The NBA Finals are about moments.
And moments, by definition, are tiny slivers in time. A couple of seconds, maybe. An instant. Michael Jordan’s shrug. Michael Jordan’s pose. LeBron James’ chasedown block. Jerry West’s 60-footer to force overtime. Ray Allen’s 3-pointer to save Miami in 2013. Magic Johnson’s sky hook. Kobe Bryant jumping on a table, five fingers in the air to celebrate his fifth title. Willis Reed limping to the court for a Game 7.
Those are the ones that live forever, a singular event or sequence.
The New York Knicks might have changed all that. They won Game 4 of the NBA Finals thanks to one of those moments — OG Anunoby’s tip-in that capped the Knicks’ rally from 29 points down surely earned him a lifetime membership into Club Iconic.
But really, the whole comeback was a moment. Dozens and dozens of plays at Madison Square Garden, all weaved together to become a tale worthy enough for the stages of nearby Broadway and Radio City Music Hall.
It was 21 1/2 minutes of basketball, something that lasted well over an hour in real time. Anunoby had the exclamation point, but it’s a reasonable to say that the movie or whatever project that actor, director and diehard Knicks fan Ben Stiller is shooting from courtside with his cell phone during this series is going to feature a whole lot of those 21 1/2 minutes pretty prominently.
“You have to have a little luck in life. You’ve got to have a little luck in sports,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “But you can also make your luck, too.”
It’s not fair to say the Knicks are lucky to have a 3-1 lead in these NBA Finals, because that would suggest that they aren’t worthy of being in this spot. They are worthy. More than worthy. They won two games in San Antonio to begin the series, rallying from double-digit deficits in both, then dropped Game 3 at home and got themselves into a 29-point hole in Game 4.
The Spurs couldn’t miss anything in the first half.
The Spurs couldn’t make anything in the second half.
That was good luck for the Knicks, bad luck for the Spurs, and both sides were more than a little responsible for that. It was 81-52 San Antonio with 21 1/2 minutes left in the game. History said winning was inevitable.
“It’s a pretty clear picture if you watch the game in terms of what we did in the first half and why we scored so many points. It was pace, finding the paint, passing the ball to your teammate, taking good shots,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “The second half was opposite of that.”
Over those last 21 1/2 minutes:
— The Knicks outscored the Spurs 55-25.
— The Spurs missed 29 of their 35 shots.
— Anunoby and Jalen Brunson combined to score 33 points by themselves for New York.
— Victor Wembanyama had a stretch where he missed 10 of 11 shots.
“I can’t really explain it right now,” Wembanyama said afterward when trying to make sense of everything that had just happened. “I don’t know. I think it’s just execution, greediness of some sort. We clearly weren’t the most hungry in the second half.”
Midway through the third quarter, Anunoby made a 3-pointer to get the Knicks within 19. Doesn’t look like much, but it was their first time getting the Spurs’ lead under 20 since two minutes into the second quarter.
The comeback — the moment — was just getting started.
The lead was down to 15 going into the fourth quarter. Down to 12 after a 3-pointer by Karl-Anthony Towns with 7:28 left, then within single digits when Towns scored again a minute later. The Garden was rocking. Taylor Swift, sitting courtside, was jumping up and down the way millions of people have at her shows. Spike Lee, also courtside, was waving his arms wildly as if he was the director of this show, even though it had no script.
The lead got down to seven. Then four. Then one. New York took the lead, then lost it briefly. And then Anunoby happened.
“We believe in each other,” Knicks guard Jose Alvarado said. “That’s the main thing.”
It’ll take one more win for the story to truly be finished. That will be the ultimate moment, if it happens. Knicks fans have waited 53 years for that celebration; there’s been no NBA title for the franchise since 1973, and back then the Larry O’Brien Trophy wasn’t even called the Larry O’Brien Trophy yet.
But if that moment comes, then it’ll be Wednesday’s moment — those 21 1/2 improbable minutes rolled into one moment — that will have made that one possible.
“We focus on the things we need to get better every single day and not being satisfied with the things that we’ve done so far,” Brunson said. “Very proud of my teammates, day-in and day-out. But (there’s) a lot — a lot — that we have to learn … to honestly be better and be where we want to be.”
