NEW YORK (AFP) — The New York Knicks staged the biggest comeback in National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals history on Wednesday as they erased a 29-point deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs, 107-106, and now need one more win to seal the title.
OG Anunoby’s soft-as-silk tip-in basket with 1.2 seconds left sealed the thrilling victory to give the Knicks a 3-1 stranglehold on the best-of-seven championship series, which shifts back to San Antonio for Game 5 on Saturday.
Jalen Brunson scored 36 points and Anunoby added 33 for New York, putting in the game-winner off Brunson’s three-point attempt that struck the rim.
“Just do whatever it takes to win,” Anunoby said of the basket that sent a star-studded crowd at Madison Square Garden into a frenzy as it put the Knicks on the brink of their first title since 1973.
“I inbounded the ball to Jalen. He got a pretty good look and I just went and crashed. The ball went over my head, so I couldn’t really dunk it. So I tried to tip it in softly and it went in.”
Spurs star Victor Wembanyama scored 24 points and pulled down 13 rebounds.
Dylan Harper added 21 points and De’Aaron Fox and Devin Vassell had 18 apiece for San Antonio, who set a Finals record with 14 three-pointers in the first half but couldn’t make their massive lead stick.
Brunson put New York in front for the first time with a floater that made it 105-104 with 1:22 remaining.
San Antonio’s Stephon Castle made a pair of free throws but the Knicks came through, Anunoby rising highest from a scrum of Spurs defenders to clinch the win.
The previous biggest comeback in the Finals was 24 points, by the Boston Celtics against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2008.
“I can’t really explain it right now,” Wembanyama said of the Spurs’ collapse after their own epic start.
“I don’t know. I think it’s just execution, greediness of some sort. We clearly weren’t the most hungry in the second half.”
The Spurs, who dropped the first two games at home but then ended the Knicks’ 13-game winning streak on Monday, came out swinging, connecting on 15 of 23 shots on the way to 41 points in the first quarter.
New York made just 29.4 percent of their shots in a first period that saw Karl-Anthony Towns pick up two early fouls and reserve Mitchell Robinson called for a flagrant foul after a frustrated forearm to Wembanyama’s throat.
Brunson, hounded mercilessly by the Spurs, didn’t make a basket until the second quarter.
