The Knicks completed the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history, overturning a 29-point third-quarter deficit to grab an extraordinary 107-106 win in Game 4 of the NBA Finals to take a commanding 3-1 series lead.
OG Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining completed a total collapse by San Antonio as New York, which did not have a lead in the game until the final quarter, was down by 20 with 9:33 to play.
Anunoby finished with 33 points on 10-for-15 shooting (7-for-9 from three) in 41 minutes, and made a crucial defensive play on the Spurs' penultimate possession with the Knicks down by one.
Jalen Brunson, with Karl-Anthony Towns hampered by early foul trouble, again kept New York alive, scoring a game-high 36 points on 12-for-25 shooting with seven assists and five rebounds in 44 minutes and coming up huge down the stretch.
The Knicks, who couldn’t do anything to stop the Spurs in the first half – the visitors put up 79 points on 28-for-47 shooting (59.6 percent) – found the right formula, letting San Antonio crumble in the second half as they went an improbable 8-for-39 (20.5 percent) from the floor. Victor Wembanyama, who had 16 points in the first half, was 3-for-14 in the second half, and perhaps committed the foul of the game early in the third.
The Knicks, meanwhile, went 21-for-41 (51.2 percent) from the floor in the second half, including 12-for-20 in the fourth quarter.
Here are the takeaways...
- Early in the third, with the Spurs’ lead up to 29, Wembanyama caught Towns with an elbow and after a review, the Spurs' big man was given a Flagrant-1 for contact deemed “unnecessary” to Towns' chin. (Had the NBA upgraded the no-call from Game 3, this foul would have resulted in an automatic one-game suspension.)
The crowd, which had been long dormant, came a bit back to life and so did the Knicks, with a 7-0 spurt to force a Mitch Johnson timeout. The intervention failed to do the trick: The lead was down to 16 with threes from Anunoby and Josh Hart as the Spurs went over five minutes without scoring, missing eight straight shots with two turnovers before two at the line halted the run at 13 straight.
San Antonio was just absolutely ice cold out of the half, shooting 4-for-12 from the floor (2-for-12 from deep). The Knicks shot better, but still couldn’t capitalize fully, shooting (9-for-21), including missing several good looks. Brunson had eight points and two assists, his first since the opening quarter, and Anunoby went for 11 with a couple of threes, the last cutting the deficit to 15 points entering the fourth.
- San Antonio started the fourth like the third: 2-for-11 from the floor with Wembanyama missing seven of eight, many right at the rim after getting his own rebound. Towns hit a step-back three to cut the deficit to 12 with 7:28 to play after the Spurs pushed the 15-point deficit to 20 with under 10 to play. (Those were KAT’s first fourth-quarter points of the Finals.) The lead was down to nine with Anunoby hitting his sixth three of the game and Towns hitting a fallaway over Wemby as the Spurs’ creakiness continued.
Brunson put in four straight, and the lead was down to seven with five to play. After another empty possession for the Spurs (2-for-14 in the quarter, three turnovers), JoseAlvarado found a wide-open Anunoby for a corner three to make it a four-point deficit with 4:34 to play, and again the Spurs called for time.
San Antonio got a three-pointer from De'Aaron Fox that they desperately needed. But the defense, which had been so good, continued to fall apart as Avlarado hit an open three with the shot clock winding down before Burnson's three over Wemby cut it to one with 2:21 to play. After Wembanyama missed two free throws, Brunson’s leaner put the Knicks ahead with 1:22 remaining, their first lead of the night.
After Hart’s great defense forced a Spurs turnover, the Knicks had a huge opportunity but couldn’t beat the 24-second shot clock. Out of a Spurs timeout, Hart let StephonCastle ghost in for the offensive rebound and sent him to the line to give the visitors a one-point edge with 30.3 to play.
Out of timeout, Brunson had his shot blocked and Fox jumped on the loose ball that kicked all the way out toward midcourt. Fox went to the basket, but Anunoby blocked his shot at the cup, and the Knicks called for time with 5.7 seconds remaining.
Anunoby topped himself following a Burnson missed jumper by ghosting down the lane untouched to tip in the rebound over two Spurs with 1.2 to play for the deciding basket.
- Of course, the game looked like it had its most crucial sequence in the opening 65 seconds. Towns whistled for the first foul 18 seconds into the game and then, on the Knicks’ second possession, KAT got an angle on Wembanyama, and the Spurs’ big man was whistled for a foul at the rim. But a successful Spurs challenge (it was judged Towns hooked Wemby’s arm) sent the Knicks’ big man to the bench with two fouls at the 10:55 mark.
Towns was whistled for his third foul less than five minutes into the second, for a loose-ball foul under the basket. His first half numbers: six points, three rebounds, two turnovers, and a minus-11 in eight minutes. In his absence, the Knicks’ offense just never had any rhythm as the Spurs' defense looked to put the screws to Brunson.
- “We can’t let them start well tonight,” Mike Brown was shown telling his team in the locker room pregame. His words proved a harbinger as the Spurs jumped on the Knicks for a second straight game, grabbing a 12-2 lead and forcing a timeout after less than three minutes. New York started cold, 1-for-7 from the field with two turnovers.
The Spurs shooting was elite from the get-go, connecting on 6 of 10 from deep, as they shot 65 percent overall for a 19-point lead with Wembyanama scoring 13 points and Devin Vassell adding 12.
On the other end, the visitor’s defense was just as elite and suffocating, angering the MSG crowd who believed there were uncalled fouls, as New York shot just 29.4 percent (5-for-17) in the quarter.
The Knicks’ lack of composure came to bear when Mitchell Robinson gave Wembanyama a forearm to the head, resulting in an off-ball offensive foul and, after review, a Flagrant-1. (Wemby let Robinson know about the mistake and pointed his finger at his head in the process.)
- It was more of the same in the second: Despite Annunoby hitting his second three to give him a team-high 10, Fox answered with back-to-back threes. On the second, Alvarado committed a loose-ball foul on Wembanyama for grabbing the big man’s leg as the Knicks continued to look out of sorts and stared at a 23-point hole.
Brunson was a non-factor in the opening quarter with four points (0-for-3 from the floor) with three assists. He looked to find some rhythm with back-to-back buckets three minutes into the second, but never found any companions to help him. He had 15 in the quarter to give him 19 for the game, but was 6-for-14 from the floor and a minus-19 in 21 minutes.
Anunoby had 14 in the first half, but was a team-worst minus-27 in 21 minutes. Mikal Bridges, a huge part of the Knicks' run, was again quiet with just five points in the first half (2-for-4) and a minus-16 in 18 minutes. Hart had three with six rebounds and three assists, and was a minus-12 in 16 minutes.
Digging deep into the bench, the Knicks used seven reserves in the first half, and got just two points on 1-for-10 shooting, with Landry Shamet (minus-14 in 13 minutes) and Miles McBride (minus-11 in six) going scoreless.
At the half, the Spurs had Wemby (16), Vassell (15), Dylan Harper (15 off the bench), and Fox (13) all in double digits for a 27-point lead, the third-largest halftime edge in Finals history.
- Alvarado finished with eight points off the bench in 16 minutes. Towns had 13 points with 10 rebounds and was a plus-17 in 26 minutes, as he was big in the second half. Bridges had seven points on 3-for-9 shooting. Hart had six points with eight rebounds, six assists, two steals, and was a plus-11 in 33 minutes.
Game MVP: OG Anunoby
He finished a minus-1 and Brunson was a plus-11, but for the block of Fox to preserve the one-point deficit and the game-winner, he gets the nod.
Highlights
What's next
The Knicks look to close out the series and capture their first NBA title in 53 years in Game 5 on Saturday night in San Antonio. Tip is set for just after 8:30 p.m.
Presented by Tri State Cadillac. 
