Down 29 points at halftime. Against the best young player on the planet. In the NBA Finals. They won anyway.
The Knicks have not won a championship since 1973. That is 53 years of heartbreak, near-misses, and very loud opinions from very passionate fans. On Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, they got about as close as you can get without actually closing it out.
OG Anunoby's tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining gave New York a 107-106 victory over San Antonio in the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. Brunson launched a three from 31 feet with five seconds left, it bounced off the front of the rim, and Anunoby was already in the air. "Just do whatever it takes to win," Anunoby said afterward, as the crowd chanted his name. "We're resilient. We never give up." The Garden erupted. Carmelo Anthony found Brunson on the floor. A city that has been waiting 53 years let out a collective exhale.
Brunson finished with 36 points on 12-of-25 shooting, hitting nine of 11 free throws. His three-pointer with 2:21 remaining cut the Spurs' lead to one, and his floater in the lane gave New York its first lead of the entire game. OG finished with 33 points and seven threes. The Spurs scored 76 points in the first half, set a Finals record, and still lost. That is a sentence that should not be possible.
The series sits 3-1 with Game 5 tomorrow night in San Antonio. Wembanyama and the Spurs are not done -- they are too young and too proud to just hand it over -- but history has not been kind to teams that blow 29-point Finals leads. The Knicks walk into Frost Bank Center with all the momentum and a city of 8 million people holding its breath.
By the numbers
OG Anunoby has hit more threes in this series (15) than Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns combined (14). The guy who tipped in the most important basket in recent Knicks history is also the hottest shooter on the floor. Wembanyama averaged 29.5 points and 4.5 rebounds through four Finals games. Carrying a team at 22 years old in the NBA Finals, even in a losing effort, is not a bad consolation prize.
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