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SAN ANTONIO – The New York Knicks completed one of the most memorable seasons in franchise history Saturday night inside Frost Bank Center, beating the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to capture their first championship since 1973.
The only downside was that they didn’t win the clincher in front of the home fans at Madison Square Garden, but there were enough Knicks fans in San Antonio to make it feel like a New York City crowd at times.
New York entered the night with a 3-1 series lead and a chance to end 53 years of frustration. The Knicks completed a historic comeback in Game 4 to put themselves on the precipice of basketball greatness, and they finished the job on Saturday night. While they would have loved to do it at home, the Knicks clearly weren’t going to give away an opportunity to clinch an NBA championship.
Game 5 started out like every other game in the series, with San Antonio quickly jumping out to a lead. The Spurs won the first quarter for the fifth straight time, and once again, the Knicks found themselves staring at a double-digit deficit.
New York scored just 13 points on 4-for-22 shooting in the opening quarter, tied for the second-fewest in an NBA Finals opening quarter in the shot-clock era, according to ESPN. Only the 2016 Golden State Warriors, who scored 11 points in the first quarter of Game 6 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, had fewer.
But the Knicks did what they’ve done all series.
After trailing by as many as 16 points in the first half, New York cut the deficit to five points at halftime. A late flagrant foul call against Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox helped New York turn one possession into five points with just over a minute left in the second quarter. The Knicks cut the lead to three, but Devin Vassell beat the first-half buzzer with a midrange jumper.
Jalen Brunson scored 16 of New York’s 37 first-half points, while Victor Wembanyama nearly posted a double-double in the first 24 minutes with nine points and nine rebounds. However, the Knicks had a major problem almost immediately after halftime. Karl-Anthony Towns, the team’s most impactful big man, picked up his fourth foul just 15 seconds into the third quarter.
The impact was felt almost immediately as his replacement, Mitchell Robinson, committed a flagrant foul that allowed San Antonio to return the favor with a six-point sequence, stretching the lead back to double digits.
Then came another turning point: Brunson appeared to roll his ankle with 5:18 left in the third quarter. After making a three-pointer, Brunson landed on Wembanyama’s foot. Both Brunson and Knicks coach Mike Brown screamed at the referees for not calling a foul on Wembanyama, which could have been ruled a flagrant closeout. Had officials assessed a flagrant, it would have triggered an automatic suspension for a potential Game 6, since it would have been his fourth flagrant point of the playoffs.
Instead, play continued, and Vassell answered with a 3-pointer on the other end. Brunson immediately returned to the game after a New York timeout, but momentum appeared to shift back toward San Antonio as the Spurs later stretched the lead to 15 points. Dylan Harper scored 10 of his 25 points in the third quarter.
But Brunson didn’t let that moment affect his play. Once again, the star guard put the team on his back with Towns stuck on the bench in foul trouble, scoring 14 points in the third quarter to cut the lead to seven heading into the fourth.
And Brunson wasn’t even close to done.
He hit a layup with 4:48 to go that tied the game at 83 and gave him 40 points. After the Spurs answered, Brunson drew a foul on a 3-point attempt with 3:40 left and hit all three free throws, giving the Knicks their first lead since early in the first quarter. They pushed it to three, their largest lead of the game, with 2:07 left on a goaltending violation.
The final minutes turned chaotic from there. Towns fouled out, Wembanyama split two free throws, Harper tied the game, and Brunson answered with another basket to put the Knicks back in front.
New York survived the scramble by controlling the glass and doing just enough at the free-throw line. Castle’s putback dunk cut the deficit to two with 16 seconds left, but Mikal Bridges split a pair on the other end to give the Spurs the ball with eight seconds left, trailing by three.
The Knicks elected to foul rather than allow San Antonio to attempt a tying three and the strategy worked exactly as intended. Harper missed both free throws, the Knicks grabbed the rebound and that was all she wrote.
Brunson scored 45 points, tied for the third-most points ever in a clinching NBA Finals game.
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There will be time to figure out what this means for San Antonio and Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs aren’t going anywhere with a roster built around young stars Wembanyama, Harper and Castle. But Saturday night belonged to the Knicks.
For more than five decades, Knicks fans waited for a team to deliver another championship. They waited through bad teams, failed rebuilds, 22 different head coaches, missed opportunities and endless jokes.
The waiting is over.
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