The New York Knicks stunned the basketball world on Tuesday night, erasing a 29-point deficit to defeat the San Antonio Spurs 107-106 in Game 4 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden. The comeback is the largest in NBA Finals history, shattering the previous record of 24 points set by the Boston Celtics against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2008. With the victory, the Knicks now hold a commanding 3-1 series lead and sit just one win away from their first championship since 1973.
The Spurs appeared to be cruising toward a series-tying win for much of the game, building a 27-point lead by halftime that had many fans heading for the exits and analysts declaring the series effectively even. San Antonio's defense smothered the Knicks' perimeter shooters through the first two quarters, and their offense executed with surgical precision against a New York team that looked overwhelmed on both ends of the floor.
The turnaround began in the third quarter when Jalen Brunson took over the game with an extraordinary display of shot-making and leadership. Brunson, who finished with 36 points on the night, scored 18 of those in the third quarter alone, attacking the rim relentlessly and knocking down three consecutive mid-range jumpers that began to shift momentum. OG Anunoby complemented Brunson's brilliance with 33 points of his own, including critical three-pointers during the fourth-quarter surge that finally brought the Knicks even.
The final sequence will be replayed for decades to come. With the Knicks trailing 106-105 and 4.7 seconds remaining, Brunson launched a contested three-pointer from the right wing that bounced off the back of the rim. Anunoby, anticipating the miss, crashed the glass from the weak side and managed to tip the ball off his fingertips and into the basket with just 1.2 seconds left on the clock. The Garden erupted in what players described as the loudest noise they had ever experienced in any arena, and the Spurs' inbounds pass with 1.2 seconds remaining fell harmlessly to the floor as time expired.
The game continued a remarkable pattern in this Finals series, in which road teams had won the first three contests — only the second time that has happened in NBA Finals history. The Knicks broke that pattern emphatically in Game 4, defending their home court in the most dramatic fashion imaginable. The series has also attracted significant political attention, with former President Trump drawing loud boos when he attended Game 3 at Madison Square Garden earlier in the week.
The Knicks now have three opportunities to clinch their first NBA title in 53 years, a drought that stretches back to the 1973 championship team led by Willis Reed and Walt Frazier. Game 5 is scheduled for Thursday night in San Antonio, where the Spurs will attempt to stave off elimination and keep alive the possibility of becoming just the thirteenth team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit. However, no team trailing 3-1 has ever completed such a comeback in the NBA Finals.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau praised his team's resilience in the postgame press conference, noting that at no point during the 27-point halftime deficit did his players show signs of giving up. Brunson echoed that sentiment, stating that the locker room at halftime was calm and focused rather than panicked. For the city of New York, which has waited more than half a century for another championship banner, the possibility of clinching as early as Game 5 has created a sense of anticipation that players and fans describe as unlike anything the city has experienced in modern basketball history.
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