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The Knicks are one win away from their first NBA championship in 53 years. I saw fans lose their minds up and down Manhattan after the game. I saw Iman Shumpert in the tunnels of MSG, screaming in celebration and exultation that he didn’t need a security escort because he was walking out with J.R. Smith. I saw Patrick Ewing trying to figure out a ride home through the madness. And I saw Wu-Tang Clan smiling from ear to ear because of what they just witnessed. Last night was a one-of-a-kind experience.
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Cardiac Knicks
Did that comeback really just happen?
It starts with a joke at halftime. The Knicks are getting obliterated by the Spurs, and it looks like we’re headed toward an unprecedented fourth road victory in the first four games of the NBA Finals. But as San Antonio is raining down 3-pointers on the helpless Knicks, and a 27-point deficit at halftime is staring them in the face, everybody you talk to around you makes a funny little comment.
“You know … if you can get this down to about 15 heading into the fourth quarter …”
Everybody smirks. You start joking, “Imagine if that happened?” and you’re looking up the biggest comeback in finals history. Before last night, that answer was the 24-point comeback by the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the 2008 finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. Now the answer is the Knicks’ 29-point comeback in Game 4 of the 2026 finals. Because New York did the impossible and turned those little jokes into reality.
I still don’t fully understand what I just witnessed. The first half was an abomination for anybody not in the Spurs’ universe. We wanted a great game, and instead we had a mockery — San Antonio led 76-49 after two quarters. Then Wu-Tang Clan performed at halftime, and everything changed. Was it because of their medley of songs? Was it Taylor Swift deciding to endure the second half in her “Stevie Knicks” T-shirt? Was it the sage that fans lit outside Madison Square Garden between Games 3 and 4 finally cleansing the deep fibers of the world’s most famous arena?
You may think all of this is ridiculous to ponder. It is! I’m still wrapping my head around being in the building for the biggest comeback in finals history. The Knicks cut the lead to 15 heading into the fourth quarter as the Spurs seemed to just stop taking this seriously. They pushed the lead back to 20 in the fourth, and it was supposed to be safe. It wasn’t. OG Anunoby and Jose Alvarado both had eight points in the final quarter. Jalen Brunson had nine. And the Spurs simply crumbled.
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We kept waiting for the Spurs’ youth to come into play during this playoff run. Their youth has hurt them in three of the four finals games – the worst time for it to rear its juvenile head. When Brunson missed the go-ahead 3-pointer with a couple of seconds left, the comeback looked like it would be thwarted by time and by default.
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Instead, Anunoby came skying into the paint and tapped in the go-ahead basket with 1.2 seconds left.
It was fate. The Knicks got one more stop, and the Spurs got yet another lesson in experience versus youth. Anunoby finished with 33 points while shooting 10-of-15 from the field and 7-of-9 from deep. Brunson had 36 points on 12-of-25 from the field.
The Spurs shot 59.6 percent from the field and 14-of-26 from deep in the first half. Their second-half plummet? They went 8-of-39 from the field (20.5 percent) and 3-of-17 from deep. Anunoby had one fewer make (seven) in the second half than the entire Spurs team. Victor Wembanyama went 3-of-14 in the second half to finish with 24 points on 25 shots, including 13 rebounds, three blocks and one more flagrant foul point that puts him on the brink of suspension.
I’m writing this about three hours after the game, and my ears are still ringing. For all the corporate/Wall Street nature and weirdness of the Game 3 crowd, the Game 4 attendance delivered. It took a while for the fans to get into this game, because it took a while for the Knicks to get into this game. But hearing them explode as the comeback mounted and Anunoby’s tipped shot went in was unreal.
I still hear them chanting, “Go, Knicks!” I still hear them singing “New York, New York” in celebration. This is one of those moments I’m truly honored by how cool this job is.
Stat of the game: Wu-Tang finished plus-28 on the night.
Playoff Panic Meter: 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 for San Antonio.
When is Game 5? Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC
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The last 24
⚽ Celebrations. The World Cup kicks off today. And the USMNT couldn’t believe the Knicks’ win.
🤦 No words. The Spurs will keep getting asked how they lost that one. I’m not sure they know.
👀 Since Jordan. Game 3 of the NBA Finals was watched by 23.8 million people. The most since 1998.
🏀 Congrats? The biggest winner of Game 4? It was Knicks owner James Dolan, Ian O’Connor writes.
👋 Hello! AJ Dybantsa is probably the top prospect in the draft. He was at Game 4 and will visit with the Wizards this week.
🔊 “NBA Daily.” Watch and listen to a breakdown of last night’s game.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Massive mistake
Fox was supposed to be the calming presence
De’Aaron Fox is a former Clutch Player of the Year. He’s one of the reasons the Sacramento Kings were able to end their NBA record playoff drought a few seasons ago. And the Spurs brought him to San Antonio to pair with Wemby and help guide a very young team during the tough moments.
That’s why it’s so baffling that Fox committed maybe the most egregious mistake in the Spurs’ 29-point collapse.
These are the three biggest comebacks in finals history:
- 1995: The Rockets come back from down 20 in the first half against the Magic and win in overtime in Game 1.
- 2008: The Celtics come back from down 24 in the first half to beat the Lakers 97-91 in Game 4.
- 2026: The Knicks come back from down 29 in the second half in Game 4.
It’s hard to give up such a massive lead like that in the finals without having a big blunder. For the Magic in 1995, it was Nick Anderson going 0-of-4 on clutch free throws. For the Lakers in 2008, it was a series of defensive breakdowns left and right. For the Spurs last night, the biggest gaffe happened with about 13 seconds left.
The Spurs forced a miss inside, and the ball ricocheted out into the open floor when Fox tapped it out ahead. San Antonio had a one-point lead. Fox opted to try to score, rather than dribbling the ball out as much as he could to run precious seconds off the clock.
And none other than … you guessed it … Frank Stallone Anunoby ran him down to get the clutch block:
An unbelievable play by Anunoby, and an unbelievable decision by Fox. Immediately, everybody around me lamented Fox for going for the points. He thought he had a free layup even as he heard and saw Anunoby hustling up the floor. Maybe he thought he’d get fouled. Maybe he thought those old Anunoby injuries might crop up. Maybe he was thinking about some facts about space.
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Regardless, this is an all-time blunder considering time, score and situation.
Now what?
What history says about a 3-1 series lead
With the Knicks up 3-1 in the finals, history is 100 percent on their side. Well… maybe not 100 percent, thanks to the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers. Actually, 97.4 percent of history is on the Knicks’ side to close out this championship.
A 3-1 series lead, in general, is something NBA teams rarely overcome. But we’ve already had two teams in this postseason come back from a 3-1 series deficit in the first round. The Pistons did it against the Magic and the 76ers did it against the Celtics.
We’ve had 303 teams in NBA history go up 3-1 in a series. Of those, 288 have closed out with a victory. That’s a 95 win percentage. Of those teams, 180 have finished the series in Game 5, 85 have closed out in Game 6 and 23 have managed to survive a Game 7. So 62.5 percent of the teams up 3-1 finished the series right away. The finals are different, though.
We’ve had 38 teams take a 3-1 series lead in finals history, and 37 of them have won the title.
- 20 of those series have ended in Game 5.
- 15 of them have ended in Game 6.
- Three went to Game 7.
As you can see, getting to a Game 7 is rare with a 3-1 lead. It happened with the 1951 Rochester Royals, who were up 3-0 in the series before the Knicks battled back to force a Game 7. The Royals then won Game 7 by four points. The 1966 Celtics went up 3-1 on the Lakers before closing it out with a two-point win in Game 7. Then it didn’t happen again for 50 years until the Cavs beat the Warriors by four in Game 7 to pull off the only 3-1 comeback.
History says the Knicks will end the series on Saturday, but it’s nearly as likely that they win the title in Game 6 at home. I wouldn’t plan on a Game 7, but this postseason has been full of surprises.