saturday, June 13 (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC) at Madison Square Garden. New York is one win from a first title since 1973. Only one team in Finals history – the 2016 Cavaliers – has ever climbed back from a 3-1 deficit.
For the Knicks, the finish line is in sight. For San Antonio, it is now or never.
