The San Antonio Spurs led the New York Knicks by as many as 29 points and carried a 27-point lead into halftime of Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.
It seemed inevitable that the Spurs would even the series and sap the Knicks’ all-time good vibes, which had included a 13-game winning streak before San Antonio claimed Game 3.
Instead, the Knicks stormed back to win 107-106 on an immediately iconic tip-in from OG Anunoby with 1.2 seconds remaining. It marks the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. Now, with a 3-1 series lead, the sense of inevitability has shifted toward the Knicks winning their first championship since 1973.
How in the world is that possible?
Allow Charles Barkley, the great poet of our time, to explain.
“We saw the dumbest basketball team in the history of civilization,” Barkley said of the Spurs on ESPN’s “Inside the NBA” postgame broadcast. “They had a 25-point lead, took eight straight 3s. Like, that was some of the most mismanaged, stupid basketball. Hey, when you blow a 29-point lead, the other team has to help you. The San Antonio Spurs helped the New York Knicks win this game by doing some of the stupid [expletive] stuff I’ve ever seen on a basketball court.”
Shaquille O’Neal agreed with Barkley, adding that the Spurs “got comfortable” and saying the Knicks “fought like a champion.”
Calling the Spurs “the dumbest team in the history of civilization” is harsh, sure. But the Spurs did show their youth and inexperience en route to an all-time collapse that will haunt them until they can win San Antonio’s first championship since 2014.
Maybe 22-year-old Victor Wembanyama, the newly anointed NBA Defensive Player of the Year and all but anointed face of the NBA, can lead the Spurs from down 3-1 to accomplish that within the next week. But that does not seem likely after what we’ve seen through the first four games.
“What’s going through my mind right now, I think it’s gonna go one of two ways: a bad one and a good one” Wembanyama said at his postgame presser. “I know the bad one would be giving up; the good one would be getting stronger through this — getting more together — and I know this is what we’re gonna do.”
It will be do or die for the Spurs when the Knicks visit San Antonio’s Frost Bank Center for Game 5 on Saturday.
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