{"id":1983822,"date":"2026-06-11T03:37:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T00:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1983822"},"modified":"2026-06-11T03:37:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T00:37:47","slug":"knicks-stage-historic-game-4-comeback-against-spurs-1-win-away-from-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1983822","title":{"rendered":"Knicks stage historic Game 4 comeback against Spurs, 1 win away from title"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NEW YORK \u2014 OG Anunoby soared from \u2014 where? Maybe the Empire State Building? \u2014 for the greatest put-back in New York Knicks history, finishing off the biggest in-game comeback in NBA Finals history and moving the New York Knicks to within one win of their first title since 1973.<\/p>\n

Trailing by 29 early in the second half, New York clawed its way back to win Game 4 over the San Antonio Spurs 107-106 on Anunoby\u2019s put-back of a Jalen Brunson miss with 1.2 seconds left.<\/p>\n

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Brunson, who scored 36 and otherwise was the co-author of the comeback, had a 3-pointer clang off the front of the rim, but Anunoby soared over everyone to guide the miss and tip it in.<\/p>\n

The Spurs had one more chance, but Stephon Castle fumbled the inbounds pass, and pandemonium at Madison Square Garden followed. The Knicks lead the series 3-1 and became the first home team to get a win in the 2026 finals.<\/p>\n

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The Knicks can close out the finals and claim the franchise\u2019s third title with a win Saturday in San Antonio. Game 5 is at 8:30 p.m. ET at the Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n

Anunoby contributed 33 points on seven 3s. Karl-Anthony Towns fought through foul trouble all night to contribute 13 points and 10 boards. Brunson added seven assists for the game and scored 9 points in the fourth quarter, which began with the Knicks trailing by 15. Reserve guard Jose Alvarado played a huge role in the comeback, scoring 8 points off the bench in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Given the stakes, this stands as the most stunning defeat of rising French superstar Victor Wembanyama\u2019s young career. He led the Spurs with 24 points and 13 rebounds and rookie Dylan Harper was excellent with 21 points off the San Antonio bench. But this loss is going to stay with them and their teammates for months, if not longer.<\/p>\n

San Antonio led by as many as 21 in the first quarter and was ahead 41-22 after one, the largest lead by a road team at the end of the first quarter of an NBA Finals game in league history. By halftime the Spurs had connected on an NBA Finals-record 14 3-pointers for a half in 26 tries and led by 27 \u2014 the fourth-largest halftime lead in finals history.<\/p>\n

The Knicks edged their way back into the game with a dominant third quarter, trimming a 29-point deficit to 90-75 entering the fourth quarter. San Antonio cooled off considerably (2 of 12 on 3s) and committed five turnovers in scoring just 14 points.<\/p>\n

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This was the Knicks\u2019 second amazing comeback of the playoffs; they also rallied from 22 down with eight minutes remaining in Game 1 of the conference finals to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime.<\/p>\n

With 30 seconds left, Castle\u2019s two free throws put the Spurs up by a point. Brunson missed a short jumper, and De\u2019Aaron Fox grabbed a long rebound with a chance to put his team up by 3 or more, but his layup was blocked by (who else?) Anunoby. The Spurs fouled and set up the Knicks\u2019 final possession, one in which Anunoby put on a red cape and leaped a tall building (Wemby?) in a single bound.<\/p>\n

Actually, Anunoby was the passer on the play to Brunson. No one boxed him out as he slipped past Wembanyama and jumped over Harper to finish the play.<\/p>\n

A New York legend was born. Here are our takeaways from Game 4:<\/p>\n

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For the Spurs, it all falls apart<\/h2>\n

It took only one minute for the floor to tilt heavily in Victor Wembanyama\u2019s favor. Karl-Anthony Towns quickly picked up two fouls, bringing in Mitchell Robinson and giving Wembanyama the big break he needed. Wembanyama kept digging into Robinson deeper and deeper, talking trash and saying that he was getting in Robinson\u2019s head. It culminated with Robinson hitting Wembanyama with a shoulder to the jaw and the Spurs star smiling ear to ear on the floor, clapping and appearing to say, \u201cI\u2019m in your head, boy!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Robinson checked out of the game, and Wembanyama asserted his dominance.<\/p>\n

But then everything fell apart as the Spurs\u2019 offense imploded in the second half. Heading into halftime, it looked as if the Spurs had a newfound level of poise to even the series, but they ended up surrendering the greatest comeback ever. It was a complete abandonment of their offensive principles, buried by ice-cold shooting.<\/p>\n

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Wembanyama kept settling for jumpers as the Spurs\u2019 guards could no longer find easy ways to get into the paint. They couldn\u2019t consistently stop Brunson, no matter how hard they tried. Why on earth would De\u2019Aaron Fox take the layup instead of running the clock down with barely 10 seconds remaining?<\/p>\n

This was a colossal failure that puts the Spurs in a deficit they probably can\u2019t climb out of. \u2014 Jared Weiss, Spurs writer\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Historic win for New York<\/h2>\n

Minutes after the final buzzer, it did not seem as if a soul had exited Madison Square Garden. The 20,000 Knicks fans understood what they just witnessed. This was the greatest win for the franchise in at least 53 years, the last time they won a title. Without a doubt, it was also the most dramatic: down 29 points, lifeless as the Spurs hit more than 60 percent of their shots.<\/p>\n

No one should have stood a chance. But this is what the Knicks do. It\u2019s what they did when they were down 22 points to the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. It\u2019s what they did when they trailed by double digits in the first two games of the finals. This team, somehow, pulls off the impossible, the miraculous.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only fitting that Game 4 would end in the greatest way the franchise has experienced in more than half a century \u2014 because this is the greatest Knicks team during that time span. \u2014 Fred Katz, NBA writer\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Greatest Knick of all time?<\/h2>\n

Jalen Brunson is one more win away from becoming, arguably, the greatest Knick of all-time \u2014 or, at the very least, the most important.<\/p>\n

New York became the first team in NBA Finals history to win a game after trailing by 22-plus points at halftime, and it was largely because of the play of Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby.<\/p>\n

Brunson scored 9 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, including some huge jump shots before Anunoby\u2019s block on Fox and tip-in layup sealed the deal for New York.<\/p>\n

The Knicks went from a laughingstock franchise to one of the league\u2019s elite under Brunson\u2019s watch. The All-NBA guard has inched New York closer and closer to the mountaintop each year, and now the team is one win away from standing there all alone.<\/p>\n

Game 4 was Brunson\u2019s best of these finals. He finished the game shooting 12 of 25 with seven assists and just three turnovers. Brunson had shot over 40 percent only once in the first three games. His clutch shotmaking and decision-making were key to New York pulling out the win.<\/p>\n

If the Knicks end this series Saturday in San Antonio, given all that New York has been through since winning its last title 53 years ago, Brunson may be the greatest Knick of all time. \u2014 James L. Edwards III, Knicks writer\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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An improbable comeback<\/h2>\n

People don\u2019t storm the court at NBA games. It just doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

But when the Knicks finished their incredible, improbable and absolutely amazing comeback, with the Spurs\u2019 final attempt falling flat and the bedlam beginning, that\u2019s precisely what happened. Knicks legend John Starks was losing his mind. Taylor Swift and her blue-shirted friends were dancing with sheer bliss. Ben Stiller was filming Tracy Morgan\u2019s reaction while hugging him at the same time. Larry David looked pretty happy, too. And that was just the celebrities. For the Knicks fans who have waited all this time for another title, and who were so down on the home team at halftime that you could actually hear boos in the building, this was as memorable a win \u2014 and a scene \u2014 as they\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

The Spurs, meanwhile, had to rush off the court so as to avoid getting caught up in all the craziness. Wembanyama appeared to make it through the tunnel unscathed \u2014 if only physically. The emotional toll of this loss on him and the Spurs can simply not be calculated. \u2014 Sam Amick, senior NBA writer\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Anunoby makes pivotal plays to seal stunning win<\/h2>\n

How do you describe the most unreal comeback in NBA Finals history \u2026 when it\u2019s still possibly only the second<\/em>-most unbelievable comeback in this Knicks postseason?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start here: Give credit to Mike Brown for inserting Alvarado for a struggling Mikal Bridges, adding another ballhandler to relieve some of the stress from Brunson. And give him credit for switching Anunoby onto De\u2019Aaron Fox, gumming up San Antonio\u2019s offense in the fourth quarter \u2014 especially when the Spurs never adjusted by going away from the matchup.<\/p>\n

None of that matters, however, if Anunoby doesn\u2019t make two absolutely incredible plays in the final 10 seconds, first by blocking a Fox breakaway layup attempt, and then by reaching into the rafters for an unbelievable, instantly iconic tip-in to provide the winning points.<\/p>\n

San Antonio will ruminate for a long time on the mistakes that cost it a 29-point lead, including a pass out of bounds when Stephon Castle wasn\u2019t looking for the ball and Fox\u2019s decision to shoot the layup rather than wait for the Knicks to foul him. But we\u2019ve seen this movie many times from the Knicks over the last two rounds. That\u2019s why they\u2019re now one win from the NBA championship. \u2014 John Hollinger, senior NBA writer\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 OG Anunoby soared from \u2014 where? Maybe the Empire State Building? \u2014 for the greatest put-back in New York Knicks history, finishing off the biggest in-game comeback in NBA Finals history and moving the New York Knicks to within one win of their first title since 1973. Trailing by 29 early in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1983822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1983822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1983822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1983822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1983822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}