NEW YORK — For the first time in NBA Finals history, a sitting U.S. president was in the building to watch. And for what only seems like the first time in history, the New York Knicks finally lost a playoff game.
With President Donald J. Trump, a New Yorker, in the Madison Square Garden audience, the Knicks fell in Game 3 to the San Antonio Spurs 115-111, snapping a 13-game winning streak that lasted for more than a month.
Victor Wembanyama, knowing no team has come back from a 3-0 deficit in an NBA playoff series, didn’t need to find out whether his Spurs could do it. He scored 32 points in the win.
The Knicks still lead the series 2-1 and host Game 4 on Wednesday. Monday night marked the first finals game at the Garden since 1999. New York hasn’t won a championship since 1973.
Wemby had his best game so far in this series, connecting on 11 of 18 shots to go with eight rebounds, six assists and three blocks. Stephon Castle added 23 points, including two crucial free throws late, and Dylan Harper contributed 13 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
The Knicks received 32 points from Jalen Brunson and 28 points from OG Anunoby. Jordan Clarkson, who didn’t play at all in Game 2, scored 10 points off the New York bench. Karl-Anthony Towns, a hero of Game 2, shot just 4 of 10 and finished with 11 points.
The charged atmosphere at the Garden — where chants of “U-S-A!” broke out before the national anthem — cranked up a notch when Trump was shown on the video board standing at attention and was booed lustily by the home crowd. Trump seemed to smirk in response to the boos before Garden board operators replaced him with Brunson.
San Antonio led 33-22 after one quarter and was ahead by 12 in the first half before the Knicks found their footing. A furious second quarter from Anunoby (11 points) and Brunson (10) helped New York soar past the Spurs and take a 64-57 lead into halftime. The Knicks outscored their counterpart by 21 in Anunoby’s nine minutes on the court in the second — with 2 of his points coming after he beat Wembanyama off the dribble for a dunk.
The Spurs pulled back ahead in the third quarter and traded baskets over a furious final two minutes. Harper answered a Clarkson 3-ball with 33.5 seconds left for a 92-89 lead that was trimmed to one heading to the fourth. Brunson picked up his fourth foul with 4:29 remaining in the period.
The Spurs held leads in each of the first two games in the fourth quarter at home but couldn’t hold on. Castle’s 3 with 1:53 left put the Spurs ahead 111-104 and helped them stave off yet another comeback.
Brunson connected on a 3 with 33.7 seconds remaining, but De’Aaron Fox (12 points) answered with a critical stepback jumper with 12.2 seconds left for a 5-point advantage. Anunoby’s 3 in the corner with 9.4 seconds made it 113-111 Spurs, and Castle made two foul shots with 6.8 seconds remaining.
Here are some takeaways from Monday’s Game 3.
Spurs’ free throws an equalizer
There’s something beautiful about the bonus. It’s a reward for just being you.
Once the Spurs entered the bonus with 9:18 left in the fourth quarter, every little foul they would pick up along the way would inch them closer to a win. It meant the Knicks’ scrapping to try to contain Wembanyama would prove too risky.
So, when Wemby felt Towns pull on his arm during a rebound, he immediately waved for the challenge. He knew 2 free points were his, and they were.
The Spurs needed something to equalize the Knicks’ advantage beyond the arc and found it at the line. It was a reminder the Spurs can beat the Knicks when their defense is connected and their offense gets deep into the paint. They just made so many more effective defensive rotations to keep the Knicks from building offensive momentum, and Wembanyama found his defensive rhythm in the fourth quarter.
Harper made some big plays on the glass and pushed the tempo, allowing the Spurs to live in transition for much of the night. Fox found redemption, hitting his signature pull-up to ice the game with 12.2 seconds left. After all those free throws, Castle stepped to the line and pushed the Spurs to 10 of 10 from the charity stripe in the final quarter.
The Spurs finally maintained their composure all the way to the finish, and now they are halfway to regaining control of this series. — Jared Weiss, Spurs writer
San Antonio’s Stephon Castle was one of the guards who put pressure on New York’s Jalen Brunson throughout Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday. (Dustin Satloff / Getty Images)
Turnovers a factor as Knicks’ streak ends
The Knicks’ historic playoff streak has come to an end, and it’s largely because of their own doing.
All season long, including in the playoffs, New York has been good at taking care of the basketball and not allowing opponents to capitalize on its miscues when it does cough it up. That wasn’t the case in Game 3, when the Knicks’ 13-game playoff win streak came to an end.
New York had 13 turnovers for 21 Spurs points. In contrast, the Spurs had eight turnovers for just 7 New York points. The Knicks had a lot of live-ball turnovers that allowed fast, energetic San Antonio to get out in transition and create advantages.
Brunson led New York with five turnovers. The All-NBA guard has had at least four turnovers in each of the first three games and is averaging 4.3 turnovers per game in this series. The Spurs are one of the rare teams in the NBA with multiple strong, athletic guards to put on Brunson, and it’s clear their personnel is having an impact on him.
Despite a raucous MSG crowd, it was the Knicks who looked more rattled throughout parts of this game. A lot of their turnovers were uncharacteristic and unforced. New York needs to tighten up against the feisty Spurs defense in Game 4 to avoid this becoming a coin-flip series again. — James Edwards, Knicks writer
Spurs’ adjustments bring results
The Spurs finally found a way to live in the paint for most of a finals game, and as a result, they have a pulse against the Knicks.
It took every bit of Wembanyama’s 32 points, along with a big Castle 3 and two free throws in the last minute. But the Spurs are alive.
San Antonio found ways to finally penetrate the Knicks defense. The Spurs relied far less on sets they had used extensively in the first two games, which the Knicks defended expertly. Monday, the Spurs used double drags and other actions to create much better spacing, freeing Wembanyama up for lobs and dunks. And Wemby was more intentional about fighting for post position. — David Aldridge, NBA writer
Fourth-quarter blues for New York
The Knicks adhered to the formula. They kept it close into the fourth quarter, as they were supposed to do.
They put the game in the hands of their clutch-time wizard, Brunson, who had carried them out of holes time and time again. He nailed a 3-pointer inside the final minute of play. OG Anunoby drained another from the corner.
But on this night, for the first time in a month and a half, it did not make a difference. The Knicks have finally lost a basketball game, and it took a cold final period for it to happen.
They shot just 7 of 27 from the field in the fourth quarter. They missed their first 10 3-pointers in the period and completed it 2-for-14. The Brunson and Anunoby jumpers were the only two long-range makes.
And now, for the first time since the Knicks trailed the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs, they have a series. — Fred Katz, NBA writer
A win within a Knicks loss
The Garden delivered.
Even with Trump’s attendance causing a logistical nightmare inside and outside of MSG, and his energy not exactly matching that of the locals (he was booed before the game), the world’s most famous basketball arena was as electric as advertised in what was the first finals game here since May 8, 1973 (Game 4 of a five-game series win against the Los Angeles Lakers). And though the ticket prices were a whole lot cheaper back then, with this latest iteration reportedly costing a minimum of $3,800 on the secondary market (down from $10,000 just days before), the Knicks faithful who cut those massive checks showed out in a major way.
This was a whole different scene than games 1 and 2 at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, where Knicks fans made a major dent in the home support in the building. By the look and sound of it, there was hardly a Spurs fan to be found. — Sam Amick, NBA writer
