It’s been ten years since a team leading in the NBA Finals 3-1 blew the lead, and the New York Knicks are hoping they aren’t the latest squad to join that list.
After the Knicks’ epic Game 4 comeback against the San Antonio Spurs, they have pushed their opponent to the brink of elimination, but they haven’t finished the job yet as they need one final win.
The Knicks have put themselves in a great position, giving themselves three chances to pull it off, but that adds to a lot of pressure to finish
a 53-year drought and hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy for the first time since 1973.
The Spurs have proven to be a formidable opponent and they are a team used to the pressure of having to win when it matters most. In their series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, they fell behind in Game 1 with a loss at home but still managed to beat them in six games to advance to the Western Conference Finals.
When they faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder, they fell behind 2-1 after Game 3 and 3-2 after a Game 5 blowout loss on the road. They were able to clutch up, win Game 6 at home, and get the job done on the road in Game 7.
“We’ve got to try to put it behind us. Get back to the things that we’ve done well in these games,” Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox said.
“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.”
Despite their struggles in the second half of Game 4, the Spurs are expected to bring out their best for Game 5 to push the series back to Madison Square Garden for Game 6. The last thing the Knicks need to do is get complacent, otherwise they could see the joke turned around on them.
