Knicks Stage Largest Comeback in NBA Finals History to Take 3-1 Lead

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NEW YORK — They will be talking about June 10, 2026, in the streets of New York for decades.

In what seemed like an absolute burial of their championship dreams early on, the New York Knicks pulled off a basketball miracle on Wednesday night. Behind a deafening Madison Square Garden crowd, the Knicks rallied from a staggering 29-point deficit to shock the San Antonio Spurs, 107-106.

The jaw-dropping victory marks the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, pushing New York to the brink of their first championship since 1973 with a commanding 3-1 series lead. The game ended in poetry: Jalen Brunson’s desperate, go-ahead three-pointer bounced softly off the front rim, only for a soaring OG Anunoby to swoop in and tip it home with just 1.2 seconds left on the clock.

“That has to be the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said, echoing a sentiment felt by millions.

But how did a game that was 81-52 in favor of San Antonio in the third quarter completely flip? It was a perfect storm of New York grit, catastrophic tactical stubbornness by San Antonio, and late-game blunders by the Spurs’ backcourt.

How the Knicks Pulled Off the Miracle

1. The Brunson & Anunoby Masterclass

With the season hanging in the balance, New York’s primary pillars refused to break. Jalen Brunson played like a man possessed, putting up a game-high 36 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds to single-handedly engineer the half-court offense. Meanwhile, OG Anunoby played the game of his life, matching his defensive intensity with 33 points, including seven crucial 3-pointers, before delivering the game-winning tip-in.

2. Physicality and Run Suppression

Down 29, the Knicks stopped trying to win the game all at once. “You look at it when you’re down 29 of, ‘OK, let’s get it to 20.’ There’s three minutes left in the third quarter, we’re down 18, you’re thinking, ‘Let’s get it to 10,'” Josh Hart remarked postgame.

The Knicks turned the game into a rock fight. They got rough with Victor Wembanyama—Mitchell Robinson picked up a flagrant foul for a hit above the shoulders, and Jose Alvarado got under his skin down low. The tactical physicality worked. New York choked out the Spurs in the third quarter, limiting them to an abysmal 14 points on 4-for-20 shooting, creating a massive 13-0 run that cut the lead to 90-75 entering the fourth.

The Spurs’ Fatal Flaw: Live by the Three, Die by the Three

In the first half, the young Spurs looked like the greatest offense ever assembled. They jumped out to a quick 12-2 lead and eventually extended it to 57-32, hitting a blistering 11 of their first 16 three-pointers.

But when the Knicks adjusted their defense in the second half—running the Spurs off the line and tightening their perimeter switches—San Antonio completely panicked. Instead of utilizing Wembanyama’s 7-foot-4 frame in the paint or utilizing mid-range relief, the Spurs kept settling for heavily contested, rushed deep balls early in the shot clock.

The math caught up to them brutally. San Antonio went an ice-cold 3-for-17 from behind the arc in the second half, being outscored 58-30 after halftime. “We got on our heels — we missed some shots,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson admitted.

The Decision to Play Wembanyama 44 Minutes

As the lead rapidly evaporated, the Spurs made a highly controversial tactical decision: they refused to rest Victor Wembanyama.

Wemby played all but three minutes of the first half and finished the night having logged nearly 44 minutes of action. Coach Mitch Johnson defended the decision, citing the stakes of the game and a two-day rest period before Game 5. “We wanted to win the game and try to put it away,” Johnson noted.

Instead, the over-exertion backfired tremendously:

The Fatigue Wall: Wembanyama had 24 points and 13 rebounds on the night, but he was completely neutralized in the second half, held to just 8 points on 9-for-25 overall shooting.
The Free Throw Collapse: The clearest indicator of leg fatigue came with 1:47 remaining. With San Antonio clinging to a 104-103 lead, a visibly gapped Wembanyama stepped to the line and missed two straight free throws, leaving the door wide open for New York’s ultimate game-winning sequence.

De’Aaron Fox’s Late-Game Meltdown

While Wembanyama’s missed free throws were devastating, the Spurs’ execution in the final minutes was severely crippled by point guard De’Aaron Fox.

Fox finished with 18 points, but his decision-making in “clutch time” fractured under the relentless pressure of New York’s defense. Instead of slowing the tempo, running set plays, or feeding a rolling Stephon Castle (who had just put San Antonio ahead with two clutch free throws with 30 seconds left), Fox repeatedly over-dribbled into high-traffic areas.

His late-game blunders included:

Forcing heavily contested, isolation mid-range pull-ups early in the shot clock rather than collapsing the defense.
Failing to recognize double-teams, leading to late-clock panics that disrupted the rhythm of shooters like Devin Vassell (18 points) and rookie Dylan Harper (21 points).
A critical live-ball turnover in the final two minutes that allowed the Knicks to run in transition and completely ignite the Madison Square Garden crowd.

NBA Finals Game 4 Box Score Leaders

Player	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Key Efficiency Metric / Play
Jalen Brunson (NYK)	36	5	7	Engineered the second-half offense.
OG Anunoby (NYK)	33	6	3	Shot 7-of-11 from 3; hit the game-winning tip-in.
Victor Wembanyama (SAS)	24	13	4	Held to 8 second-half points; missed 2 clutch FTs.
Dylan Harper (SAS)	21	4	3	Highly efficient off the bench for San Antonio.
De’Aaron Fox (SAS)	18	3	5	Struggled with crunch-time turnovers and shots.

What’s Next

The Spurs will look to regroup, but history is firmly against them. They must now travel back to Texas to host a do-or-die Game 5 on Saturday night at the Frost Bank Center. If the Knicks can capture one more win, the 53-year championship drought in the Big Apple will officially come to an end.