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These playoffs have been the ultimate back-and-forth for the young Spurs. When they win, experience doesn’t matter, and talent and comradery trumps all. When they lose, all the conversations about inexperience start up again. By now, it may finally be impossible to ignore, as the list of their failures to execute in the clutch in the Finals has them on the brink of elimination, that their position has been entirely self inflicted. The silver lining is that there are lessons to take from this situation that will help everyone involved with the team to be more prepared in the future.
I continue discussing the wild ebbs and flows of this series with Russell Richardson of Posting and Toasting in this series of Fraternizing with the Enemy conversations in which a ln unlikely friendship has grown so fast and firm that it will certainly endure beyond however these Finals conclude. If you missed them, go back and check out parts parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.
J.R.
My friend, I think I can call you my friend. We’ve spoken on the phone. We’ve exchanged self deprecating remarks. We’ve laughed at each other‘s expense. Yeah, although our friendship isn’t as long as others I have, I think it’s safe to call you my friend. I just hope I can keep you as a friend.
I’m not changing the stakes of this. I hope I’m not changing anything at all. But I am going to admit one of the basic assumptions of our friendship, and more largely an assumption that lies under every Fraternizing with the Enemy post and series I’ve ever done: this can’t end well for both of us.
I’ve gone on record to say that the Game 4 loss will be good for the team in the long run. It might even be great. I’d rather that they lose playing stupid & learn to play smart over time, than to develop the long-term bad habits that come from expecting your talent to bail you out. Rule number one for sports with a clock: when you’re up big, the clock is your primary enemy, not the opponent. Under those circumstances, slow it down, work the ball inside, get twos & FTs. Win. When you’re in the bonus, all of that goes double.
I mean, the team kept on shooting threes early in the clock. Sometimes they even avoided driving an open lane just because a three-pointer was open. As I was saying over and over to the point that I’m sure my parents (who I watched the game with as my family is still in Colorado) were tired of hearing me say “slow it down and work the ball inside,” and the team steadfastly refused to do that.
If no one on the team knows this or can get it across to the rest of the team, then suffering the embarrassment of giving up the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history would be worth it, as long as everyone learns from it. I hated the outcome of this game, and hopefully the team hates it enough to extract every bit of improvement they can from it.
All that said, I need to quote a friend of mine who is fond of saying, “The Spurs have yet to lose a lost game this postseason in which they haven’t shot themselves in the foot.” I believe that the above is true, and I also think that since this amazingly talented, phenomenally confident, outrageously resilient team has spent all season doing things that no team has ever done before while setting all kinds of records, they could still come back from trailing 3-1. That’s as ridiculous as it is scary, but I think it’s completely true.
And that is why I started this section the way that I did … because if that happens, I had to make sure that we’re both prepared for it so that we can remain friends.
And now it’s time for me to talk about how amazingly awesome that game was. I have no attachment to the city of New York or its residents, but when the comeback was happening, I had the strangest thing happen to me. I found that I was actually happy for the people celebrating at the potential demise of my team. Not the celebs or anything outrageous like that, but the wide shots of the arena all cheering and celebrating at the unhinged and bizarre event that was unfolding in front of them and in which they were participating — I felt good for them.
It was so surreal to have that level of empathy in a moment like that. I’m not saying I had an out of body experience and I’m definitely not going to claim enlightenment. It wasn’t anything that felt particularly spiritual or benevolent or unnerving. I just was able to be happy for people being happy that I didn’t and don’t care about at all. It was so strange and yet I definitely recommend it. It’s the kind of thing that takes the edge off losing, for sure.
R.R.
Of the many surprises this postseason, two were the biggest. One was to discover that the Knicks are the team of destiny, chosen by the universe to finally win a championship, hallelujah, amen. The other was to strike up such a rich and enjoyable friendship with an SBNation colleague who, until these Finals, I knew by name only. Thank you again for initiating this incredibly rewarding collaboration. I expect our friendship will extend far past the Knicks’ victory in Game Five.
And if the improbable occurs and your Spurs win three straight, our friendship will stand—but given that I will surely be comatose, you might find it unfulfilling and one-sided.
Now for the game. Whattagame. There have been numerous times this postseason when I have stumbled to bed, disbelieving what I’d seen and convinced that this—THIS—was the greatest game ever played. But then the Knicks do it again.
It had an inauspicious start. Mike Brown’s gameplan for tonight was going to feature Karl Anthony Towns. Mitch Johnson knew it, which is why Fox went right at him on the opening possession. The refs called a questionable brush-by foul, which clearly benefited your side. Then on the other end, they overturned a Wembanyama foul that could go either way because of mutual hooking. It went against Towns, which seemed wrapped in an NBA bow. The card attached read, “Let’s see what New York does with KAT’s hands tied behind his back and his big butt on the bench. Bwa-ha-ha! Love, Adam”.
Meanwhile, someone Manchurian Candidate-d the Knicks in the first half. There were reports of a shadowy figure in a trenchcoat who blew a whistle on the concourse. After that, the whole team turned into zombies.
So the Knicks were not playing with their usual physicality because they expected a whistle. Making matters worse (or better, depending on your rooting interest) was San Antonio’s historic first-half shooting.
With the fouls piling up, Mike Brown had to go deep into his bench. How excited were you to see yer old pal Jeremy Sochan take the floor? Having watched a little of Sochan’s game, I suspect you were salivating.
On the subject of benches: yours scored 28 points. Brown employed seven reserves and they contributed 12 points. Worse (or better, depending on your rooting interest), Hart and Bridges combined for 13 points on 13 shots in 61 minutes. That means the Knicks offense basically was composed of Brunson, Anunoby, and a smattering of Towns. And still…an epic turnaround…how??
Everyone knows that the only way to break a Manchurian Candidate trance is to evoke the powers of the Wu-Tang Clan. Lucky for us, they were booked as the halftime entertainment! Thus explains the historic comeback that undid the historic first-half shooting. All credit belongs with the Wu.
Btw, to hold the Spurs to 14 points in the third quarter was impressive. To then limit them to 16 in the fourth? Astounding.
Someone in your Game Thread (I was lurking!) wrote, “Brunson is going to win the MVP, but OG has been the Knicks’ best player.” That is one hundred percent accurate. OG has been the most consistent player all postseason, full stop. His defense tonight was incredible, and his block on Fox not only kept two critical points off the board, it set up the final possession—where he scored the two winning points. I’ve had an Anunoby jersey in the shopping cart all season long. It’s time for me to checkout.
The Knicks executed their last scoring play to perfection. OG inbounded the ball and took off running—it helped that no one guarded him, so he had an unencumbered runway. Meanwhile, Brunson knew that OG was coming in case of a miss and the timing was critical. Shoot too early and OG would not arrive in time; wait too long, and there might be nothing left on the clock for the tip-in. Oh, and he had to release high enough to clear Wemby’s reach. I’d estimate the likelihood of that play working successfully at 10%, or 1-in-10 times. Which was still more probable than a 29-point turnaround!
My wife, newly interested in the sport, said, “This must be so painful for the creepy bald man.” (She meant Thibs.) She’s right, I’ll bet Tom took this one hard. He was supposed to be on the sideline in the Finals, not that smiley Mike Brown. Grumbling to himself, Tom stops the recording on the VCR and rewinds it. He will re-watch from the beginning with a fresh notebook, keeping track of all Mitch Johnson’s mistakes.
There were a number of gaffes for Thibs to tally. You mentioned a few of them (quick trigger, forsaking the easy buckets, etc.). The Spurs were so far ahead, they could have just committed shot-clock violations throughout the second half to kill time and still would have secured the win. Where do you place the most blame for this collapse? Mitch? Or the players who kept chucking?
J.R.
When it’s time for a post event analysis on a simple disaster (you know, like the Titanic or the Hindenburg), you might be able to place a percentage of blame with a number of the participants in place. But when you’re talking about something like a 29 point lead that evaporates in a game as big as finals Game 4, there’s no such thing as more or less blame. Everyone gets all of it. Which is nice, because they can share. And as everyone knows, sharing is caring.
The thing is, there was something like 17 different individual, group, and systemic failures that happened in order for the Spurs to blow that lead, and if any of those failures doesn’t happen then the Spurs win. Parceling out blame when there are so many key moments that were butter-fingered is a Sisyphisean task. There’s no end to it.
If everyone gets the blame, then everyone improves 1%, and then hopefully it never happens again. For me there is enough even if the team doesn’t come back to win it all this year. For others, I know that talk rubs them the wrong way.
Some people hear this kind of talk and equate it with a lack of caring, and here’s my response to that. I don’t get to choose whether San Antonio wins or loses, I only get to decide how I’m going to respond to it.
That choice is mine and I choose to believe that the Spurs can (like Wemby said he would after G2) take this on the chin, dust themselves off, and learn from it to go on to greatness. I’m not saying that they must lose this series in order to learn how to play with a modicum of humility and a dose of BBIQ, because teams have come back from 3-1 and this Spurs team could make the necessary changes and take it this year. I’m saying that IF they don’t I will see it as a good thing for them even if there’s no guarantee that they ever make it back.
My point is that my choosing to think that there can be a positive to their losing doesn’t mean I’ll assume that they will make it back, nor does it mean that I WANT them to lose. It simply means that I’m continuing to believe in this core truth: one of the best human traits is to find the good amidst the bad and use a negative event as fuel to power eventual triumph. That’s the story I want to tell myself and others, and I refuse to abandon myself again to wallowing in the pain of loss instead of lifting my head up and expecting better things going forward. I’ve lived the other way and I won’t do it any more. It was miserable.
Being down 3-1 isn’t insurmountable, but if it turns out to be too much for this team this year, then I choose to view it as an opportunity and not a hopeless thing. Because this team isn’t behind in this series because they’re not good enough to win. They’re down after four games and on the brink of elimination because they haven’t valued every possession; because they weren’t willing to avoid the easy three and drive; because they haven’t harnessed their immense talent and worked the problem in front of them step by step before celebrating and taunting and reveling in their opponent’s certain defeat; because they’ve yet to learn that some teams don’t have any give-up in them and will come back to beat you if given the chance.
R.R.
We see it similarly: everyone shares responsibility for the loss. Recency bias tends to cast the last mistakes in the worst light, and Fox has caught flak for not running out the clock. But Wemby missed 16 shots and three free throws. Champagnie shot only three times in the second half, and Castle shot once. Vassell was a team-worst -28 plus-minus after intermission. The team committed two turnovers before halftime and nine after. Mitch Johnson mismanaged the game and could have done more to slow the opponent’s momentum.
The Fox layup attempt will live forever because of the timing, but it capped a disastrous stretch of execution. The play distilled San Antonio’s biggest problem in this series, which is trying to win spectacularly when simple game management would have been enough. Sometimes boring is best, boys. (I hope that’s true; it’s one of my defining characteristics.)
Where we differ is that I (unashamedly biased) give more credit to New York. At halftime, Brown didn’t show them any video clips, but chose to let the players discuss the situation among themselves. They decided to try for singles rather than home runs, and Alvarado was a cheerleader, encouraging them to build momentum that could carry over to Game Five.
While the Knicks bunted to get on base, San Antonio scored just 14 points in the third quarter, settled for jumpers, stopped getting into the paint, and never adjusted when OG Anunoby took on the Fox assignment.
Brunson led the comeback, finishing with 36 points and seven assists. He and Anunoby repeatedly delivered big baskets as the Knicks erased a 15-point deficit in the final period. Mike Brown deserves credit, too, for leaning on Alvarado and switching Anunoby onto Fox.
Alvarado was quietly huge. The Knicks needed a second ball handler to take pressure off Brunson, and Deuce McBride has been a dud in the playoffs. Alvarado filled that need, made a couple of big shots, and brought relentless defensive intensity, using all five of his fouls. They wouldn’t have come back without him.
This has become the Knicks’ identity. It was their second massive comeback of the postseason after rallying from 22 down against Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. They have repeatedly taken on a putrid stench of death and somehow risen like Lazarus.
As for the recurring theme of San Antonio building big leads and failing to protect them—with maturity, they will learn to stop doing that.
Take it from a long-suffering Knicks fan: the productive response is collective accountability and improvement. If everyone learns from the failure, the loss can have value regardless of the season’s outcome. It’s 100% true: fans cannot control wins and losses; they can only control how they interpret and respond to them. Finding meaning and growth in defeat is more healing than picking at a scab.
It’s time for my prediction, I suppose. Given that the Knicks already won twice at Frost Bank Center and have the wind at their back from Wednesday’s win, it’s a wrap. The basketball fan in me would love a competitive game, and maybe even a sixth contest before the season concludes. As a Knicks fan, my heart can’t handle any more stress. Saturday night, the Knicks win, they end the 53-year drought, and I still get to jam with Wilco on Tuesday. What say you?
to be continued …
The Washington Wizards have won just one NBA title, but that doesn’t mean they’ve lacked elite prospects.
Before winning the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery, Washington had made four No. 1 picks since 1960. With another talented prospect soon arriving in D.C., let’s look at where AJ Dybantsa — the potential No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft — would slot in among the best prospects in Wizards history.
But first, a few things before we get into this ranking.
This list contains the best prospects in Washington’s franchise history, which extends beyond those who wore “Wizards” across their jersey.
The rankings have nothing to do with a player’s NBA production and everything to do with a player’s college/high school production and pre-draft evaluation.
Wes Unseld
As a junior at Louisville, Unseld was named a First-Team All-American after averaging 23.0 points and 18.3 rebounds on 61.3% FG. In fact, Unseld averaged 18+ points and 18+ rebounds during all three of his collegiate campaigns.
Washington selected Unseld with the No. 2 pick in the 1968 NBA Draft — one spot behind Elvin Hayes, who later won an NBA championship with Unseld as members of the Washington Bullets.
John Wall
It’s hard to compare eras, which made this ranking tough. With that said, John Wall’s combination of speed, finishing ability and athleticism at Kentucky was otherworldly — and that’s not hyperbole.
Wall entered his freshman season as the No. 2 prospect in his high school class and quickly overtook Derrick Favors for the top spot. The future All-Star averaged 16.6 points and 6.5 assists per game and earned First-Team All-American honors as a freshman.
Wall blew past defenders in the open court and got to his spots in the halfcourt. He was simply too skilled and too fast for the college game. Kentucky went 35-3 that season, and the Wizards selected Wall with the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft. I’d say that pick turned out pretty well for Washington.
Walt Bellamy
Bellamy’s collegiate stats rivaled Unseld’s in points and rebounds, but the Louisville product scored more efficiently (61.3%) than his frontcourt predecessor (50.1%).
The 6-foot-11 center averaged 21.8 points and 17.8 rebounds during his senior season at Indiana before the Chicago Packers selected him No. 1 in 1961. Bellamy’s rare combination of size, skill and touch around the rim made him the clear top prospect in his class.
Earl Monroe
Earl Monroe, Washington’s No. 2 pick in 1967, averaged an incredible 41.5 points per game as a senior at Winston-Salem State. The 6-foot-3 guard was an unstoppable scoring force that year as he led the Rams to a Division II national championship.
The main separator between Monroe and the aforementioned top three is that he played at the Division II level, while the others dominated Division I. While there was a clear difference in competition, Monroe still averaged over 40 points a game — an impressive feat at any level of hoops that slots him just below the first tier of Wizards prospects.
AJ Dybantsa
AJ Dybantsa hasn’t been selected by Washington just yet, but according to FanDuel Sportsbook, he’s a -475 favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft.
Dybantsa’s size, athleticism and scoring ability have made him the best prospect on most draft boards. His 25.5 points per game led Division I, and his incredible vertical (42-inch maximum vertical at the NBA Combine) was on display in several highlight-reel dunks.
At 6-foot-10 in shoes with a 7-foot wingspan and untapped scoring potential, the 19-year-old forward possesses an All-NBA ceiling. Some draft experts, like CBS Sports’ Adam Finkelstein, believe Dybantsa could lead the NBA in scoring one day.
Dybantsa doesn’t possess the interior scoring game or incredible rebounding skill that Unseld and Bellamy did. And unlike Wall and Bellamy, the BYU product isn’t considered the consensus best player in his draft class.
But Dybantsa’s collegiate scoring production and high ceiling would still place him among Washington’s top-five all-time prospects, which includes three Hall-of-Famers — Bellamy, Unseld and Monroe — and a five-time All-Star in Wall who leads the franchise in assists (5,282) and steals (976).
Offensive rebounding has long been the Knicks' calling card. Even as the team’s offense shape-shifted from stylistically rugged to one that hummed with passing and shooting, the offensive boards remained a focal point of New York’s success.
On the biggest stage, a carom on the offensive end made for one of the top plays in franchise history. OG Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds left led the Knicks to a 107-106 win against the Spurs in Game 4. New York trailed by as many as 29 points, making the game the largest comeback win in Finals history and the second 20-plus Finals comeback ever.
Now, just one game stands in the way of the Knicks winning the third championship in the team’s history and the first since 1973.
Here’s three keys to the Knicks potentially making history in Game 5...
There’s a clear argument for Anunoby being New York’s best player in not only this series, but the entire playoff run. He’s been that good. In four games, Anunoby is averaging 23.5 points on 58 percent from the field, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks.
Now, you can add the tip-in and the block of Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox in the closing moments of Game 4 to the resume for Anunoby.
Everything is working for Anunoby, but the corners are where the Knicks’ two-way wing is thriving. He’s shooting 53.3 percent on corner three-point shots during the playoffs, per NBA Stats, and he’s converting 63.2 percent of those shots during the Finals.
On the other end, the game changed when Anunoby was switched on to Fox. He disrupted Fox, forcing the All-Star guard into turnovers and difficult shots. It was a career-defining moment, and it will be interesting to see if Anunoby can continue this stellar play in Game 5.
This series has played out with a familiar theme in all four games. The Spurs have jumped out to double digit leads in the first quarter. But somehow, some way, the Knicks have won three of those contests.
And we’ve seen this story before.
New York came back from a 22-point fourth quarter deficit against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. In last year’s playoff run, the Knicks had two huge comebacks from 20-point deficits against the Boston Celtics in the second round.
It’s hard to analyze why this team is so good at facing sizable deficits. But it does speak to the team’s leadership. Captain Jalen Brunson’s even-keeled personality is a calming influence.
It also helps that the Knicks can often go to Brunson in the late stages of games, and he can create a good look for himself or his teammates more often than not.
It would be nice to see the Knicks actually take a lead in the first quarter, but going into Saturday night’s game, it’s easy to feel confident in the Knicks regardless of the scenario.
The Spurs have thrown the kitchen sink at Brunson, applying full court pressure on the Knicks’ star, and occasionally bringing two to the ball.
With New York’s lack of ball handlers on the roster, one adjustment to make was creating more time for Jose Alvarado to play with Brunson in a two point guard alignment.
Alvarado closed the game. And the move worked to perfection. The point guard was a plus-11 on Wednesday night, recording eight points (all in the fourth quarter) and three assists in 16 minutes.
Alvarado was a pressure release valve for Brunson.
When the Knicks’ captain was trapped, Alvarado could catch and drive to the paint. He created an open corner three for Anunoby, faked a pass into a nifty finish around the basket, and nailed an important three-pointer while on the floor with Brunson.
The two point guards had never before shared the court during the postseason. But there were some signs the pairing could work. Alvarado and Brunson were a plus-15.8 points per 100 possessions in 114 minutes together during the regular season.
Heading into Game 5, Brunson and Alvarado playing together should be something the Knicks go to again.
There’s a chance we are a little over 24 hours from the biggest celebration in Knicks history.
There’s no chance you miss it.
Here’s everything we missed coming off the historic Game 4 victory as the Knicks get back to practice ahead of Saturday’s matchup.
On Jose Alvarado’s Game 4 outing:
“I know a lot of you guys can’t because you’re in the media, and you’ve got to be neutral, but I’m going to [expletive] clap for Jose. Sorry, Mom. Jose was unbelievable tonight.”
On why he inserted Alvarado in the fourth quarter:
“Jose has been good in the pick-and-roll. And if Jalen [Brunson] wanted to get off the ball for a few possessions, Jose could handle it, and he could touch the paint and make the game easier for others. If Jalen was on the ball and the ball got sprayed and it found Jose, Jose can then touch the paint with his speed. So that’s all I was trying to do is see if we can touch the paint a little bit more with the two guards out there while the floor was spaced the right way. See if we can get some easy looks, especially from the three-point line, while trying to play faster.”
On luck and making your own breaks:
“The reality is that not just in basketball, not just in sports, but life, too, and I think you all can attest to this, you have to have a little luck. But you also can go make your own luck, too. That’s probably the biggest message. You got to get a little lucky in sports, but let’s do what we do so you can make some of that luck happen.”
On James Dolan’s pregame prediction:
“You know, he owns the team. He can say whatever he wants to say. Maybe he feels something, I don’t know. But I’m 100 percent OK with him saying whatever he feels like he needs to say.”
On holding tears after the Game 4 comeback:
“You said it, two kids from here, right. I’m not going to sugarcoat this: I was about to cry, not because — obviously there is one more [game to win], but I’m at Madison Square Garden, end of the fourth quarter, playing with these guys, and we’re playing for something special. I was just — I was just excited. It’s really something I couldn’t put in words. And like I said, we could get excited and enjoy this, but we got one more to do.”
On being part of the Knicks’ journey:
“It’s crazy, 2026 Finals [wallpaper] behind me. Just to be part of the journey is amazing. I appreciate, you know, coach and everybody giving me my flowers, but this is what I worked hard for, to be in moments like this and shine with it. So I’m glad it went our way today, and I’ll definitely remember this for the rest of my life. But you know, next game, this is the next game, man. We’ve got to worry about when we play over there.”
On OG Anunoby:
“Every time we’re in the game with OG, third quarter, second quarter, he may not be feeling like he’s playing his best. Every time I talk to him, I say, I already know what OG Anunoby is going to do in the fourth quarter, and he did exactly what I thought he would do. He gave us a chance to win, and that’s all you could ask for from the best two-way player in the NBA.”
On OG’s game-winner:
“What it is they call Messi – Hand of God? That was the hand of God. I think I’m going to get that hand bronzed.”
On his emotions after the Game 4 win:
“I think for me, you could see my reaction, the emotion, it kind of spilled out of that moment. It was tears of joy, you know. Just it wasn’t boo-hoo or anything, just tears of joy, because like I say, all you can do is ask for a chance. And for me personally, I just wanted one break in life. And I got one. I got one at that last play with OG making the shot and us getting the stop. I just wanted one break in life, just one thing to go my way, one time, and I’m glad it did. I’m glad it did for us, man. God is good, man.”
On Jose Alvarado:
“It’s tough for me to be a Dominican talking about a Puerto Rican like this, but man, when you talk about somebody who not only lives up to the moment but plays with his emotion and utilizes that to his advantage, that’s a rare quality. You know, a lot of times, you play with a lot of people and they play with emotion, but it gets the better of them. For Jose, that emotion is what drives him and makes him take it to another level. He’s a special player . . . He has so much to his basketball game that people don’t give credit to, and I’m glad on this stage on a night like this, he was able to show the world what he can do when he’s given a chance.”
On the halftime vibes after trailing by 29:
“For us, when we got in there at halftime, we understood we were disappointed with the performance we had in the first half. That’s, of course, the result of walking in. But I’ve always talked about the unity and the connectivity of this team. Went in there, people spoke up. Jose (Alvarado), just saying, regardless how the result of the game comes out, we can’t at least not work on our standards and be who we are.”
On his feelings after the comeback win:
“You could see my reaction, the emotion, it kind of spilled out of that moment. It was tears of joy… all you can do is ask for a chance. And for me personally, I just wanted one break in life. And I got one. I got one at that last play with OG making the shot and us getting the stop.”
On OG Anunoby:
“OG is someone who brings it every night. His work ethic, since the moment I’ve been teammates with him and seen him, has grown. His confidence has grown just because of his work ethic. Everything that I’ve seen, he’s gotten exponentially better at. So regardless of what the outside world thinks of him, we know what we have in our locker room, and we have a superstar in that locker room.”
On the Knicks’ halftime talk in Game 4:
“There really wasn’t much to be said at that point. Just, ‘We need to chip away, hit singles.’”
On the Knicks’ knack for improbable wins:
“I wish I knew.”
On why and how the Knicks keep doing it:
“Because then I’d stop it and we’d get good solid wins. At the end of the day, a win is a win. We got to take it.”
On OG Anunoby’s Finals impact:
“OG, he’s been amazing since he’s got here. This whole playoff run, he’s been amazing on both ends of the ball. He’s a winning player and he made a winning play.”
On the Knicks’ mindset during the comeback:
“You don’t look at when you’re down 29 — we’ve got to win this game. You look at it when you’re down 29 of ‘OK, let’s get it to 20.’ There’s three minutes left in the third quarter. We’re down 18, you’re thinking, ‘Let’s get it to 10.’ In the fourth quarter, you’re like, this is winning time. Anything can happen. And when you have a group of guys that do that — it starts with (president) Leon (Rose), (executive VP William Wesley) — and (head coach) Mike (Brown) is the same — and it just trickles down.”
On the journey to this point:
“Every game, every second, every practice of the season, it led us to this point. Now we have to go into San Antonio on Saturday and get ready for another battle. Special shoutout for OG, man, because he saved me, at least for this game, a lifetime of regret.”
On OG Anunoby:
“Unbelievable. He’s different, man. I’m happy he’s on my team.”
On the Garden atmosphere:
“It was loud, especially when we made that run. It was unbelievable.”
On OG Anunoby:
“He does everything. He’s a virtuoso.”
On the comeback:
“I don’t think any of us have ever seen anything like that. It’s a lot to process.”
On the immediate aftermath:
“What the f—. That’s all I’ve got for you. What. The. F—?”
On the Spurs facing a 3-1 deficit:
“We’ve got to try to put it behind us. Get back to the things that we’ve done well in these games. … We have to figure out a way to hold the lead. We’ve been able to build double-digit leads in all four of these games, and we’ve got to figure out a way to sustain that. It obviously looks like a steep hill, but this is something that’s happened before. … We feel like we have a team that is able to come back from this, but we have to take this one game at a time.”
On his prediction before Game 4 and for the Finals as a whole:
“We’re going to win tonight, and we’re going to win the finals.
“If our guys come out and play the game that they know they can play and they know how to play, we will win this game, and we will win the series.”
“It’s not who we play, it’s not the referees. It’s how we play. … If we come out ready to play this game, I guarantee you we will win.”
On the current Knicks embracing alumni:
“They make us all feel a part of it. Like we’re a part of them.”
On the Game 4 comeback:
“I can’t even put it into words. We were just thinking, ‘Get it close. Get it to 25, get it to 20, get it to 15, get it to 10. Put the pressure on them.’ I never thought they totally had it. I mean, once we got even or we got within four, I said, OK, we have a real shot.’”
On the Game 4 game-winning play:
“I was yelling at them the whole time: ‘The offensive rebound is there! The offensive rebound is there!’ Coming out of that timeout, I made eye contact with them and was yelling ‘The offensive rebound is there! Somebody go!’ I didn’t know who was going to go. But I just kept yelling, somebody go!”
On why Knicks fans travel:
“Here’s another thing. These seats cost an arm and a leg. It is more affordable to drive down to Philly and come back. It’s more affordable to buy a round trip ticket to Atlanta. A round trip ticket to Cleveland. So I’m fortunate that I can afford to see it. But everybody can’t. That’s why we travel.”
On watching the comeback unfold:
“I was in the back. I just wanted to take a breather and just kind of evaluate in my own mind what was going on. And all I kept saying was, ‘Let’s drive. Let’s get in the paint. Defense, defense.’ And, yo. They sustained. They did what they needed to do. With a little bit of Wu energy. I think it helped a little.”
On Josh Hart’s rebounding:
“He’s maybe the best rebounder ever under 6-6 that I can remember in the NBA. San Antonio was struggling to score, but San Antonio is a good offensive rebounding team, and they attacked the offensive glass. And there were some of those rebounds that kind of bounced up there, and they were 50-50 rebounds, and then you got Josh Hart coming out of the pack with ‘em. And not only does he come out of the pack, he starts the fast break, because he can handle the ball and push it up the floor.”
On Hart’s rebounding mentality:
“Anytime he gets his hands on or around the ball, he secures it immediately. So he can outfight a lot of people for it. And then I just think . . . rebounding is a mentality. You have to think ‘rebound.’”
“They pursue the ball, and they read where it’s coming off the rim. And I think that’s what Josh Hart is really good at . . . and he just has that tenacity and that gift to pursue it and get to the ball quick, quicker than others. That’s kind of what makes him so great.”
On the value of rebounding in the NBA:
“With the analytical uptick in the NBA, and in all sports in general . . . getting your hands on the ball more often than the other team, that’s like gold. That’s the most important analytical measurement, and it’s very simple: the more possessions we get, the more opportunities we get to shoot threes to make points.”
“When you can get extra possessions and offensive rebounds, that leads to, just, backbreaking extra points. The other team . . . if they don’t secure the rebound after playing good defense, and forcing you to miss, they might as well have allowed you to score on the first attempt.”
On the Knicks’ offensive rebounding mentality:
“I know the Knicks coaches, all their analytical coaches, they teach the players anytime you get an offensive rebound, that’s like finding $20 on the side of the road. And immediately turn it around and try to make this a three. Try to get the ball to the three-point line immediately.”
On Josh Hart’s rebounding:
“Heart [not Hart] over height. I mean, that’s what it is. He’s heart over height.”
On the mindset of rebounding:
“When it comes to rebounds, it’s all about a ‘want to’ mindset. You’ve got to want the basketball. And then go get it.”
On rebounding instincts:
“Some people have it, some people don’t. If you can follow the flight of the basketball — which most people don’t — then you can kind of see where it’s gonna hit and where it’s gonna come off. And you can, if you’re quick, you can get there.”
On apologizing to Jalen Brunson for not considering him a title-winning player:
“I want to tell you now because I want to tell it to your face, and then I’ll say it publicly after. But I want to apologize in one game. So I will say it now to your face: I’m sorry. Then I will say it when you go and get your ring: I apologize.”
On OG Anunoby’s Finals MVP case:
“What a playoffs for OG Anunoby. He is averaging 21 points and six rebounds. Here’s his playoff shooting splits: 58% shooting, 51% on threes, 64% on twos.”
On Anunoby’s Finals production:
“In the finals, he is averaging 24 points a game on 58% shooting and 57% on threes, and despite averaging five and a half points less than Jalen Brunson and three and change assists less than Jalen Brunson, and Jalen Brunson having big moments in Games 1 and 2 in San Antonio, I think the Finals MVP right now would be OG Anunoby with a bullet.”
On the Spurs’ collapse:
“That was just probably the dumbest game, and I’d like to say most arrogant game, that’s ever been played with the stakes this high.”
On San Antonio’s shot selection:
“It just shows how you really have to have on-the-court feel and not just analytics, because I don’t think analytics would tell you to shoot the ball eight times in a row if you miss, and taking shots early in the shot clock.”
On the unpredictability of the Finals:
“I don’t think [any] of us expected the Knicks to go on to San Antonio and win two. And then turn around and San Antonio to win one [in New York]. The unexpected, the unknown. That’s what we love about sports. We don’t know the outcome. I love that these great athletes have put everything into this. Everything into their performance, into their individuality and also, everything into [their] team.”
On the Knicks’ tendency for comebacks and their deep postseason run:
“It’s game to game, possession to possession. The Knicks have habits that’s been built over years, especially this season with this unit. Obviously, with coach [Mike] Brown and his staff coming in, you gotta leave it to the fans to look at the outcome. You guys’ job is to look at the steps that you need and the habits that you built. Make sure you continue to work those and continue to work the game. The Knicks have given themselves a chance to win every game, and if you do that for seven games, you could possibly walk away with four wins. It’s not as complicated as it is for the fans, but inside you know who you are, you know what you can do. There’s gonna be a lot of ebb and flow, and they gotta stay the course.”
On the Game 4 comeback:
“The game was so brutal, down 29 at the half, but I’m telling you, to watch this team fight and claw their way back — to see that look in Jalen’s eyes — there are just endless life lessons in there.”
On OG Anunoby’s game-winner:
“And then OG comes flying in, his orange and blue cape fluttering behind him, and then it’s just pandemonium.”
On the moment:
“It‘ll get replayed again and again, not just as an epic moment in basketball, but on the highlight reel of the best moments in sports. And all I could think was ‘THAT JUST HAPPENED!!!’ And ‘OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS TEAM!!!’ And ‘OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS CITY!!!’”
On Taylor Swift attending Game 4:
“She’s not a Knicks fan. Get out of here, girl.”
On not realizing Swift’s Knicks connection and appologizing afterward:
“I did not know. We just saw her in Cleveland with her fiancé ― obviously, Travis supports the Cavs ― she didn’t have on any Knicks paraphernalia, so I did not know of her Knicks loyalty.”
“Swifties, I appreciate your passion. I said what I said and here’s the deal, if I’m wrong, and I am wrong apparently because we’ve got an OG Amar’e Stoudemire jersey. I misspoke. I apologize.”
On his friendship with Jose Alvarado:
“Our second meeting went a little smoother. Huge congrats to my new friend [Alvarado] and the [Knicks] on their historic comeback. Don’t ever count NYC out. One more to go. Let’s Go Knicks!”
On witnessing the comeback in person:
“It was hard for me to believe that I — and I would italicize the ‘I’ if I knew how — that I could witness that. I’m supposed to miss games and moments like that. That’s what I was thinking.”
On the Garden crowd at Game 4:
“I’ve never felt the energy in a crowd at Madison Square [Garden]. We used to play a big tennis event there [the season-ending Masters], and nothing’s ever come close to that. No one left after an hour.”
On his exchange with Larry David during the comeback:
“We were sort of a little negative at 71-42. He was like, ‘Let’s get outta here.’ He was like, ‘Let’s get outta here.’ I go, ‘Larry, listen, over the years it hasn’t come up the way we expected [as Knicks fans].’ You know, I’ve blown a couple [of] big leads in my life….It was sort of like, ‘Here we go again, we’re gonna lose this. Something bad’s gonna happen.’”
On trying to stay optimistic:
“I said, ‘Larry, we have to get a little more positive here. If they get it down [from 29] to 25, 21, 18, it’s 15 at the end of the [third] quarter.’ This type of stuff. ‘Let’s keep it positive.’ That’s the most positive I’ve ever been at a game, and I’ve been at a lot of sporting events over the course of my 56 years of coming to Knicks games when I was 8 years old.”
On the Spurs ruining Victor Wembanyama’s already weak core:
“Second half, he plays all but 57 seconds… I feel like he totally ran out of gas. I don’t understand why he was not getting more rest in the game. At the end of the third quarter he’d played five more minutes than he played in Game 3 and that was a one-point game this was a 15-point game. He couldn’t move defensively, that made it easier for the Knicks and offensively, he was unable to get anything. At one point he went 1 of 10. When he gets fatigued he starts flopping around.”
On Wembanyama’s dirtiness, smacking him back in the face:
“I gotta say, if you are going to talk trash and you are going to do some of the stuff that he does — which he does — you can’t let this happen at the end of the game.”
On OG Anunoby before the game-winner:
“He was ready. The first thing you notice is how open he is as Jalen is going up for the move. And you felt he was going to be open because of the way San Antonio was playing the inbounds. And as Jalen goes into the move, you see OG at the top of the key — and all of a sudden, it was almost like, did the TV actually catch that he tipped it in, he was out of there so fast.”
On Anunoby’s instincts:
“He’s got such quick twitch. He’s anticipatory, he’s got excellent reaction. But he didn’t wait. He knew he was open. But he didn’t wait for a pass that didn’t come. He was gone. He knew Jalen was going to shoot it, especially when Jalen goes to the right, so OG was open, but I think even as Jalen was moving up and releasing that shot, OG was gone. I don’t think it was a lack of them blocking out as much as he was already there.”
On Anunoby’s mentality:
“When you combine the quick mind with quick feet and a quick twitch — he has such an alertness. How many players would’ve paused and hesitated because they were open and didn’t get the ball in that situation?”
On the decisive split second:
“And he didn’t have any of that. And that’s the split-second difference between him being there before everybody realizes you’re coming.”
Why Draymond doesn't blame De'Aaron Fox's attempted layup for Spurs' Game 4 loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Spurs point guard De’Aaron Fox has been under scrutiny since seemingly costing San Antonio Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals, but Warriors star Draymond Green doesn’t necessarily view it that way.
The Spurs held a narrow 1-point lead with about 15 seconds remaining when Fox deflected and then secured the ball as time wound down. Instead of dribbling the ball out to waste more time and potentially get sent to the free-throw line, Fox thought he could outrun New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby and get in an easy layup to extend San Antonio’s lead to three points. But Anunoby blocked Fox’s shot, giving the Knicks one final possession to pull off their miraculous and historic comeback victory after being down by as many as 29 points.
While many are focused on that single play by Fox, Green believes the blame should be pointed elsewhere for the Spurs’ loss, and to him, there’s plenty of blame to go around.
“Let’s dish out a little blame for the Spurs’ collapse,” Green said on “The Draymond Green Show.” “Let’s start with De’Aaron Fox. 6-for-16 from the field, not that important. Mindless turnovers in the clutch, definitely got to be better there. The decision to shoot the layup, that’s a bang-bang decision. Not a smart play. Very bang-bang. If he makes the layup, no one’s complaining. If he misses the layup, like he did, everyone’s like, ‘Yo, he cost them the season.’
“I think the turnovers were worse than the attempted layup. Yes, it was bad. I’m not saying it wasn’t. But that’s not what cost them the game. There were so many things down the stretch. … I’ll blame those turnovers more than I’ll blame the layup.”
Fox had a team-leading four turnovers in the crushing loss, with all four of them coming in the second half (three in the third quarter).
He was a plus-23 in the first half and a minus-22 in the second.
But Green also pointed the finger at San Antonio’s best player, Victor Wembanyama.
“Wemby. From the moment Wemby started telling Mitchell Robinson, ‘I’m in your head,’ the Knicks outscored the Spurs 87-69. Wemby scored 14 more points and was 4-for-17 from the field,” Green said. “Two big missed free throws at the end from a great free-throw shooter. Bad 3s, wasn’t rolling to the rim anymore. I think Wemby deserves a lot of blame. Not complete blame, but again, you’re up 29 points and you’re that great, you got to be able to stop the bleeding at some point, and he did not.”
Wembanyama finished with a team-high 24 points and 13 rebounds, but he shot just 36 percent from the field and 25 percent from beyond the arc.
Finally, Green believes Spurs coach Mitch Johnson made some questionable decisions down the stretch.
“Mitch Johnson, 20-4 run before you take a timeout with a young team like that, I can’t agree with,” Green said. “Never adjusted in the second half. Rotations were not great. There were times where they had a big enough lead to give Wemby a rest, and he didn’t. He left Wemby in. And if you get him some rest in some of those spots that you could have, maybe down the stretch, he could’ve done some of those things I was just talking about. But he played and he played. I think you could have given him some rest and he could’ve been fresher down the stretch. He had nothing in the tank.
“Mitch Johnson has to be better. With his subs, his timeouts, when he takes timeouts, getting great shots out of timeouts. I think he could be a lot better. It’s his first NBA Finals; everybody goes through their growing pains. Mike Brown has been here before. There are growing pains, and it comes with the territory.”
No team is perfect, but in the NBA Finals, it’s about limiting the mistakes. And for the Spurs, there were too many costly mistakes in Game 4 to put them down and face elimination on their home floor on Saturday.
The year of the Indiana Hoosier stretched all the way to New York City this week when Indiana men’s basketball alumnus OG Anunoby made the game-sealing play that let the New York Knicks take a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals.
Anunoby flew through a sea of bodies after a Jalen Brunson miss in the closing seconds, getting just the right amount of touch on the ball for a go ahead tip-in that all but sealed the game for New York and capped the largest comeback in NBA Finals history.
Here’s what to know about the Hoosiers today:
Former Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony and Racquel Smith stirred buzz online after she shared Instagram photos and videos of them together in Saint Tropez on Tuesday.
Racquel is the widow of the late Will Smith, a former New Orleans Saints All-Pro defensive end, who was shot to death in 2016 during a road rage incident.
She was also shot in the incident.
The pair looked cozy while posing together in one photo that showed Carmelo with his arm around her waist.
The Hall of Famer was seen standing behind her while in an elevator in another video.
Racquel captioned her carousel post with a few heart emojis and included the quote, “We are not here long enough to be living unhappy.”
It seems Racquel was soft launching the relationship, although they have yet to directly confirm it.
She also shared photos of them partying at Nikki Beach in Monte Carlo earlier this week.
The two previously rang in his 42nd birthday together last weekend, as seen in another photo she shared to a highlight reel on Instagram.
“Happy Birthday to one of the kindest souls I have ever met…,” Racquel wrote with a red heart emoji.
Carmelo, who is an NBA analyst for NBC, hasn’t publicly dated anyone since his 2021 divorce with his ex-wife La La Anthony.
La La filed for divorce from Carmelo in June 2021 and cited irreconcilable differences after being separated for a several years.
The pair, who met through a mutual friend when she was 22 and Carmelo was 19, tied the knot in 2010.
They share 19-year-old son Kiyan, who is a guard for the Syracuse Orange, his father’s alma mater.
Carmelo has a daughter, Genesis, whom he shares with his former partner, Mia Burks.
Carmelo, who last played with the Lakers in the 2021 season, announced his retirement in 2023 following 19 NBA seasons.
In 2024, a jury unanimously convicted Cardell Hayes, the man who fatally shot Smith, of manslaughter in a retrial.
As our player season reviews rolls on, you’ve probably read a lot about Quentin Grimes’ 2025-26 season if you’ve spent any time on this blog this offseason. He played well for the first two months of the season before struggling for the back half of the season.
Save for one game in Boston, his playoffs were just as frustrating. He shot 39% from the field in the postseason despite going 40% from three. Forgive us for hammering this point home, but after touting a “glut of guards” at the trade deadline, a struggling Grimes was the only playable guard off the bench in the playoffs.
The only question remains is should the Sixers entertain bringing Grimes back? Game 2 of their playoff series against the New York Knicks showed that their backcourt is not as gluttonous as originally thought. Tyrese Maxey only sat for a minute and a half in that game, and yet the six points the Sixers lost those minutes by ended up being the difference in the game.
As Grimes showed in Game 5 in Boston, he can hang on the floor defensively and can even be a plus defender against star-level players. It’s clearly something Nick Nurse prioritizes in a guard playing next to Maxey. It was a big reason Grimes was comfortably ahead of Jared McCain in the rotation, and why the Sixers felt they were choosing Grimes over McCain at the deadline.
The biggest flaw in Grimes’ game is what makes his return a hard sell, and that is scalability. For the second straight season, Grimes had his best stretch of the year cooking on his own while the top three players on the team were out due to injury or suspension.
He was just never able to find a rhythm offensively when guys came back and he had a smaller role. This was most evident in his three-point attempts per game decreasing throughout the season. He started the season taking 6.4 threes a game and finished the season averaging only five. He only took 3.2 threes a game in the postseason.
As it often does, the conversation on keeping Grimes or not boils down to price. The reported number of $15 million per year is way too steep a price for the Sixers to pay, given their limited resources. If the Sixers are able to stay under the luxury tax they’d have access to the full $15 million dollar non-taxpayer mid-level exception. If they go over the first but stay under the second apron, they’d get the $6.1 million taxpayer exception.
That’s a much more palatable number to bring Grimes back. At the same time, Grimes will probably be looking to make more money than that exception, which is less money than what the qualifying offer he signed to play on this past season.
The biggest factor in this will be how willing this new front office will be to go near the aprons for a team they admit is not a championship contender at the moment. It’s a problem without a clear and easy fix, but the Sixers do have some work to do to make their backcourt gluttonous once again.
The NBA Draft is less than two weeks away, so it won’t be long until we learn where Cameron Boozer will play ball for the foreseeable future.
The smart people now think he may end up being taken by Utah with the second pick, but the smart people are frequently wrong. We’ll just have to wait and see.
The latest mock drafts (ESPN, CBS, NBADraft.net, and SBNation) see him going to Memphis with the #3 pick, while Yahoo has him going to the Jazz at #2.
Like a lot of Duke players, Boozer comes from a basketball family, with his father, Carlos, having played at Duke in Cameron before he gave that name to his son.
In this article, the author focuses on following a famous father. It can be difficult, but not for everyone. Kobe Bryant far exceeded his father Joe; in fact, his father is nearly forgotten. Steph Curry outshone his father Dell, and Klay Thompson has eclipsed his father, Mychal.
But a lot of guys don’t manage it. Michael Jordan’s sons were never going to surpass their dad, but they never even got close to the NBA. Scotty Pippen Jr., has a long ways to go to catch his dad. Hakeem Olajuwon’s son, Aziz is at Stanford, and this fall, he’ll start to understand how difficult that is.
Boozer has made his own reputation, but he had to deal with it on the way up. At this point in his career, he’s well ahead of his father. His fundamentals are impeccable, and he is, by far, a better passer and shooter than his dad ever was. And he’s just 19.
Watching his career unfold is going to be a lot of fun.
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Carmelo Anthony compares potential OG Anunoby NBA Finals MVP to Andre Iguodala originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Even two days after the New York Knicks’ record-breaking comeback to defeat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals, people are still buzzing over OG Anunoby’s game-winning tip-in layup.
Along with a crucial block on San Antonio’s De’Aaron Fox’s fastbreak layup with 11 seconds left in the game, Anunoby has given himself a case to win Finals MVP if New York finishes its mission to win its first NBA championship since 1973.
Former Knicks superstar Carmelo Anthony supports the idea of Anunoby winning Finals MVP, but without eliminating the fact that New York’s franchise player, Jalen Brunson, has led the team in scoring in three of its four games in the NBA Finals so far.
“OG has been the most steady, consistent guy in these Finals,” Anthony said on his “7PM in Brooklyn” show.
“Forget the tip-in. That stop on Fox was amazing. So now you put all of that together… that’s me playing devil’s advocate. But let’s just be honest about this, it’s [Brunson]. If OG wins it, it’s like Andre Iguodala in Golden State.”
During the 2015 NBA Finals, Warriors legend Iguodala won the Finals MVP award over the team’s best series performer, Steph Curry, who averaged 26.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.8 steals per game and shot 38.5 percent from 3-point range.
Meanwhile, Iguodala only averaged 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, four assists and 1.3 steals per game. Despite being outproduced by Curry offensively during the series, Iguodala secured the award mainly for his defense against the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James.
Similarly, Brunson currently is outperforming Anunoby when it comes to stats, averaging 29.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, five assists and two steals per game in the 2026 NBA Finals.
Anunoby has lower averages of 23.8 points, four rebounds, 1.3 assists and one steal per game, but is shooting more efficiently at 58 percent from the field and 55.6 percent from beyond the arc.
The 6-foot-7, 240-pound forward certainly has a case for Finals MVP, especially with his heroic plays in Game 4 against the Spurs, but it likely would require another memorable performance in Game 5 for him to beat out Brunson for the prestigious award.
Isaiah Evans has had a nice few years. First, he was North Carolina’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024, and then spent two years at Duke. In his first season, the Blue Devils got to the Final Four, and this spring, his sophomore year, Duke just missed getting back. And in less than two weeks, he’ll find out his future when the NBA Draft is held.
Obviously, no one gets that far alone, and the biggest person who has helped Evans achieve all of that is his mother, Marieke Lemon.
This article talks about the sacrifices that she’s made to help Isaiah achieve his dreams. And now that he’s in a position to do something for her, he’s helped her to build her nail business.
There’s a lot of fun stuff in here that you may or may not have known. It’s a good read.
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When NBA fans think of the greatest NBA Finals performances ever, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Jerry West, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Dwyane Wade, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird, LeBron James, and Larry Bird are the kinds of names that come to mind. All-time legends who either were, or are going to be, unanimous first ballot Hall of Famers. But if things keep going the way they have, could a certain Knick buck that trend, and force his name into conversations often reserved for the greatest players to ever play the sport?
After his second dominant two-way performance that was capped off with one of the most memorable plays in Finals history, Anunoby catapulted himself into serious Finals MVP conversations. Through four games, he is averaging 23.8PPG, 4RPG, 1.3APG, 1SPG, and 1.5BPG while shooting 58% from the field, 56% from three, and 92% from the free-throw line. Now, his counting stats don’t pop off the page. Were the Finals to end right now, he’d rank 41st out of the 57 Finals MVPs in scoring, while ranking third lowest in rebounds per game, lowest in assists per game, tied for 36th in steals per game, and tied for 16th in blocks per game. Not a great case to be made for Anunoby being an impressive MVP Finals winner, right?
If you were to take a look at his efficiency, though, that’s where he really stands out among the greats. Anunoby currently has the highest Finals true shooting percentage ever among players who’ve attempted at least field goals, and the highest true shooting percentage among all players who averaged 20+PPG over any four-game stretch in Finals history. Wednesday night, he also became the only player in NBA Finals history to score at least 30 points, make at least seven threes, and do so while shooting 60% or higher from the field. His Game 4 performance was also the third-most threes made in a Finals game ever. The All-Defensive Second Team member is also averaging the sixth most fourth-quarter points per game in the modern era, and joined a lot of the earlier names (West, Abdul-Jabbar, Olajuwon, and Jordan) as the only players in Finals history to score 30 points and score a go-ahead field goal in the final three seconds. He’s done all that on the offensive end while holding De’Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell, Victor Wembanyama, and Derrick Harper all to 46% or lower shooting on a combined 50 attempts as the primary defender.
As you can see, digging past just the surface-level stats shows just how incredibly efficient and valuable the forward has been. But going back to the original question, where does this rank him among the past Finals MVPs? Despite all of the history he’s made, he still ranks outside the top 30. As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of great players who have averaged more points, assists, and rebounds than him while also averaging more steals and or blocks. Even with the unrivaled efficiency and great defense, it doesn’t make up for some of the stats that he lacks. Now, that’s not completely fair because part of that is a lack of volume and his role.
But that is precisely one of the things that is also hurting him. Those two things, while holding him back from potentially averaging more points and assists, could be argued as one of the main reasons for his efficiency. That doesn’t do Anunoby justice, and it discredits his incredible play and all of the work he has put in. If you go back and look at the shots Anunoby has converted on, it’s not like he’s wide open on all of them. He isn’t just a spot-up shooter being spoon-fed easy looks. He’s still taking and making very difficult shots that are often heavily contested or off the dribble. But the truth is, he doesn’t face the kind of game planning or attention that guys like Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns have faced. Those two are tasked with having to do more offensively in terms of self-creation and creation for others. That doesn’t fully take away from what Anunoby has done and the undeniably pivotal role in helping the Knicks go up 3-1.
When taking in all of that context into account, I do think it kind of comes down to subjectivity. To someone who prioritizes role, gravity, and attention, players with similar stats, even at the cost of efficiency, may win out. To others who may prioritize raw stats, Anunoby could easily win out. I think his Finals MVP, if it continues on a similar trajectory, would be better than those of Paul Pierce, Chauncey Billups, Jaylen Brown, Cedric Maxwell, Willis Reed (1973), Andre Iguodala, Wes Unseld, and a player he’s recently been compared to, Kawhi Leonard. Tony Parker, for me, is a great comparison, averaging 24.5PPG, 5.RPG, and 3.3APG in 2007, while shooting 56.8% from the field, and 57.1% from three. He wasn’t the defender Anunoby is, but he was also tasked with initiating way more than Anunoby is. And that should place him right around the 40th to 45th best, especially because stat and pace inflation should be taken into account as well. That may seem low, but for a player who was unranked by many high school recruiting sites and was drafted 23rd overall, that’s still quite an unexpected accomplishment.
Overall, though, it’s an interesting conversation, and one that also shines some light on the makeup of the Knicks and what makes them so good. Brunson is the obvious best player and engine of this team, but he isn’t burdened with as much responsibility as some of the other names mentioned above, and as much as I hate to say it, nor is he as good as those guys were. But what Brunson and the Knicks do have is an incredibly talented team with depth and multiple players who can give you 20 points on any given night. We’ve seen Brunson, Towns, Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, and Deuce McBride do it, and we’ve seen Landry Shamet get close. It’s a team that can beat you in multiple ways and often does.
With how close the Finals MVP race looks right now, there’s a very real chance Brunson ends up with it, especially since he’s also the captain, the best player, the biggest name, and the main ball handler/creator. But it is coming down to the wire. If the Knicks, who currently are a -500 to win the Finals on FanDuel, close it out and Anunoby takes home the award, it will make for some very interesting conversations about how to evaluate secondary and tertiary creators when it comes to Finals MVP.
Marilyn Dubinski: There were several plays within the downward spiral that had me losing hope, from Wemby missing three threes in one possession and two clutch free throws, but the moment for me was when Fox got the loose ball with them up one with very little time left, and he had the choice to race to the bucket and get the lead up to three or dribble around and eat some clock. Hindsight is always 20-20, and now it seems obvious he should have dribbled and gotten free throws, but I can’t entirely blame him for going for two guaranteed points to get the lead to three over two non-guaranteed ones. The problem is, of course, he missed, with seemingly a slight hesitation while deciding what to do allowing the defense to recover and the Knicks the chance to take the game-winner. (I’ll also give him the benefit of the doubt and say he gets there and makes the shot without a bum ankle.)
Mark Barrington: I think it was when Wembanyama missed both free throws. At that point I knew he was spent and couldn’t save the team, and nobody else was going to step up. Of course, I was yelling at my TV when Fox took an unnecessary shot with a few seconds left, as no one wearing Silver and Black had anything resembling court awareness. That play, like Wemby’s pass off of Castle’s back in Game 2, was the final nail in the coffin, but they had been building that coffin for the entire second half.
Devon Birdsong: I *knew* it was over when Fox made one of the biggest mistakes in Spurs history, but my first real suspicion was the out-of-bounds call on Castle (which the NBA has now admitted was wrong). My hope momentarily lifted when Fox had an open mid-range jumper, but when he missed it (even though Castle redeemed himself on the rebound), my heart sank into my bowels. After Game 3, I wrote that most of this series has felt like a horror film, and I’m not sure if that was predictive or just bad timing, but I had no idea that it could get worse. Watching the 2nd half of that game was like watching characters do clearly stupid things in one of those movies (or the ‘Good Choices’ Geico commercial), and I could almost hear the faintest echo of Fred Herman Jones saying “Let’s split up gang!” in the distance.
Jeje Gomez: I’d love to be less predictable here, but it was Fox’s mistake. Even though the collapse started much earlier, the Spurs were still in the driver’s seat for most of the last few minutes and it seemed like the Josh Hart miss was going to be the Knicks’ version of the Wemby to Castle botched pass, an error that would determine the winner. I was optimistic until the end, and when Fox tapped the rebound to himself, I could taste the win. Then, the second he took the shot, and it got blocked, I thought a New York win was almost inevitable.
Dubinski: It’s hard to say. It seemingly wasn’t a problem against the defending champions last round, in which they didn’t even have homecourt advantage, so why is it a problem now? There is zero doubt the Finals are an exponentially bigger stage than the conference finals, and going against a historical and charged-up franchise like the Knicks adds yet another level, so maybe this is just too much for a young team with little to no playoff experience before this year. Closing tight games has been an issue almost all season, and the Knicks are the polar opposite and the last team you want to falter against in the clutch against. I guess I’ll go with true since they’re playing a team of hardened, grizzled veterans with more experience to learn and build off of. (Although I think the Spurs win this series against any other Eastern Conference opponent.)
Barrington: True. De’Aaron Fox is supposed to be the playoff closer for the Spurs, but before this year, he had been in only 7 playoff games, and he had the most playoff experience of any starter. You could say that the 22 playoff games they’ve played this season would be a lot of playoff experience, but I don’t think players can absorb that quickly on the fly with only one or two days off between games. They’ll handle these kinds of situations better next season, if they make it this far, but nothing is guaranteed. They’ve had a lot of things go right for them in this year’s playoff run to get to the finals, but their luck ran out Wednesday night in the Garden. You have to give the Knicks credit for continuing to fight even when down by a ton of points, but you also have to be a little mad at the Spurs for losing their focus and falling apart under pressure. It’s a hard lesson, and thinking it would never happen to this team on a storied run from a 34-win season to the NBA Finals was a vain hope.
Birdsong: Absolutely true. Lost in the hubbub about Fox is the very real failure as a team to recognize a need for a strategy change midway through the 3rd quarter. The Spurs should have been grinding out possessions instead of still trying to jump-shoot the Knicks out of the building. The inability to recognize that they no longer had the hot hand, as well as that they weren’t effectively draining the clock + failing to create, take, and make easier shots, is largely what let the Knicks back in. Some of that was pure hubris (I’ve written before about how these Spurs are sometimes not satisfied with just carrying a lead and prefer to embarrass the opposition), and some of it was execution. But both are symptoms of the same thing, inexperience. A Twitter/X account last night tweeted out that if Chris Paul had still been on the team (even hardly playing) he would never have let them keep that up for the entire 2nd half, and I think that’s right. Last night wasn’t just the players’ inexperience showing, but Mitch’s too.
Gomez: True-ish. There’s no denying that some of the mistakes the Spurs have made are probably a reflection of not only their lack of experience in the biggest stages, but a lack of experience playing with one another. The Fox gaffe can be explained by the former, and the Wemby-to-Castle pass by the latter. Without those two massive blunders, the series could easily be 3-1 the other way. But there are other, arguably deeper problems. San Antonio doesn’t have a bench or reliable size at the forward spots. They don’t have an established half-court offense, which technically could be chalked up to Mitch Johnson’s lack of experience, but it seems more to do with the coach’s philosophy of giving his players freedom. Since the Spurs have so much talent, they have been able to hide those flaws at times and overcome them at others, but against a team that matches up so well against them, it’s been harder to do. Youth is to blame for some of the issues, but focusing solely on it can distract from other weaknesses in the roster and the offense that are being exposed.
Dubinski: Not at all, but maybe I should give them more than a 10% chance. One thing they have done well in these playoffs is bounce back, and they likely know just as well as we do that they could just as easily be up 3-1 (or even have already won 4-0) if they weren’t shooting themselves in the foot in the final minute of games. They have what it takes, but they have to stop beating themselves and execute for three straight games. The question is, can they do it, considering consistency has not been their forte in these playoffs? (I will say, my only goal for them right now is to just get to Game 6, and not just for the obvious “one game at a time” reason, but also because the only thing we have never had to endure as a franchise is watch another team celebrate a championship on our home court, and I don’t want that to change now.)
Barrington: I’m not confident, but I’m hopeful. Game 5 is the key. This series isn’t over yet. If they play like goldfish and don’t internalize the failure of Game 4, they will be in good shape to take Game 6 in the Garden. If they do that, it’s a matchup for the ages, as the league can see one of the most exciting back-and-forth series in history.
The reason why I think that won’t happen is that I remember the Spurs in the 2013 finals. After Ray Allen’s miracle shot stole Game 6, the Spurs were mentally and physically spent and didn’t put up that much of a fight in Game 7. I could see that happening again in Game 5 this year, but this team is younger and they could overcome the fatigue. The only good thing about remembering the 2013 Finals is that that wasn’t the end of the story. There was a redemption arc, and who knows, that could happen again.
This team is going to be good for a long time, and the mental hardening from the lessons of this season should make them tougher to take down in the future. That, and some roster improvements, as the bench was really exposed by the Knicks in this year’s finals, and the lack of playable bigs led to an overdependence on Wembanyama, who can’t play over 40 minutes in every game.
Birdsong: I think it’s all about Game 6. Supposing the Spurs win Game 5 (and I expect they will, if not purely out of sheer anger with themselves), they have a very tall order going back to the Garden down 2-3. That being said, they’ve already pulled that off down 0-2. It’ll be a different kind of pressure, though. The Knicks will do everything they can to not go back to San Antonio for Game 7, but if the Spurs pull it off, I can still see them winning it all. Right now, they need to focus on a reset in familiar surroundings and take every positive thing they can out of an extremely embarrassing and public lesson. They’ve risen to the occasion before, so I think they can do it again. In fact, in spite of the loss, I’m more confident in their ability to beat the Knicks; it’s just going to come down to execution. The margin separating these two teams is razor-thin, and that bodes well for series extension. I give them 50/50 to get to Game 7, but if they do, I’m putting my money on them. At that point, they’ll know they can overcome anything, and that’s money in the bank(shot).
Gomez: Can they bounce back and win Game 5? I’m not confident about it. The loss was too painful, and while the Spurs have been surprisingly resilient in the face of adversity, at some point, they will break. If we use the stonecutter’s credo to describe the situation, they might be the rock, and the OG Anunoby game-winner, the final blow. If they somehow manage to once again respond well to a tough loss, I think anything is possible. I expect the Knicks to be confident in Game 5, but if they lose, they might get anxious about trying to finish it all at home since they don’t exactly have much championship experience themselves. Is it likely we’ll get a Game 7? Not really, but I won’t call the series over until someone actually wins four.
One quick hand motion has some in San Antonio up in arms.
Some extra attention has been brought to Karl-Anthony Towns’ deflection on the final play of Wednesday’s miracle Knicks Game 4 Finals win after it appears he motioned to the fans sitting courtside to crowd Spurs rookie Dylan Harper for the critical inbounds pass.
With the Knicks leading 107-106 with 1.2 seconds remaining, Towns walked toward Harper — positioned on the left sidelines if looking straight at the basket from midcourt — and discretely motioned toward Harper with his left hand to a man in a suit and a man in an orange shirt.
Should the @nba and @OfficialNBARefs review this incident where Karl Anthony Towns asks Knicks fans to crowd Dylan Harper as he attempts to inbound the ball on the final play of Game 5?
— SpursRΞPORTΞR (@SpursReporter) June 12, 2026
NBA rules explicitly state that fans are strictly prohibited from entering the playing… https://t.co/PGxjLk1biypic.twitter.com/mji5u4O6iV
As Harper took one step to his right, the two men also moved in that direction closer to the guard.
When Harper eventually received the ball to inbounds the ball for a potential game-winning shot, the two men could not have been more than two feet away with the fan in orange clapping.
X user @SpursReporter quote tweeted the clip with another frontward-showing angle that displayed the fan in orange getting rather close to Harper and pondered whether the referees did enough.
“Should the @nba and @OfficialNBARefs review this incident where Karl Anthony Towns asks Knicks fans to crowd Dylan Harper as he attempts to inbound the ball on the final play of Game 5? 
“NBA rules explicitly state that fans are strictly prohibited from entering the playing area or intentionally interfering with players, whether the player is inbounds or out of bounds. Furthermore, rules state that fans must remain within the physical limits of their own seats.
“In an instance like this, Arena security staff is required to back the front row up, and offenders should be ejected. The second video in the tweet below also shows how egregious this violation was.”
The NBA rules on out-of-bounds and throw-in plays does not specifically state any stipulation about fans, although they are not allowed to interfere with play.
However, in these instances, there’s only so much the referees can do since the play happens right in front of those sitting courtside.
Whether the fans affected Harper or not, he and the Spurs missed a golden chance for a great look on their final play when Towns deflected his pass to Stephon Castle.
That tip led to Castle fumbling the ball, and he did not get a shot off in time as the Knicks rallied from a 29-point hole in the second half to grab a 3-1 series lead.