Knicks survive Spurs in Game 2 thriller, move two wins from first NBA title since 1973 14%
By C.J. Holmes0%
6/5/2026, 8:34:00 PM
Topics: Nba Finals, Basketball
BS Summary: This article contains 29 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Ambiguity (Equivocation), and Optimism Bias, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 12% saturation with 169 hits. Analysis detected 1,393 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,411 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 30.7% and a BS Rank of 14% (18,826 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 86.00% of the article peer group.
The Knicks are two wins from history because Victor Wembanyama’s final shot missed off the back of the rim, because Mitchell Robinson stayed discipled, because Jalen Brunson was clutch enough when needed late, and because every time the San Antonio Spurs thought they’d solved the problem, someone else in a Knicks jersey became one.
Thirteen straight playoff wins.
Two wins from their first championship since 1973.
A 2-0 NBA Finals lead headed back to Madison Square Garden after Friday night’s 105-104 escape over the Spurs at Frost Bank Center.
Only the 2017 Golden State Warriors, powered by Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, have had a longer winning streak in a single postseason, with 15 straight.
There’s no shortcut in what the Knicks are doing.
This isn’t some team-of-destiny story.
It’s roster work, front-office gambles, coaching adjustments, role acceptance, defensive details and nights like Friday, when the Spurs made a frightening late push and the Knicks still answered.
“At this stage of the season, things aren’t going to be pretty,” Brunson said.
“It’s going to be ugly.
It’s going to be grinded out.
It’s simple as that.”
Game 2 was all of that.
The Knicks led by 14 in the fourth quarter before San Antonio ripped off 14 straight points to tie the game at 97 with 2:59 left.
Karl-Anthony Towns, who had carried so much of the night, didn’t touch the ball on five straight Knicks possessions during the late scoring drought.
The Spurs, young and desperate, reminded the Knicks this was still the Finals.
Dylan Harper’s layup was ruled goaltending, cutting the Knicks’ lead to 102-101 with 1:24 left.
Mikal Bridges turned it over on the next possession, and Harper found Wembanyama inside.
Wembanyama finished through traffic, drew the foul and completed the three-point play to put the Spurs ahead, 104-102.
Brunson answered with a bucket to tie it at 104 with 39.3 seconds remaining.
The Knicks got the next stop, with OG Anunoby securing a huge defensive rebound, and head coach Mike Brown called timeout with 30.3 seconds left.
San Antonio still had a foul to give.
The Spurs used it, leaving the Knicks with the ball and 24.3 seconds on the clock.
Brunson missed a mid-range jumper over Wembanyama, then stole the ball from him moments later off an errant pass.
Wembanyama fouled him with 9.5 seconds left.
Brunson made the first free throw and missed the second, giving San Antonio one final chance.
Wembanyama had the ball.
He had space.
He had a chance to create the first signature Finals moment of his already decorated young career.
Robinson took it away without blocking the shot.
If this run ends with a championship, New York will remember the final image: Wembanyama rising, Robinson staying balanced in front of him, the ball falling away and the Knicks leaving San Antonio with two wins.
Brown called Wembanyama “iconic” afterward.
Then he praised Robinson, who played with a protected right hand and still drew the final defensive assignment.
“You’re not blocking a shot,” Brown said.
“You make him work, you lead with your chest.
You show your hands and you embrace those details while trying to guard him and then box out.”
Wembanyama owned the miss afterward.
“Yeah, I threw that one away.
I messed up,” he said.
“We didn’t play great as a team.
We needed to win that game.
This game was ours.
But at this point, it’s done.
Am I going to regret it?
Yes, of course.
Am I going to use that to fuel me and to fuel us next game?
Absolutely.
”
The Spurs played like a team trying to protect its home floor.
They pressured Brunson full court, blitzed him near half court and made the Knicks fight just to start their offense.
They targeted Robinson at the free-throw line, using intentional fouls to slow the Knicks’ rhythm and buy Wembanyama extra rest.
San Antonio led, 34-25, after the first quarter.
The Spurs shot 65% from the field.
De’Aaron Fox had nine first-quarter points.
Julian Champagnie, whom Brown mentioned before the game as someone the Knicks needed to guard better after Game 1, hit two early 3s and scored eight points in the opening period.
Then Towns took ownership of the night.
He turned the corner in the second quarter, drove baseline and met Wembanyama at the rim.
The Knicks center dunked through him, screamed in his direction and shifted the game’s energy.
ABC cameras caught him at halftime saying, “He can’t f— with me.”
For much of the night, San Antonio had no comfortable answer for him.
Towns finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and four assists.
Through two Finals games, he has totaled 39 points, 25 rebounds and eight assists on 56% shooting from the field, 43% from 3 and 100% from the line.
Wembanyama’s length can erase most players’ angles.
Towns is strong enough to drive through contact, skilled enough to pass out of help and confident enough to pull Wembanyama away from the rim.
“I think he’s been pretty phenomenal on both sides of the ball,” Brunson said.
Towns gave the Knicks the first answer.
Bridges gave them the next one.
The most important stretch of the night came late in the third quarter, when Towns and Hart were in foul trouble, and Brunson was on the bench.
Brown turned to a lineup of Bridges, Robinson, Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado and Deuce McBride.
No Brunson.
No Towns.
Wembanyama awake.
San Antonio back within four.
That’s where a road team can lose all the work it spent three quarters building.
But Bridges didn’t let it happen.
The forward scored nine points on 4-for-4 shooting in the third quarter, kept the Knicks organized when their ballhandling got shaky and helped rebuild the lead to nine entering the fourth.
It was the exact kind of stretch the Knicks envisioned when they traded five first-round picks to the Nets two summers ago.
“It’s just go time,” Bridges said.
“It’s winning time.
It’s that season.
I’m trying to go out there and give it all I’ve got for this team, my teammates, the coaches, for the organization, fans.”
Bridges finished with 20 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Brunson added 20 points, six assists and five steals on a difficult shooting night.
Anunoby had 17 points.
Shamet scored 13, including two fourth-quarter 3s.
Brown pointed to all of it afterward: Robinson’s defense, Bridges’ shot-making, Shamet’s spacing, McBride’s corner 3, Anunoby’s drives.
The Knicks didn’t play a complete game.
They still haven’t put together their best game in this series.
That may be the scarier part for San Antonio.
The Knicks trailed by as many as 14 points in their Game 1 win and by as many as 12 in Game 2.
Per ESPN, this is the first time a team has recorded double-digit comebacks in each of the first two games of an NBA Finals since 1975.
The Spurs got 29 points, nine rebounds, two assists and four blocks from Wembanyama.
Fox finished with 20 points and five assists.
Harper added 15 points off the bench, including multiple late plays that nearly saved San Antonio.
The Spurs showed maturity by climbing back from 14 down.
They showed youth when the final possessions demanded poise.
The Knicks showed something else.
They showed the depth of a team that has learned to lean on whoever the night requires.
They showed the benefit of Brown and his staff trusting odd lineups in dangerous moments.
They showed the value of a roster with more than one answer.
And now they go home, where they’ll have a chance to close the season at the Garden.
At this point, the Spurs have to wonder whether Friday was their final home game of the season.
Seventh Avenue might not stop celebrating before the Knicks land.
All postseason, “Knicks in four” has sounded like a dare, a joke, a dream and then something closer to belief.
Now the Knicks are two wins from sweeping again, this time for a trophy.
“Every single day, we chip away and try to be the best that we can be,” Brunson said.
“Even with the series it is now, next game, mindset has to be 0-0 again.
It’s just how it has to be.
You can’t be comfortable.
You can’t be satisfied with anything.
Just got to continue to push forward.
”
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