Karl-Anthony Towns had a great view of the greatest offensive rebound in NBA Finals history. Towns was fighting for position under the basket when the “right hand from God” suddenly appeared and handed the New York Knicks a miracle win.
With the San Antonio Spurs clinging to a one-point lead with 5.7 seconds left in the game, Jalen Brunson took an inbounds pass from OG Anunoby and launched a long 3-point shot over two players, one of them being 7-foot-5 Victor Wembanyama. The contested shot clanked off the front of the rim and went straight up.
After seeing his defender De’Aaron Fox double team Brunson, Anunoby crashed the boards and timed his jump perfectly, soaring over Dylan Harper and Devin Vassell. Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds left lifted the Knicks to a 107-106 victory and a 3-1 lead in the series.
“I inbounded the ball to Jalen [Brunson]. He got a pretty good look. I just went in and crashed,” Anunoby said of one of the most iconic plays in New York sports history.
“That has to be the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “I’m not you guys. You guys know better than me. But it was just unbelievable.”
A euphoric crowd inside Madison Square Garden — many of whom bought tickets averaging around a staggering $7,200 — sang along to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” a few minutes after watching something that seemed almost impossible.
The Knicks were down by 29 points in the third quarter, and they were down 20 with under 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. They could have folded their tent and shifted their focus on the next game. Instead, they kept battling. After the dust settled, it was the largest comeback in NBA Finals history.
“Shout-out to our fans. They stuck with us,” Towns said. “We found a way to get it done.”
Towns gave OG a big bear hug as he ran down the court. After the Knicks made one final stop on the Spurs’ last possession, Towns let all his emotions out after the buzzer sounded.
“We gave ourselves a chance,” Towns said. “Sometimes you get lucky. We made our luck today.”
The Knicks may have been lucky to win the game, but luck had little to do with Anunoby’s hustle. Prior to his game-winning putback, Anunoby made the game-saving play with 12 seconds left.
After Brunson missed a floater while being defended by Wembanyama, the ball ricocheted off Harper and Josh Hart. Towns went after the loose ball, but he slapped the ball into the Knicks backcourt. Fox and Anunoby both chased down the loose ball. Fox won the foot race and could have ran out the clock or get fouled. Either one of those two choices would have been the smart basketball play. But Fox inexplicably went for a layup and his attempt got rejected by Anunoby.
Jose Alvarado grabbed the loose ball and the Knicks called time-out, setting up one of the craziest sequences you’ll ever see.
“I fell on the floor. I couldn’t really see. I don’t know. I just saw the block,” Wembanyama said on Fox’s decision to go for the layup instead of running out the clock.
Wembanyama admitted the loss was a painful one to absorb, knowing how close the Spurs were in tying the series.
“We stopped moving the ball,” Wemby said. “We stopped executing.”
When asked why the Spurs managed just 30 points in the second half after a scorching 76-point first half, Wembanyama said there were a multitude of factors that contributed to the collapse. He mentioned greed being one of them. The Spurs kept jacking up 3-pointers early in the shot clock throughout the fourth quarter, allowing the Knicks to chip away at the lead.
“I think it began before [the fourth quarter],” Wembanyama said of the Spurs’ collapse. “I can’t really explain it right now. I don’t know. … We clearly weren’t the most hungry in the second half.”