Knicks complete impossible NBA Finals comeback in a game that will live forever

We try to analyze everything in sports. To understand it, decode it, explain it. We like to believe there’s always a reason, even if that reason is sometimes buried beneath layer upon layer of random events, glorious moments, disasters, acts of heroism, curses, impossibilities, and maybe inevitabilities.

When Jalen Brunson missed a 3-pointer on the Knicks’ final possession with New York trailing 106-105, what happened next felt, truly, inevitable, even if it probably wasn’t.

Logic says that moment wasn’t connected to everything that had happened before. But logic wasn’t anywhere near Madison Square Garden on this night. It had either taken the evening off or simply left the building altogether. The script had long since been crumpled up and tossed away, and the game itself had abandoned the hardwood and sprinted headfirst into madness.

When Brunson missed, it was impossible not to think that all the Knicks’ previous acts of faith, the energy that had somehow moved a mountain, and the Spurs’ generational collapse had combined to carry OG Anunoby toward the basket. Almost blindly, he tipped the ball in with his heart, and with the weight of 9,853 days since the Knicks last won an NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden.

The tip-in went in because it had to go in.

At least that’s what it felt like in the immediate aftermath.

Nothing about this game was normal. Nothing was logical. Everything happened because it had to happen, or because there was no conceivable way it should have happened at all. However you want to explain it, whatever coaches drew up on their whiteboards had little to do with it.

The Knicks won 107-106 after appearing all but dead by halftime, trailing 76-49. Now they sit one victory away from their first NBA championship since 1973.

Anunoby delivered the decisive touch, but the night belonged just as much to belief itself, to impossible causes and loaded dice. It was unforgettable. It was a piece of Finals history. Most of all, it was one of those nights that will be revisited forever.

Starting tomorrow. Actually, starting right now. How? Why? Did it really happen? It really happened.

Spurs staring at history

The Spurs did nothing with the final seconds because reconnecting with reality was impossible.

By the time Anunoby’s tip-in dropped through the net, they were already asking themselves what had just happened. The next question will be how it happened, and that sting may linger for a very long time inside a franchise that has spent decades on the winning side of moments like these.

Unless they somehow win three straight against a team that has repeatedly erased double-digit deficits against them. Unless they accomplish what only LeBron James and Kyrie Irving’s Cavaliers managed in the NBA Finals.

No other team has ever come back from a 3-1 Finals deficit.

It sounds impossible.

Then again, this wasn’t a night for reasonable limits. Anyone who prefers faith over despair is welcome to believe.

These Finals have already crossed into the realm of the absurd.

A first half unlike anything seen before

Trying to bring order to this chaos begins with the numbers.

The Spurs led by 21 after the first quarter, 41-20. Before halftime, the margin grew to 29 points at 71-42.

No road team had ever built such a large halftime lead in the NBA Finals.

Madison Square Garden sat frozen. The Finals appeared to be slipping entirely into San Antonio’s control. The Spurs buried a Finals-record 14 3-pointers in the first half and looked unstoppable.

As the teams headed to the locker room, boos rained down from the stands.

The Knicks had failed to harness the emotion surrounding the game. The atmosphere that was supposed to lift them instead seemed to crush them. Ticket-price controversies, endless discussion about the scene around the arena, and championship expectations all hung over the building.

Victor Wembanyama embraced the villain role. Devin Vassell led the perimeter assault. The Spurs’ defense squeezed the life out of a Knicks team that looked overwhelmed and rattled.

Karl-Anthony Towns picked up two fouls in the opening 62 seconds, disrupting New York’s game plan and preventing the Knicks from establishing the offensive flow they wanted through him.

Everything looked wrong.

The body language was bad. The decisions were worse. Defensive rotations broke down. Shot selection deteriorated.

The magic of the Knicks’ 13-game winning streak seemed buried.

For the first time ever, it appeared the first four games of an NBA Finals would all be won by the road team.

When the comeback became real

That feeling remained early in the third quarter.

The game had become ugly, filled with stoppages and constant complaints. The Spurs appeared to have done all the hard work necessary to secure the win.

Midway through the third quarter they still led 85-65. Early in the fourth, the margin was 95-75. Even then, the Knicks looked more likely to need a therapist than a miracle.

But slowly, something changed.

The deficit shrank to 95-83 with seven and a half minutes left.

Then 99-95 with just over four minutes remaining.

A miracle was suddenly within sight, even though the game never should have reached clutch time in the first place.

A finish that defied explanation

The ending could only happen this way.

With Madison Square Garden finally erupting, Jose Alvarado and Brunson drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to pull New York within one point at 104-103.

Then came a sequence that made no sense.

Josh Hart stole the ball and missed a wide-open layup in transition. Wembanyama, suddenly looking human, missed two free throws. Brunson answered with a huge basket to put the Knicks ahead 105-104.

Then New York nearly threw everything away by failing to secure a defensive rebound, allowing Stephon Castle to hit two free throws and restore San Antonio’s lead at 106-105.

The Knicks stumbled through their final possessions.

With 16 seconds left, Brunson missed.

The loose rebound found its way to De’Aaron Fox, who appeared to have a clear path to sealing the game. Instead of pulling the ball out and waiting to be fouled, he attacked in transition.

Anunoby chased him down and blocked the shot, the first half of his masterpiece.

Moments later, Alvarado had a chance to force a backcourt violation, but Fox committed a needless foul that gave the Knicks one final opportunity.

That possession ended with Anunoby’s tip-in. The miracle was complete.

The collapse behind the comeback

The numbers behind San Antonio’s collapse are staggering.

The Spurs posted an offensive rating of 158.3 in the first half and just 21.4 in the second.

They scored 76 points before halftime and only 30 afterward.

They finished 17-for-43 from beyond the arc, but just 3-for-17 after intermission.

In the second half, San Antonio made only eight field goals, shooting 8-for-40.

A 29-point lead with 23 minutes remaining vanished into thin air.

The Spurs went from dominating the turnover battle to losing it. They became passive, complacent, disconnected, and ultimately frightened by the momentum avalanche crashing down on them.

Over the final 9:30, New York outscored San Antonio 32-11.

The Spurs made only two field goals during that stretch.

Alvarado, meanwhile, became an unlikely folk hero. He scored eight critical points, hit two huge 3-pointers, and fought for every possession as if his basketball life depended on it.

The kind of night a kid dreams about while growing up in Brooklyn.

Wembanyama and the Spurs fade away

Wembanyama finished the fourth quarter shooting 2-for-9, went 1-for-4 from the free-throw line, and posted a baffling minus-16.

After dominating stretches of the first half and scoring 16 of his 24 points before the break, he managed only eight afterward.

Too often he drifted beyond the 3-point line, watching the game instead of imposing himself on it. By the time he realized he needed to take over, it was already too late.

Dylan Harper scored 21 points and shredded the Knicks in the first half, but did not attempt a shot during the final 10 minutes.

Fox became increasingly erratic as the game spiraled toward disaster.

Vassell went from 4-for-4 from deep in the first half to 1-for-4 in the second.

The Spurs never recognized the transformation taking place until it was complete.

And then Anunoby rose for one impossible leap.

The Finals could easily be tied 2-2. They could even be 4-0 one way or the other.

Instead, they’re 3-1. And it smells a lot like checkmate.

Get closer to the game! Whether you like your soccer of the European variety or that of this side of the pond, our AS USA app has it all. Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more. Plus, stay updated on NFL, NBA and all other big sports stories as well as the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.

And there’s more: check out our TikTok and Instagram reels for bite-sized visual takes on all the biggest soccer news and insights.