The Finals — The Fourth Game (Recap)
History. The story keeps unraveling.
Two Decembers ago, Leon Rose made a trade that, little did he know, would alter the course of New York Knicks history.
I’m not talking about Jalen Brunson, who signed with the Knicks as a free agent in 2022. I’m talking about OG Anunoby, who hit the most iconic, impactful, and memorable shot in Knicks history.
To complete a 29-point comeback in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, the largest by any team in Finals history (since 1947), Anunoby snuck through a window and tipped in a missed three-point shot by Brunson. Anunoby finished Game 4 with 33 points, including seven three-point shots.
With an incredible 107-106 victory over the Spurs, the Knicks will return to San Antonio tomorrow with a chance to win their first championship in 53 years. Teams that take a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals hold a 37-1 record, and now that the Knicks have drained Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs of their essence, this series is all but over.
A 13-game win streak was one thing, but a 29-point comeback truly made the Garden crowd erupt. Sometimes, a championship run requires a little bit of luck, and nothing fell New York’s way for the first 24 minutes. They entered halftime trailing 76-49, and foul trouble was at the crux of their issues.
From the opening buzzer, the Knicks clearly wanted to run their offense through Karl-Anthony Towns, but he picked up two fouls in the first minute. After that, San Antonio secured a 19-point advantage in the opening quarter, and it bled into the second.
For 24 minutes, it felt like Victor Wembanyama could do no wrong. He led the Spurs with 16 points and six rebounds, often making plays that looked like fouls, but didn’t get called. There were numerous opportunities for him to be assessed a flagrant, until finally, the NBA exhausted its list of excuses.
In Game 3, Wembanyama shoved Brunson to the deck by grabbing his neck, but nothing was called. In Game 4, 13 seconds after De’Aaron Fox nailed a layup to put his team up a game-best 29 points, Wembanyama elbowed Towns in the face. After review, the Alien finally received a flagrant-1 violation.
Two rounds ago, Wemby was ejected for a flagrant-2 violation. Now, he has three flagrant points, which means he is one point away from a suspension. Granted, he should already be suspended, but at least the league recognized his unlimited strike capacity had a lid.
It would be difficult to argue that Wembanyama’s second flagrant foul altered how he played the rest of the game. He reduced his level of physicality, and his supporting cast, which shot 14-for-26 from three-point range in the first half, finally cooled off.
The Knicks responded immediately after Wemby’s foul with a 13-0 run, including three key three-pointers by Brunson, Anunoby, and Josh Hart, whose three from atop the key cut the Knicks’ deficit to 16 points. The Knicks finished the third quarter with style as Anunoby, who totaled 14 second-half points, nailed a triple to put his team within 15.
15 was the magic number for the Knicks, who were confident in their ability to overcome large deficits. Heck, they did it at the Garden three weeks ago in their first game against Cleveland.
Mikal Bridges (7 points in 28 minutes) and Landry Shamet (0 points in 20.5 minutes) struggled immensely, especially Shamet defensively, so head coach Mike Brown deployed Anunoby, Brunson, Towns, Hart, and Jose Alvarado for the majority of the final frame.
Brunson and Alvarado hadn’t played much together since the Knicks acquired Alvarado from New Orleans at the trade deadline, and they hadn’t played together at all this postseason. Brunson finished Game 4 with 36 points and seven assists, and Alvardo scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter.
The Knicks positioned their smaller players in the paint down the stretch, stifling Wembanyama, especially whenever Alvarado was guarding him. With 3:07 remaining, Brunson passed the ball to Alvarado at the left wing, and he drained a three-pointer over Wemby’s head, bringing the Knicks within four.
On the Knicks’ next possession, Alvarado found Brunson at the right wing, and he also splashed a triple over Wembanyama, cutting the deficit to a single point with 2:21 remaining.
During his postgame press conference, Brown had the entire room join him in applauding Alvarado. The Brooklyn native, a former star at Christ the King Regional High School in Queens, admitted after Wednesday’s historic win that he “was about to cry.”
“I’m at Madison Square Garden, end of the fourth quarter, playing with these guys,” Alvarado said. “And we’re playing for something special. It’s really something. I couldn’t put it into words.”
After Brunson’s triple, Anunoby forced Fox to turn the ball over to Hart, but he missed his layup. Wembanyama then drew a foul on Anunoby with 1:47 left, but he cracked and missed both free throws. Brunson answered with a clutch go-ahead floater, but a few plays later, a foul by Hart sent Stephon Casle to the stripe. He made both free throws to put the Spurs back in the lead.
And then came history. Brunson missed a shot with 16.1 seconds left, and on a partial breakaway, Fox inexplicably chose to shoot despite his team leading with the shot clock turned off. Yet, somehow, Anunoby climbed the ladder and blocked Fox’s shot.
That led to a sideout pass from Anunoby to Brunson, and as the Captain launched and missed a three, Anunoby sprinted through the lane and leapt to the basket for his iconic game-winning tip.
“I inbounded the ball to Jalen. He got a pretty good look, and I just went and crashed,” Anunoby said. “Tried to get a tip-dunk or something. The ball went over my head, so I couldn’t really dunk it. So, I just tried to tip it in softly, and it went in.”
Alvarado isn’t the only Knicks player who grew up rooting for his current team. Towns, from Edison, New Jersey, also grew up living and dying by the Knicks. After Anunoby’s incredible shot on Wednesday, Towns, who earned his 11th double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) of the playoffs, and third of the NBA Finals, embraced Anunoby with glee.
Towns drained a contested three-point shot with 7:28 remaining. He also got a piece of Dylan Harper’s inbound pass to Castle for a game-winning shot attempt in the final 1.2 seconds. Despite early foul trouble, Towns clocked over nine minutes in the final frame, and with his lockdown defense, the Knicks outscored San Antonio by a team-best 21 points whenever he was on the court in the fourth.
“I felt for all of y’all who were at the game,” Towns, who shed a few tears after winning, said. “You could feel the abundance of joy at one time from everyone, the collective joy that came out of everybody for one moment. To hear the buzzer going off and not to see the ball go in the basket, I think we all felt something. That emotion was special. MSG hasn’t had that kind of moment in a long time.”
It’s true. The way the building shook on Wednesday night was extraordinary. I was honored to experience it in person, with my own two eyes.
“It’s amazing,” Anunoby said. “We have the best fans in the world. Every night, they’re showing out. Even the fans that aren’t at the game are crazy. I’ve seen videos of the fans in the streets and stuff. It’s amazing. We all feel it. We all feed off of it. The energy’s amazing, and we love our fans.”
Anunoby’s game-winning tip will be remembered as the greatest moment in Knicks history and one of the greatest moments in New York sports history. The Knickerbockers, which have the largest fanbase in the tri-state area, are on the verge of clinching their first championship in 53 years.
The Knicks now lead San Antonio 3-1 in the NBA Finals. Game 4 is scheduled for Saturday, June 13, at 8:30 PM (Frost Bank Center — ABC, ESPN App).
