Holy comeback, Batman!
The Knicks are one win from their first banner in over a half-century. Cover image courtesy of NBA.com.
I thought Game Four of the NBA Finals was over at halftime.
To be fair to myself, the New York Knicks looked completely out of sync, the San Antonio Spurs weren’t missing until late in the second quarter, and the officiating… well, I’d be fined if I worked for the league, but I don’t, so I can confidently say that it was as up-and-down as a sine wave.1 For those who haven’t taken a math class in a few years, imagine how you look standing and sitting during the wave in a stadium, and you’ll have a pretty good idea.
It was bad. The officiating, I mean, but the play too, for the Knicks. They looked on the ropes from the jump, when San Antonio took a 12-2 lead, forcing coach Mike Brown to take an early timeout. And on and on the onslaught went; Victor Wembanyama interrupted shots left and right, drew fouls, and hit some great post moves on Mitchell Robinson and Karl-Anthony Towns. Off the bench, Dylan Harper was hitting shot after shot, fade-aways, threes, and rookie Carter Bryant came flying in for a spectacular dunk.
It looked over. So much so I turned the game off, went to edit a different piece, and continued to read my book club selection.2 I didn’t check in on the second half until I opened a new tab, went to ESPN’s website, and saw, as the top-banner score, with 1.2 seconds on the clock: Knicks 107, Spurs 106.
A singular thought ran through my head: What in the actual fuck?
I clicked through to the box score—not the best way to parse through the necessary information, but quick and easy and, once I check the quarterly scores, understandable. The Spurs went into halftime up by nearly 30 points; they scored 30 in the entire second half. Wemby went from 15 points on 6-11 shooting from the field to finishing the game with 24 points on a paltry 9-25 split. De’Aaron Fox, for the fourth straight game, failed to show up; Stephon Castle’s hot series shooting faded to 28.5% from the field; and reigning-Sixth Man of the Year Keldon Johnson amassed a whopping two points. It was a systemic collapse on the part of San Antonio, who now face a three-games-to-one deficit, the likes of which only the ‘16 Cleveland Cavaliers have overcome on this stage. The odds for this young team are slim; they’re slimmer if key Knicks players catch fire like they did in the second half tonight.
Jalen Brunson might be the obvious pick, given his 36 points on decent efficiency; five rebounds, seven assists, and three steals round out a much-needed bounce back game for the guard. The true praise belongs in the hands of OG Anunoby, arguably the best 3-and-D player in the NBA, whose criminally underrated career has led to him shining at the perfect time for New York. In the second half tonight, Anunoby managed to score 19 of his 33 points, shooting 10-15 from the field and a stunning 7-9 from deep. His plus/minus in the box score is -1, largely influenced by that first-half walloping, but his scoring was a major catalyst for the Knicks in that second half, as only KAT, outside of Anunoby and Brunson, finished with double digit points, 13 in 26 minutes due to early foul trouble.
The final fifteen seconds of the game might cement Anunoby as a New York legend, worthy of a statue alongside Brunson. He demonstrated his signature hustle, blocking De’Aaron Fox on one end before tipping in a Brunson missed three to put the Knicks up for good. Here’s the game-winning bucket:
Top-to-bottom, though, this was a complete team effort for the Knicks, and a complete team collapse for the Spurs. Few times in my life have I witnessed a reverse of fate as utterly drastic as this, and, in fact, no one has in the Finals: This was the single largest comeback in NBA Finals history. Only Game 6 of the 1992 series between the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers saw a 15-point comeback in the fourth quarter. A historic night for the Knicks, on their way to perhaps the first championship for the city since 2009,3 and the first for the team since 1973.4
Now, if only they could figure out how to set up an effective watch party. I assume for that to happen, James Dolan would have to sell the team.5 I think the entire city might celebrate twice as hard, should such a day arrive. They’ll have to settle for the Larry O’, in the meantime. But as the late, great Kobe Bryant once said: “Job’s not done.”
On to San Antonio for Game Five.
This is still timid, and maybe I wouldn’t get fined. Maybe. But leagues like to shake players down for whatever pennies they can get.
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace. Groan if you must. At least I’m actually reading it.
I’m not counting the Giants, since they abandoned the city for hell (New Jersey), so the last chip belongs to the Yankees.
Other notable events in 1973: Toni Morrison published Sula, Thomas Pynchon published Gravity’s Rainbow, Kurt Vonnegut published Breakfast of Champions, SCOTUS decided Roe v. Wade, and Marlon Brando didn’t show up to collect his Oscar.
Seriously, no one likes James Dolan. This year’s run is an outlier, and honestly, the spat with the mayor’s office and the NYPD reeks of PR-cover up. Multiple sources have stated that MSG was the party that applied for the small permit, and that the mayor’s office simply approved; those sources also commented on Mamdani’s office wanting to hold an event, and Commissioner Tisch wanting to establish utter control over the area around the Garden. If anything, Dolan applied for a permit way too small, Tisch doesn’t want to expend the man-power, and Mamdani is stuck in the middle trying to work out a compromise between all three groups, and the general public.
Ah, politics. So glad this is what I got my degree in.