NBA Finals: Knicks’ win streak is finally dead, but it’s still the Spurs who are clinging to life

They say that all good things must end, and for the Knicks, that proved true on Monday night, when the most statistically dominant postseason run in history — a 13-game win streak to the tune of a +272 point differential — finally met its expiration as the Spurs pulled out a 115-111 win in Game 3 of the Finals. 

And with that, we’ve officially got ourselves a series. The Knicks are still in command with home-court advantage and a 2-1 series lead heading into Game 4 on Wednesday, but the Spurs are back in this thing. It’s amazing what it took for the Knicks to lose a game for the first time in the last six weeks:

• Victor Wembanyama had to play lights out, finishing with 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three blocks and a steal on 61% shooting. This was by far his most impactful game of the series and the first time he clearly won the individual matchup with Karl-Anthony Towns. Wemby was able to operate near the rim far more often than he did through the first two games, running to early position and catching multiple lobs, and the Spurs did an effective job of manipulating the floor in ways that allowed him more accessible paths to the basket.
• Stephon Castle had to deliver his best game of the series with 23 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, a steal and a block. He was aggressive downhill and finished multiple tough buckets through contact (by which he is totally unfazed) as the Spurs got out to the hot start they needed to play the rest of this game from a confident spot. The 3-pointer that Castle hit with less than two minutes to play and the shot clock winding down felt like a savior for a Spurs team that was, once again, just trying to hang on against the absolutely relentless fourth-quarter Knicks. 
• Towns had to have his most ineffective game of the series with 11 points on 10 shots and not nearly the same level of bothersome defense against Wembanyama. He also only had one assist; KAT’s playmaking has probably been the most talked-about part of this Knicks surge. Hard as it is to believe, he also hasn’t scored a single fourth-quarter point in this series. 
• Jalen Brunson had to have another inefficient night, going 11 for 25 for his 32 points. Brunson is now shooting 37% on 27 shots per game in this series and, in the craziest stat of all, the Knicks are losing his minutes. In Game 2, they were -10 with Brunson on the floor and +11 without him. In Game 3, it came out to -9 with Brunson and +5 without him. All told, the Knicks have been outscored by 13 points over 110 Brunson minutes in this series. 

That is not meant as a knock on Brunson, who has been terrific and, as of right now, is the Finals MVP favorite given his production, particularly in fourth quarters, against an extremely physical San Antonio defense that is making him take a lot of tough jumpers with Wembanyama patrolling his normal paint scoring spots. It is only to say that this is what the Spurs had to do to get a win against the Knicks, who are so great that they can get just an OK game from their stars and the Spurs can get a sensational one from theirs and it was still a three-point game with 33 seconds to play before De’Aaron Fox hit the biggest shot of his life.

All night, every time it looked like the Knicks were about to make their inevitable run, the Spurs managed to keep them at bay. It felt like they were fending off an impending tsunami. When the Knicks turned an 11-point first-quarter deficit into a seven-point halftime lead, it felt like one run to start the second half was going to be the game. 

Turns out, it was. But it was the Spurs who did the running, opening the third quarter on a 22-12 run and then surviving the late non-Wemby minutes (aided by the fact that Brunson was out of the game, too, with four fouls) to go into the fourth with a one-point advantage. That lead felt slim with Brunson set to come back and the Knicks being, well, one of the best fourth-quarter teams in history, but the Spurs held up on multiple swing sequences that went the Knicks’ way. 

The first big one was when Wemby hit a 3 plus the foul with 7:45 to play. It looked like a possible four-point play and double-digit lead, but upon review, the call was switched to an offensive foul after you could clearly see that Keldon Johnson pushed Mitchell Robinson into Wembanyama.

On the ensuing possession, Brunson scored for the Knicks and, just like that, in a matter of seconds, what was just a potential 11-point lead swung to five, and the Garden was rocking. That’s a classic point in a game to look back and say: That’s where it turned. But it didn’t, in large part because of another reversed call. 

On the very next possession, the Knicks appeared to get a stop on a Fox missed 3. Wembanyama went up for the rebound, but it bounced off his hand and out of bounds. If the Knicks get that stop, having just cut the lead down to five and now with possession, the snowball would’ve been rolling downhill at full speed. But Wemby quickly called for a challenge, claiming Towns had held his arm down on the rebound. He was right. 

So now, instead of the Knicks having the ball with a chance to cut the lead to a single possession, Wemby went to the free-throw line and made both to take it back to a seven-point cushion. 

With just under four minutes to play, Wembanyama cut free for a seemingly gimme layup. But he smoked it and the Knicks went on to score the next four points, turning what looked like a sure 10-point deficit into four, and, once again, the Garden was rocking. The Knicks had the Spurs bottled up on the next possession, and now this is really about to get tight. But that’s when Castle hit the bailout 3 referenced above to take it back to seven. 

These end-of-shot-clock shots go in more often than you’d think. The Knicks got one from Jordan Clarkson earlier in the game. So it’s not as if this was some lucky thing. It was a regular shot. Castle knocked it down. It’s just that things were this close, multiple times, to swinging New York’s way. And had Fox not hit that final jumper with 33 seconds to play, they very well might have finally done so. 

This is what it takes to beat the Knicks these days. You have to play excellent, get an off night from their two best players and just two points from Mikal Bridges, withstand multiple swing sequences, hang on for dear life as they offensive rebound everything in sight — all to find yourself still clinging to a two-point lead with under 10 seconds left because Brunson and OG Anunoby have insisted upon hitting two waning-seconds 3-pointers to force Castle to finally ice the game with a pair of free throws with six seconds to play. 

These Knicks are like the bad guy in the movie that gets shot six times but still rises from the dead to make you jump out of your seat. The Spurs had to kill this relentless beast of a team about five different times on Monday, but ultimately, they’re still the ones clinging to life. A Knicks win on Wednesday and this series is back to all but over. 

And so, while it’s understandable that the Knicks — and their fans — are bummed right now (they were ready to basically celebrate the championship on Monday night, and now they’re in a fight), when you zoom out from the immediate disappointment of this result, it’s an easy case to make that New York is still in prime position. 

Six weeks ago, the Knicks lost another Game 3 to go down 2-1 against the Hawks in the first round. Losing this Game 3 and still holding a 2-1 lead in the Finals with home-court advantage intact is a hell of a long way from that. It’s about perspective, and the Knicks made the Spurs put on a sensational performance just to beat them on their average (or maybe even below-average) night. 

How many times are the Spurs going to erase a seven-point halftime lead when the Knicks have that kind of momentum at home? How many times are they going to get into the bonus that early in the third quarter and largely survive on free throws? How many times are they going to get the luxury of Brunson having to go to the bench with four fouls for a four-minute stretch that just happens to coincide with the Wembanyama rest minutes? How many times are they going to be able to stay under double-digit turnovers? Meanwhile, isn’t Brunson due for an efficient game at some point? Can the Knicks really keep losing his minutes? 

Maybe the Spurs will continue to have the right answer to all those questions, but it still doesn’t feel likely. The Knicks, in what has been an absolute war of a series in the best way possible, have just felt like the better team; not by a ton, but by just enough. This loss doesn’t change that. It’s just on them to respond in Game 4 the way the Spurs did on Monday night. Now, if they can’t find a way to do that? Then we’ll really have a series.