The San Antonio Spurs were 24 minutes away from seizing control of the 2026 NBA Finals. Instead, they walked off the Madison Square Garden floor facing one of the most painful losses in franchise history and a 3-1 series deficit.
The fallout was immediate.
Speaking after Game 4, Hall of Famer Charles Barkley delivered a brutal assessment of San Antonio’s second-half meltdown.
“We saw the dumbest basketball team in the history of civilization,” Barkley said after watching the Spurs squander a 29-point lead in a 107-106 loss to the New York Knicks on Wednesday night.
The criticism reflected the magnitude of the collapse. San Antonio led 81-52 midway through the third quarter and appeared on course to even the series at two games apiece. Instead, the Knicks produced the largest comeback ever recorded in an NBA Finals game, erasing a deficit that surpassed the previous Finals benchmark of 24 points.
The Spurs looked unstoppable early. They buried 11 of their first 16 attempts from three-point range and carried a 57-32 advantage after Julian Champagnie’s three-pointer late in the second quarter. By halftime, San Antonio held a 27-point lead, the largest halftime advantage by a road team in NBA Finals history.
Then everything unraveled.
After scoring 57 points in the first half, the Spurs managed just 49 after intermission. New York dominated the third quarter, holding San Antonio to only 14 points on 4-for-20 shooting. The Spurs finished the second half just 3-for-17 from beyond the arc after their blistering start and were outscored 58-30 over the final two quarters.
Victor Wembanyama posted 24 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks, but he needed 25 shots to get there and missed two critical free throws with 1:47 remaining and San Antonio holding a one-point lead. De’Aaron Fox added 18 points and seven assists, while Devin Vassell scored 18 on an efficient 6-for-9 shooting night. Rookie Dylan Harper provided a major spark off the bench with 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting.
Yet none of those contributions were enough to overcome the team’s late-game execution issues.
The Knicks repeatedly capitalized on defensive breakdowns and second-chance opportunities. Jalen Brunson finished with 36 points and seven assists, while OG Anunoby delivered one of the defining plays in franchise history. With New York trailing by one in the final seconds, Brunson’s deep three-point attempt hit the front rim before Anunoby soared for a tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining.
The basket completed a comeback that seemed impossible just an hour earlier.
For San Antonio, the defeat was especially damaging because it shifted the entire trajectory of the series. The Spurs entered Game 4 as the Western Conference champions after winning 62 regular-season games and surviving a seven-game conference finals battle against Oklahoma City. A victory would have tied the Finals at 2-2 heading back to Texas.
Instead, the Spurs now face a 3-1 deficit. Only one team in NBA Finals history—the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers—has successfully recovered from that position to win the championship.
