When New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson hit a 3-pointer over the outstretched arm of San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama with 2:21 left in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday, Madison Square Garden sounded like the inside of a jet engine.
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That particular Brunson 3 cut the Spurs’ lead — which had climbed as high as 29 — to only one, and the fans could sense an improbable finish. The structural integrity of section 325 was in question as the roar of the crowd caused upper reaches of the arena to literally start rumbling.
A little over two minutes later, the Knicks completed the biggest Finals comeback in NBA history, as OG Anunoby’s one-handed tip-in with 1.2 seconds to go ultimately secured a 107-106 win for New York.
“I’ve never heard it so loud,” one of the Knicks’ many celebrity fans could be heard saying in the bowels of the arena after the game.
With a win Saturday in Game 5, New York will claim its first NBA title in 53 years.
The Knicks began their ascent in the third quarter. Trailing by 27 points at halftime, New York won the third quarter 26-14. The Knicks held the Spurs to only 20% shooting that quarter, while hitting 5-of-10 3-pointers to begin clawing into the deficit.
In the fourth, San Antonio still led by as many as 20 with 9:33 to go. Over the next four minutes and 59 seconds, New York unleashed a 20-4 run to cut the deficit to 99-95. The run, fittingly, was capped by a 3 by Anunoby.
The final four minutes and 34 seconds then featured an absolutely shocking number of twists and turns.
In the minute following the Anunoby 3-pointer, the Spurs pushed their lead back out to seven with 3:31 to go. Trailing 104-97, Knicks guards Jose Alvarado and Brunson answered with back-to-back 3s, cutting the score to 104-103.
On San Antonio’s ensuing possession, De’Aaron Fox made a bad pass and Knicks guard Josh Hart stole the ball. He had a wide-open lane to the hoop and drove all the way to the rim for an uncontested layup…and missed!
(Hart said after the game he would have had a “lifetime of regret” had Anunoby not made his game winner.)
Things only got nuttier. After Hart smoked the layup, New York fouled Wembanyama and put him on the free-throw line. But Wemby, who entered the game shooting 86.2% from the stripe, missed both shots.
On the Knicks’ next trip down the floor, Brunson hit a floater in the lane to give New York its first lead of the game with 1:22 to go.
The Spurs continued to look discombobulated on offense after falling behind. They turned the ball over again on their next possession, but forced a shot-clock violation to regain possession with 38.8 seconds left.
After a timeout, Fox missed a jump shot, only for Stephon Castle to scoop the offensive rebound and draw a foul on Hart in the process. Castle stepped up to the line and drilled two free throws to give San Antonio a 106-105 lead with 30.3 seconds to go.
That set the stage for perhaps the biggest mistake of the game.
The Spurs forced a miss after the Castle free throws, and the rebound bounced all the way into the backcourt. Fox picked up the ball on the Knicks’ side of the floor with roughly 14 seconds to go…but instead of holding onto the ball and getting fouled, Fox attempted a layup that was blocked by Anunoby.
With the ball and trailing only by one after the OG block, Brunson missed a deep 3-pointer that Anunoby cleaned up with his right hand, hitting what New York coach Mike Brown called “the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball.”
“I told OG, as big, as strong, as athletic as he is, he’s got to be a monster on the offensive glass tonight,” Brown said postgame. “I don’t know if there was a play bigger than any other play in the history in Knicks basketball. That was a huge offensive rebound. He took on the challenge, and he went and won the game for us doing exactly what I called him out for during shootaround today.”
Said Alvarado: “He’s been doing it this whole playoff run. Shoutout to [Anunoby] for crashing the board and doing something special.”
Anunoby said he initially wanted to try to dunk Brunson’s miss, but he had to pivot after the ball went over his head.
“So I tried to tip it in softly and it went in,” he said.
While it was one of the greatest plays not only in Knicks history but also NBA Finals history, Anunoby didn’t show any extra emotion postgame.
“It feels cool. I mean, everyone’s pretty excited. I’m excited, too,” a stoic Anunoby said to laughter in his postgame press conference. “We’re enjoying it right now. But we’re just focused on the next game now.”
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