EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsThe 2026 NBA Finals were highly entertaining through three games. But they weren't historic. Not yet.That changed in Game 4.The New York Knicks fell behind the San Antonio Spurs by 29 points Wednesday before completing the largest comeback in Finals history and emerging with a 107-106 victory. Madison Square Garden had never hosted anything quite like this before. NBA fans had never seen anything quite like this before. There had never, in the sport's history, been anything quite like this before.The Knicks are now just one win away from their first title in 53 years, buoyed by belief and indescribable momentum after an extraordinarily improbable win. They'll have the chance to clinch the championship in San Antonio on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN App).But first, let's break down Game 4 in all its glory, exploring how the Knicks came back and, alternatively, how the Spurs collapsed.Quick links: Reaction: Game 3 | Game 2 | Game 1Takeaways | Schedule | Bracket | PlayoffsAnatomy of a Knicks comebackHere are some strange things that happened in the first half of Game 4:Karl-Anthony Towns picked up two fouls just 62 seconds in.Ariel Hukporti and Jeremy Sochan made their Finals debuts.The Spurs made more 3-pointers than the Knicks attempted.Victor Wembanyama was plus-28 in 21 minutes.The result was a historic start for the Spurs: Their 19-point lead after the first quarter was the largest for any road team in Finals history, per ESPN Research, and so was their 27-point lead at halftime.But the indefatigable Knicks, who had already overcome double-digit deficits in the first three games of these Finals, who'd overcome a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the conference finals and who'd overcome multiple 20-point deficits against the Boston Celtics in last year's playoffs, weren't fazed.After the Spurs stretched their lead to 29 early in the third quarter Wednesday, four different Knicks scored during a 13-0 run to close the gap. Then the Spurs started scoring again, but Jalen Brunson matched every basket with one of his own. New York entered the fourth quarter down by 15 points -- still a large deficit, but a more manageable one that had been cut almost in half."Let's cut it to around 15 to 17 going into the fourth, and if we do, we'll give ourselves a chance," Knicks coach Mike Brown told his team at halftime. Mission accomplished.The comeback was temporarily halted early in the fourth quarter, and with 9:33 remaining, a Wembanyama putback reestablished the Spurs' lead at 20 points. At that juncture, their win probability was 99.6%, per ESPN Analytics, meaning the Knicks had a 1-in-250 chance at a comeback.But 1 in 250 is better odds than 0 in 250, and that was all the opportunity New York needed. Various heroes emerged over the rest of the game, as the Knicks outscored the Spurs 32-11 and fulfilled that 1-in-250 sliver of a chance.Towns, dogged by foul trouble, barely participated in the offense, but he made his few attempts count, including scoring five points in less than a minute as the Knicks cut the lead to single digits midway through the fourth. Then reserve guard Jose Alvarado -- playing with Brunson for the first time all postseason -- scored five clutch points in a row, when San Antonio was threatening to boost its lead back to double figures.Brunson contributed in the clutch as well en route to finishing with 36 points on 12-for-25 shooting, his best all-around game of the Finals. His 15 second-quarter points amid the Spurs' 3-point barrage helped New York stay within remote striking distance, and he made a pair of massive shots down the stretch: a 3-pointer over Wembanyama with the shot clock winding down ... ... followed by a contested floater over Stephon Castle, again with the shot clock near zero, to give the Knicks their first lead of the game. But the most superlative Knicks hero of them all was OG Anunoby, who finished with a playoff-career-high 33 points on 10-for-15 shooting (7 for 9 on 3s). He's now averaging 20.7 PPG on 58% shooting (51% on 3s) in the playoffs and riding an extended hot streakYet it was two hustle plays, not his knockdown jumpers, that transformed Anunoby from a beloved role player into a New York legend.Following Brunson's floater, the Spurs regained the lead with two Castle free throws, and they were poised to extend it when Brunson missed a shot over Wembanyama, and De'Aaron Fox chased down the rebound near the Spurs' basket with 12 seconds left. Fox is one of the NBA's fastest players, and he thought he had time to lay the ball in with his dominant left hand to push the lead to three.But Anunoby sprinted back and blocked Fox without fouling, giving New York another chance to win. And on New York's final possession, after Wembanyama switched onto Brunson and contested his deep 3-point try rather than remain in the paint, Anunoby -- the inbounder on the play -- had a clear lane to the rim. "When the shot went up, I was free," he said after the game. "There was no one boxing me out."Anunoby arrived in the paint unimpeded, reached back his long right arm and tipped the ball on a perfect trajectory through the net. It was the most important basket in Knicks franchise history. Is that prisoner-of-the-moment hyperbole? Maybe. The Knicks have a long and proud tradition, including two titles and various memorable plays -- do-or-die series winners from Allan Houston and Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson's 4-point play and so on -- throughout their history.But the intersection of moment and stakes and context, yielding a winner with 1.2 seconds left to complete the greatest single-game comeback in Finals history, makes Anunoby's tip hard to beat. Just ask Brown, the Knicks coach, who effused, "That has to be the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball."Anatomy of a Spurs collapsePlayoff basketball is a zero-sum game. Every point scored is someone else's point allowed, every win is someone else's loss, every historic comeback is someone else's historic collapse.There's no other word for what befell the Spurs on Wednesday: collapse. San Antonio fans have experienced other painful playoff losses this century, but they were gut punches in a single moment, crystallized in a single play: Derek Fisher beating the clock in the 2004 playoffs, Manu Ginobili fouling Dirk Nowitzki in 2006 and Ray Allen splashing a corner 3 in 2013.In Game 4, conversely, San Antonio's downfall unfolded over the course of an excruciating hour, as a 29-point lead dwindled and withered and ultimately disappeared. The Spurs famously espouse the philosophy of the stonecutter who knows that his first 100 strikes with a hammer are just as important as the 101st blow that finally splits the rock in two. On Wednesday, the Spurs were the metaphorical rock, unable to ward off strike after strike after strike from the Knicks' relentless hammer until Anunoby's tip dealt the final blow.Game 4 didn't start that way for the MSG visitors, though. As they have so often this postseason, the Spurs acted as the aggressors early on, building a big lead as they set Finals records for the most 3-pointers in a half (14) and the most points for a road team in the first half of a game (76).But 76 first-half points gave way to just 30 after halftime -- tied for the largest decrease in any playoff game in the shot clock era, per the Elias Sports Bureau.The more granular numbers aren't any prettier. In the second half, San Antonio made just 22.7% of its 2-pointers (5 for 22) and 17.6% of its 3s (3 for 17), for a 20.5% mark from the field. It had more turnovers (nine) than made field goals (eight), and guards Fox, Castle and Dylan Harper all individually had more turnovers than made shots in the second half (though Castle did go 8 for 8 on free throws)."We got away from playing the brand of basketball that got us the lead," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. "You saw at times the aggressiveness and just conviction that we played with early on dissipate a little bit."To Johnson's point, the Spurs weren't just missing shots -- they were taking bad ones after halftime. Their shot quality was their worst in the second half of any game all season, per GeniusIQ -- beating out the previous low that came in the second half of Game 2 of the Finals.Even with that poor shot quality, the Spurs were unlucky to miss so many shots in the second half. But they had been about equally lucky to shoot so well in the first half, so it all evened out over the course of the game.Wembanyama also faltered down the stretch. After a 6-for-11 performance in the first half, he went 3-for-14 after halftime. He missed three free throws -- including a pair in the clutch, with the Spurs up by a point with 1:47 left -- even though he made 83% of his free throws in the regular season and 86% in the postseason.He might have been fatigued, with just one off day following Game 3 and little rest in Game 4. He played 44 minutes, the second most of any game in his career, behind only his 49 minutes in Game 1 of the conference finals (which went to double overtime). He sat for only 58 seconds in the second half.Not giving Luke Kornet a few more minutes so Wembanyama could recharge -- especially when the Spurs were still up big -- was one of the big hinge points for Johnson on Wednesday. Another was his reluctance to call more frequent timeouts as New York pounded away at the lead: In the fourth quarter, Johnson called one timeout when the Spurs led 95-80 and another when it was 99-95 four minutes later, but nothing in between as the Knicks crept 11 points closer.Yet the Spurs' most questionable decision came on the court, not from the bench, when Fox decided to challenge Anunoby with a layup with the shot clock off rather than dribble the ball back out and force a Knicks foul.Fox released his ill-conceived shot with 12.0 seconds left on the game clock -- the exact same amount of time that remained, down to the decimal, when Wembanyama threw the outlet pass that bounced off Castle's back and cost the Spurs Game 2.Those are the two defining plays of the Finals, contributing to a pair of one-point Knicks wins. The harried late-game reads are the most simple reason the Knicks lead the Spurs three games to one, rather than vice versa.Notes and loose ends looking ahead to Game 5 For as much attention was paid to Towns' foul trouble, Castle's was equally important Wednesday. Castle picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter, and his ensuing absence sparked New York's first run of the game. He also missed time in the fourth quarter after picking up his fifth foul while contesting a Brunson runner.This wasn't Castle's first dalliance with foul trouble in these Finals. And even as his offense has come and gone, he remains a critical defender and creator for the Spurs. He must be more disciplined with his physicality going forward. One of the Spurs' lone bright spots was Harper, who scored 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting and repeatedly got downhill against New York's perimeter defenders. Like the rest of his teammates, he didn't produce down the stretch, but the rookie guard's efficiency, highlight plays and overall impact -- he had a team-best plus-12 differential -- demonstrated his growing importance to the team. For the third consecutive game, the Knicks were outscored by double digits with Mitchell Robinson on the floor. Robinson was minus-10 in 14 minutes in Game 2, minus-13 in seven minutes in Game 3 and minus-14 in 13 minutes in Game 4, when he was forced into an atypical substitution pattern due to Towns' early fouls and quickly grew fatigued. Robinson also went 0-for-4 on free throws, as the Spurs successfully exploited the Hack-a-Mitch gambit.Robinson's diminished impact is still a problem for the Knicks, whether Towns can play his usual allotment of minutes or not. The playoff crucible might have claimed another Knicks victim, as well: Miles McBride missed all four of his shot attempts Wednesday and is now at 20% from the field (4-for-20) in the Finals. He had reached double-digit minutes in every playoff game through the first three rounds, but he has been stuck in single digits the past two contests.At this point, it's clear Alvarado has passed McBride in Brown's guard hierarchy. Finally, a potential officiating concern will loom over the rest of the Finals, for as long as they persist: After Wembanyama picked up another flagrant foul in Game 4, due to an inadvertent elbow to Towns' face, he's one more flagrant away from an automatic suspension, a la Draymond Green in the 2016 Finals.At this point, Wembanyama doesn't need to be ejected from a game to receive a suspension; any additional elbow to an opponent's head would warrant one. He's in a tricky situation -- especially if the Knicks seek out that sort of contact in the remaining game(s). The Spurs won't want him to change his playing style out of fear of making contact, but they also can't afford him to miss any more time, either, now that they're one loss away from elimination. And on a related note, the NBA surely doesn't want the controversy of a Wembanyama absence to mar this captivating series. The league is flying high after receiving incredible viewership numbers in Game 3, and presumably more of the same as Game 4 tightened late.
