**Note: The following content has controversial wording. Discretion is advised
Whenever the 2026 NBA Finals reaches it conclusion, I’ll write my reaction entry to that entire series. But I can’t help but write a reaction entry to last night’s historic Game 4 victory for the New York Knicks, whom now lead the series 3 games to 1, and need one more victory to end their 53-year NBA championship drought.
Down double digits for most of the game, which included both a 27-point halftime deficit and a deficit of 29 points with 21:40 left in regulation, the Knicks were in danger of heading back to San Antonio with the series tied at 2-2, which could have given the Spurs the momentum heading into Saturday night. However, this mostly young Spurs team has coughed up leads multiple times in the postseason, including a 15-0 first quarter lead in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, so the Knicks could have at least made Game 4 a little too close for comfort for Victor Wembanyama & Company, thus giving them confidence heading into Saturday night.
Instead, the Knicks went on multiple runs, which both prevented the deficit from exceeding 29 points and made the margin feasible as the second half went on. Of course, I was jaded during most of the second half, as the Spurs usually make some sort of demoralizing play to halt the opposition’s valiant effort. And while they did make some assumably momentum-halting shots over the last 21:40 of regulation, there was still too much time left on the clock and no panic in Mike Brown’s bunch, thus NBA Finals history was about to be made.
From the 9:40 mark of the third quarter and on, the Knicks went on a 55-25 run, which included two crucial fourth quarter baskets from Karl Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby having three-point shooting that was more sustainable than the Spurs’ self-congratulatory first half three-pointing and Jalen Brunson finally cracking the code of San Antonio’s annoyingly suffocating defense. Oh, and as to why the Spurs’ annoying three-point shooting cooled off in the second half, well those busted coverages in the first half tightened up, so that swing the ball to the open shooter style of offense was nowhere to be found. And thank freaking goodness, because that shit is so exhausting to watch as a Phoenix Suns fan.
Of course, Towns, Anunoby and Brunson weren’t the only Knicks that contributed in that run, as Jose Alvarado made some crucial baskets in the fourth quarter, Mikal Bridges converted a lay-up right down the lane that I thought was going to be anticlimactically blocked by Wemby, Josh Hart got key defensive stops while guarding Stephon Castle and Mitchell Robinson got two points off an alley-oop dunk, along with making two pivotal defensive plays against the aforementioned Wemby. Yes, every player that played during that 55-25 run greatly contributed.
Alright, so I’ve read articles and seen videos about the Spurs completely unraveling in this most recent game and they sure did, but I don’t want to obsess about that in this entry. However, I will say that Wemby kind of got rattled by Robinson’s flagrant foul on him, and then got really rattled when he got a totally deserved flagrant foul called against him during the 9:27 mark of the third quarter. Plus, Dylan Harper had a crucial live-ball bad pass turnover, Castle had an out-of-bounds turnover that could have been ruled an offensive foul or possible flagrant foul against him, De’Aaron Fox tried to ice the game with a late-game lay-up that was epically blocked by Anunoby and the Spurs arrogantly didn’t have someone guard the inbound pass, which eventually led to the game-winning tip-in seen round the world.
The remaining 1.2 seconds of regulation were nerve-racking, as that’s enough for one gather and bounce to attempt a buzzer-beater. But Castle had trouble catching the inbounds pass cleanly from Harper, thus he was unable to get a shot off. Clock hits triple zeroes and the Knicks complete the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history, which only trails the 2018-19 Los Angeles Clippers (31-point deficit against the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 of the First Round) for biggest overall comeback in an NBA playoff game.
As someone that A] Has always had a soft spot for the Knicks going back to my first season (1995-96) of watching NBA basketball and as a resident of the Tri-State Area at that time, B] Had a glow-in-the-dark Knicks sweatshirt as an 11-year-old living in that area at that time, C] Had one of my all-time favorite Suns (Amare Stoudemire) help make the Knicks relevant again in 2010-11, and D] Has another one of my all-time favorite Suns in Mikal Bridges (a member of the last Suns team to make the NBA Finals) on this current Knicks team, this game was a roller coaster of emotions for me, ranging from the umbrage that I was taking with the bullshit that was going in the Spurs’ favor to feeling increasingly elated during the second half of that historic comeback. And although it doesn’t really make up for the Suns falling short against the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of the 2021 NBA Finals, it also kind of does for the simple fact that Mikal Bridges has a great chance to achieve what he couldn’t five years ago and that is winning an NBA championship, so a win for him is a win for us Suns fans.
I don’t know when this series will reach its conclusion, but if I had to guess, well the Spurs might be too rattled to win another game this series, so I feel that it could end on Saturday night. Yeah, I think it will end on the road like 11 of the previous 26 NBA Finals series have this millennium.
Tune in on Sunday to my reaction to this series, should the Knicks win Game 5.