NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 08: Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs reacts during the second quarter against the New York Knicks in Game Three of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on June 08, 2026 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, b y downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images) | Getty Images I don’t drink. But after what just happened, the temptation is growing. The first half of this game was absolute joy. Fox drew a foul on KAT on the very first possession, then Big Purr drew one on Wemby right after. Mitch Johnson elected to challenge the latter call, and upon review, it was deemed that KAT hooked the Alien. This forced the Knicks to sit their All-Star centre since he already had two personal fouls, while Wemby’s slate was wiped clean. The Spurs took advantage shortly after by hitting two threes and scoring off a turnover, continuing their streak of building a 10-point lead early in each game. With KAT on the bench, New York was forced to play Mitchell Robinson for extended minutes, helping San Antonio stay hot. The good guys started 6-8 from deep and scored 30 points in just the first eight minutes of the game, and the Knicks had to dust off fantasy specialist Ariel Hukporti to give Robinson a breather. The once raucous MSG crowd suddenly turned nervous as the Spurs built a 20-point lead, with hushed murmurs reverberating throughout the arena. Unlike the other games (this still stands, but for all the wrong reasons), San Antonio continued throwing haymakers. After back-to-back threes from Fox, the entire team joined the party. Seven Spurs made a triple before half-time, and their 14 total set a new record for threes in a single NBA finals half. The Knicks became discombobulated on offense too, resorting to hero-ball from Brunson — one of their most inefficient scoring options in the series (at the time). As a result, the Spurs led 76-49 at the half, which is also the most points a road team has scored in the first half of any finals game in history. Then, the entire world started to crumble. New York went on a 13-0 run in the third to cut the lead down to 15, while San Antonio’s offense halted to a stop. The Spurs continued hunting threes and forgot about a guy who’s kind of tall, and as soon as their hot streak ended, the once massive lead began to dwindle. They were outscored 26-14 in the third alone, and worst of all, Brunson started getting hot. Suddenly, it was as if the Knicks played the uno reverse card on the Spurs, as they began hitting all their shots: from three, from mid-range, from the Statue of Liberty, you name it. What was once a 15-point lead with eight minutes left became a two-possession game, as New York capitalized on the Spurs’ over-aggressive defense with pinpoint ball movement. San Antonio made some panicked adjustments to try and get the ball out of Brunson’s hands, but that left the Knicks’ shooters wide open, who all had auto-aim activated. On the other end, San Antonio’s strategy was to watch one player dribble the air out of the ball while the other four prayed to some sports deity that had already abandoned them. Somehow, that actually resulted in a three from Fox and a foul line jumper from Wemby, but it wasn’t enough to stem the tide against a New York team shielded by plot armor. After Brunson splashed a 27-foot missile over Wemby (of all people), the Knicks cut the lead down to just one with 2:30 left, and the Spurs’ counter was to play one of the worst possessions you’ll ever see. Fox tried to run a high pick-and-roll to get Wemby an open path to the rim, who set a screen that hardly grazed Anunoby. As a result, Anunoby easily went over and forced Fox to pick up his dribble and jump without a clear passing lane. Instead of just living with the double dribble, however, Fox threw the ball to the middle of the court, which was picked off by Josh Hart, who then proceeded to smoke a wide-open dunk. Then, the Knicks isoed Brunson against Castle, and Captain New York made a tough floater that bounced in, to put the home team up one. With a minute left, the Spurs isoed Fox at the elbow, who missed the shot but resulted in free throws for Castle, who knocked both down to put San Antonio back up by one. With 20 seconds left and the ball back in the Knicks’ hands, Brunson missed a bank shot that was tipped to mid-court, and Fox got to it first. Instead of dribbling out the clock, however, he had delusions of grandeur and went up for a layup, which was blocked by Anunoby. Still, all hope wasn’t lost, yet. New York only had 5 seconds left to put up a final shot, which ended up being a Brunson prayer from the logo over Wemby. He missed, but in the ensuing chaos, Anunoby flew in and tipped the ball over the outstretched hands of three Spurs. Of course, it somehow went in. 107-106, Knicks. With 1.2 seconds left, San Antonio actually drew up a good inbounds play that had Castle open for a dunk, but Harper flubbed the pass, and probably the Larry O’Brien trophy, too. Game notes History is now on the Spurs’ side: there have been five instances in NBA history where a team tied the finals at 2-2 after trailing 2-0, and all five of those teams went on to win the title. I’ve suffered through some pretty bad heartbreaks in my years as a sports fan, almost entirely at the hands of the Canucks. Most notably, the 2*11 NHL finals between them and Bruins, which might still be the most traumatic thing that I’ve ever experienced. Well, this game is now on that list, and the series isn’t even over yet. This game was basically the final fight in every Rocky movie. His opponent would pummel him to bits for most of the match, only for his iron chin to withstand everything and land a knockout blow at the very end. New York is Rocky, and he indeed, did not die. I hated the process of this game and said that before the comeback even materialized. It took until the fourth before the Spurs remembered that they have an Alien on their side, but it was too little, too late. After barely seeing the ball the entire half, Wemby had lost all his touch by then, resulting in a stretch in which he shot 1-11 from the third to the middle of the fourth. Wemby now has 3 flagrant points in the playoffs following an inadvertent elbow against KAT in the third quarter. I thought it was a borderline call, but considering he got away scotch free with the Brunson shove in game 3, he definitely deserves another flagrant in the aggregate. The bigger story, though, is that accumulating 4 flagrants results in an automatic suspension. I’m confident that won’t happen, but it shouldn’t have gotten to this stage, either. Wemby needs to keep a cooler head, and he’s got no one to blame but himself for ending up in this position. Live by the three, die by the three. The Spurs experienced both sides of that in game 4, making 14 threes in the first half and just three in the second. San Antonio wanted to see if they could keep up the momentum and settled for too many jumpers when their rhythm was gone, and it resulted in the largest single-game collapse/comeback in NBA Finals history. The commitment to threes would even make Joey Mazz proud. It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again: this series will be determined by turnovers. It’s not a coincidence that the Spurs only had two turnovers in the first half and had nine in the second. New York actually finished with 13, but almost none came during their comeback. San Antonio had more turnovers than made buckets in the third quarter alone. Castle was pretty brutal for most of the game, but he deserves credit for hitting those clutch free throws at the end and going 8/8 from the line. Remember, he iced game 3 from the line too, and I was ready to personally deliver him the finals MVP if Anunoby’s fingers were an inch shorter. Those free throws will be lost in the craziness, but the streets won’t forget. What won’t get lost is 2023 Clutch Player of the Year De’Aaron Fox. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with him since before he was traded to the Spurs, and have given him flowers for playing through his ankle injury. However, I only just learned that an ankle could impede one’s processing, too. Why didn’t he just dribble out the clock with 15 seconds left??? He doesn’t have his usual burst and knew that Anunoby was coming, and still decided to go for the layup. Mind-boggling. I’m not a spiritual person. I don’t believe in any deities, or even ghosts. But what this Knicks team has become over the past two months is something beyond my simple comprehension. Maybe Timothy Chalamet and Anne Hathaway sprinkled magical powder on MSG in the middle of round one so they could be cast in Spike Lee’s new movie: The Miracle in the Garden. Speaking of which, it’s time to boycott The Odyssey and Dune. Conduct a wellness check on your fellow Spurs brethren. And for the love of the basketball gods, do NOT answer any calls/texts from friends who troll. This is the start of our healing journey. We will get through it together. Play of the game Dylan Harper is the only thing keeping me going. the Rook is COOKIN! 🔥📺 ABC pic.twitter.com/QLfFFM8gdR— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) June 11, 2026 Next game: in San Antonio on Saturday for Game 5 Well, Game 5 will be back in San Antonio on Saturday at 3:30pm Central Time. The sun will still rise tomorrow, I guess. ...read more read less