The last time we saw Taylor Swift, she sat courtside rooting for Cleveland while her goon boyfriend snoozed on her shoulder, drowsy after housing some brews. Tonight, she made two wise corrections. She wore the orange and blue to root for the Knicks versus the Spurs, and she left the lughead home.
In a first-half abomination, the Knicks fell behind by 29 while the Spurs made the most first-half three-pointers in NBA Finals history. Everything sucked in the world. Even some Knicks fans booed—perhaps
the same ones who were planning to take time off for the championship parade. The only thing, the only thing, that gave us any happiness was seeing the Wu-Tang Clan perform at halftime.
The Wu is crafty, though, and there are wizards among their ranks. After they sprinkled their magic on the court, something amazing occurred. The Knicks held the Spurs to just 14 points in the third quarter, giving us irrational hope that a comeback was possible . . . . Then, to conclude the single craziest half of basketball ever played, the Knicks held the Spurs to 16 fourth-quarter points, seized (and lost) a one-point lead, and won the game when OG Anunoby soared through the air to put back a Brunson miss with 1.2 seconds left.
In the largest comeback in Finals history, the Knicks won 107-106. They now lead the Finals 3-1 and head back to San Antonio for Game Five.
One criticism of Game Three was that Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t get his number called enough. It was generally expected that Mike Brown would address that tonight. For good reason, the Spurs wanted to keep Towns out of the offense. The easiest way to do that? Foul trouble. Hence, in the opening 24 seconds, De’Aaron Fox went straight at Towns and got a ticky-tac call. An inauspicious start, to quote Clyde the GOAT.
Tonight, Towns took the first two shots for the Knicks, using the second to draw a foul on Victor Wembanyama—before a challenge overturned it. Two fouls on Towns in under two minutes. With help from the officiating crew, Mitch Johnson’s plan was going exactly as planned. In fact, it was so effective that Towns would finish with even fewer shots tonight.
The Knicks missed 75% of their shots and coughed up the ball twice, falling behind by double-digits for the umpteenth time in the series. Barely three minutes into the contest, coach Mike Brown needed a timeout. From there, Stephon Castle dropped five to kill the Knicks’ momentum, cap an 8-0 run, and put the Spurs up by 12.
Mitchell Robinson was pressed into service early. After running up and down the court in this fast-paced game, he was ready for breathing treatments by the six-minute mark. Running out of centers, Ariel Hukporti was sent in, and Wemby promptly swished a long three in his face.
Everything the Spurs threw up found the bottom of the net. They had put 30 points on the board with four minutes remaining in the first. Meanwhile, the Knicks were clanging shots off their home irons. At least they were giving Wemby a little rough treatment.
Brown was forced to run quite a substitution carousel. When Hukporti committed a foul, Robinson trotted back in—but not for long, as Towns came back in at the three-minute mark. Also subbed out: Jalen Brunson at the four-minute mark, after missing all three field-goal attempts. He rested for a minute while Jose Alvarado contributed some exciting energy, then subbed back in. Brown was so desperate for bodies in the frontcourt that he even deployed the former Spur and rarely used Jeremy Sochan.
Note: the refs missed a goaltending call by Luke Kornet. Of course they did.
After working him for a basket, Wemby chirped at Mitch, telling him, “I’m in your head.” Running up the floor, Mitch popped him in the jaw with an elbow and was called for a flagrant-1 foul. (Cue the clip of Wemby palming the back of Brunson’s head and throwing him to the floor.) The Frenchman made both free throws, then Devin Vassell swished a jumper to take a 21-point lead.
By the end of the quarter, Wembanyama and Vassell had combined for 25 points, and the Spurs led, 41-22.
The Knicks did not play with their usual physicality. How could they? The refs were looming over their shoulders with a whistle. All we want is consistency from the officials. The tentative play showed in the stats, e.g., the Spurs had zero turnovers to New York’s six by midway through the second quarter.
At the same point, the guests had attempted seven more shots than the home team—which is especially painful when the team taking more shots is also making more shots. The Spurs made everything, including 11 of their first 18 shots from deep. The Garden went very quiet.
Twelve different Knicks had played when Jordan Clarkson checked in at the 8:30 mark. Wembanyama sat around then, and a little daylight opened up in the paint. Looking overwhelmed, though, Towns got dinged for another loose-ball foul and had to sit with seven minutes to go. The Knicks finally got a steal when Brunson picked off a Castle pass for a pick-six. Immediately after, Hukporti blocked Castle, and Brunson ran the rebound up for another contested layup. That cut the deficit to 21 at the midway point, and Johnson called for time to kill the momentum.
Out of the break, Johnson reinserted Wembanyama. Smart move. The Spurs continued to grab all the loose balls and make their shots. Even though the Knicks were winning the boards, they were piling up enough bricks to build an elementary school. They fell behind by 29 points late in the second period. At intermission, the score was 76-49, the third-worst halftime deficit in Finals history. Some of the fans at MSG booed as the home team trudged off to the dressing room.
And then the Wu-Tang Clan took the stage:
Through the half, the Spurs had shot 60% from the field and 54% from deep, making 14-of-26. They had 18 assists to New York’s seven and two turnovers to the Knicks’ eight. Our heroes actually won the rebounding battle and doubled the Spurs in offensive boards, but awful shooting squandered the advantage. How bad did they shoot? 41% overall and 33% from deep. They made four three-pointers to San Antonio’s 14, the most first-half three-pointers in NBA Finals history.
The Knicks stayed afloat only by getting to the line 23 times, yet even that edge was blunted by 65% free-throw shooting. When a team is getting outshot, outpassed, and turning the ball over four times as often, being down nearly 30 feels less like bad luck and more like a complete loss of control. Brunson led all scorers with 19 points (on 14 shots). Wemby had 16.
Brunson finished the game with 36 points on 12-of-25 shooting, plus seven assists, three steals, and just three turnovers in 44 minutes.
The Knicks picked up the pace to start the third quarter for a possession or two. Then Bridges was blocked, and Towns turned the ball over, and they fell behind by 29 again.
A break came when Wemby’s elbow caught Towns on the chin. It was deemed a flagrant-1. Towns made two freebies, the Spurs finally missed some shots, Anunoby (33 PTS, 10-15 FG, 7-9 3PT) dunked, and Brunson made a triple. After that 7-0 run, Johnson called for a timeout, trying to preserve his 22-point lead.
San Antonio coughed up the ball and threw a few more bricks. After making so many shots in the first half, they missed six of seven to start the third. Triples from Anunoby and Josh Hart reduced the differential to 16. Towns fouled again, sending Dylan Harper to the line for two freebies and sending himself to the bench with a sizable chunk of time left in the quarter.
Brunson and the Knicks would not be deterred. Cap hit Robinson with an alley-oop out of a timeout to make it 15. A Brunson turnover was flipped into a Vassell triple, but Anunoby answered with his own long ball.
Mikal Bridges was a dud for the second straight game, and Brown knew it. He subbed him out for Clarkson around the five-minute mark. Clarkson was too frantic, though, and made bad passes in traffic when the Knicks were threatening to make the score much more manageable. Nonetheless, they held their opponents to 14 points and closed the quarter down 90-75.
To start the fourth, Wemby lost the ball out of bounds (great) and Miles McBride missed again from deep (bad). Harper made a three, Wemby made one from the charity stripe, and New York trailed by 18.
Deuce was bad again (0 points, 0-4 FG), but there was plenty of disappointment to go around. By the nine-minute mark in the fourth, Bridges had five points on eight shots, Hart had six on three shots, and Towns had eight on three shots. The bench had contributed a total of seven points. The crowd cheered when Bridges dropped in a layup—at last—to make the score 95-80 with eight-and-a-half minutes left.
Bridges would come up soon after, and sit on the bench until the final six seconds.
The Knicks rebounded a Wemby miss, but Keldon Johnson poked the ball away from Brunson to regain possession. One step forward, two steps back. We held out hope for a miracle, but the Knicks seemed to be blowing too many chances to make it possible. But then Castle missed, Towns hit a Hail Mary triple while falling out of bounds for his first fourth-quarter points of the Finals, and the hole was 12. Castle made two free throws, Anunoby made a triple and picked off a Harper pass. Towns drove the lane to score a layup over Wemby. Finally, the Knicks were down by single digits.
A Brunson driving layup capped a 17-4 run, cutting it to seven. Fox missed a shot, Anunoby made a bomb, and the Knicks trailed by four. Fox and Wemby combined for five points, but Alvarado matched them to make it 104-100 with three minutes left.
Fox missed and Brunson hit a triple to make it a one-point deficit, and the foundation of MSG shook. Hart picked off a Fox pass and ran it back, but with Castle trailing, he smoked the layup that would have given New York the lead. Luckily for them, Wemby missed two free throws (after his team had seemingly made a hundred straight to start the game).
With 1:20 on the clock, Brunson made a layup in traffic.
Hart harassed Castle, forcing him to step out of bounds on the baseline. The camera from the Garden was shaking. The entire city was shaking. Veteran Knicks reporter Stef Bondy called it the loudest he had ever heard the house. A shot-clock violation threatened to prove costly, and with 39 seconds left, the Spurs had the ball, down 105-104.
Fox missed, but Hart fouled Castle on the rebound. The 21-year-old made both to reclaim the lead. After that, Captain Clutch got the inbounds pass, dribbled, dribbled, and finally drove, trying to go high off the glass over Wemby. The ball rocketed down the court. Fox caught up with it first and attempted a layup that was blocked by Anunoby. Alvarado brought the ball up the court but was intentionally fouled with six seconds left.
The Spurs didn’t even attempt to cover Anunoby inbounding the ball. He got it to Brunson, who bricked a three-pointer, but Anunoby was ready for that and flew through the air like Superman and put back the rebound with an off-balance finger roll! Knicks up 107-106 with 1.2 seconds left!!!
Out of a timeout, the Spurs inbounded the ball to Castle, who was smothered by Hart and couldn’t get a shot up.
Ballgame.
Here’s another angle of the most incredible tip-in you might ever see.
Up Next
I’ll be at the hospital having my heart checked; the Garden is still packed with people, long after the final buzzer. Miranda’s coming at you with a recap; and Game Five will be played on Saturday in San Antonio. Safe travels, Knickerbockers.
