Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden will live in NBA history forever. The San Antonio Spurs built a 29-point halftime lead, looked destined to level the series at 2-2, and then collapsed in the most spectacular fashion the Finals have ever seen.
OG Anunoby’s put-back with 1.2 seconds left gave the Knicks a 107-106 victory, the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, and New York a 3-1 series lead.
Victor Wembanyama Has No Doubts That the Spurs Will Come Back From 3-1 Down
The Knicks need one more win to claim their first championship since 1973. The Spurs need to do something that only the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers have done. Wembanyama does not appear to be losing any sleep over it.
Speaking after gut-wrenching loss, Wembanyama was asked about the prospect of recovering from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals.
“Everybody knows we’re gonna do it.”
– Victor Wembanyama on the Spurs potentially completing a 3-1 comeback pic.twitter.com/ZQPNUueu7x
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) June 12, 2026
“Everybody knows we’re gonna do it. We need to isolate that one game and take it one game at a time. I think it would be a mistake to waste our energy on multiple games.”
Wembanyama led the Spurs through a brutal seven-game Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder to get here, routinely willing his team out of trouble when the deficit grew too large.
He rallied San Antonio from 25 points down against the LA Clippers in March. He hit a game-winning jumper with a second left to clinch the Spurs’ first playoff berth in six seasons. This team certainly has the habit of surviving near-death experiences.
The blueprint for what the Spurs need to do is clear. In Games 1 and 2, they squandered late leads. Interestingly, Wembanyama turned the ball over off Stephon Castle’s back and then missed the final shot of the night in Game 2.
In Game 3, they tightened up defensively and held on for a 115-111 win thanks to De’Aaron Fox’s clutch play. In Game 4, they did everything right for half the game, then forgot how to close it out.
It’s quite evident that the Spurs have failed to capitalize on the chances that the Knicks have been allowing them. They have committed disappointing mistakes on multiple occasions, and that isn’t anything like the team that we all saw against the defending champs.
The Knicks could be crowned champions on Saturday at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. Spurs fans have waited six years to watch their team in the playoffs. They would have to rally behind their team, like Knicks fans have, even on the road.
Wemby and Spurs will have to make the best use of every tiny window they get in order to complete this turnaround. They are a young, fiery team, including Castle and Dylan Harper. Only time will tell whether Game 4 will be etched in their memory as a painful lesson or a wake-up call.
