The San Antonio Spurs are one loss away from seeing their championship hopes end, but rookie guard Dylan Harper says belief remains unchanged inside the locker room despite falling into a 3-1 deficit against the New York Knicks in the 2026 NBA Finals.
Speaking Friday ahead of Game 5, Harper repeatedly returned to one theme as the Spurs prepared to host the Knicks: confidence that their season is not over.
“I mean we always got hope,” Harper said. “I think our biggest thing in locker rooms is keep having that belief. Having that belief and not letting anyone take that away from us because that’s how we ultimately got here.”
The challenge facing San Antonio is significant. The Spurs appeared headed toward evening the series Wednesday before suffering a stunning 107-106 loss in Game 4. New York erased a 29-point deficit, the largest comeback ever recorded in an NBA Finals game, before OG Anunoby tipped in the winning basket with 1.2 seconds remaining.
The defeat gave the Knicks a 3-1 series lead and moved them within one win of their first NBA championship since 1973.
Harper acknowledged the historical precedent when asked about the only successful 3-1 comeback in NBA Finals history, Cleveland’s victory over Golden State in 2016. Spurs veteran Harrison Barnes was on the Warriors team that lost that series, while Harper remembers watching it as a child.
“Yeah, I definitely watched it,” Harper said. “You know, that was probably series to remember. I mean, they’re the only to do it.”
Harper said his strongest memory from that Finals was the star power that fueled Cleveland’s comeback.
“But just all the like my biggest takeaway was just the performances that, you know, obviously LeBron, Kyrie that they put on just to have that comeback,” he said.
While the comparison offers a reminder that a comeback is possible, Harper insisted the Spurs are focused more on their own response than on history.
“I mean we always got hope,” he repeated. “I think our biggest thing in locker rooms is keep having that belief.”
That belief will be tested after Game 4 exposed a recurring issue for San Antonio. The Spurs led by 27 points at halftime and by 29 midway through the third quarter before New York stormed back. Harper finished with 21 points in the loss, while Devin Vassell and De’Aaron Fox added 18 apiece.
Asked what makes it difficult to stop momentum swings during the Finals, Harper pointed to the danger of becoming comfortable with a lead.
“The biggest thing for us is just can’t take our foot off the gas in a sense,” Harper said. “Can’t get comfortable with a lead.”
The rookie added that no advantage is safe at this stage of the season.
“It’s NBA Finals. Anything can happen like we just saw,” Harper said.
That lesson was delivered painfully in Game 4, where San Antonio controlled much of the night before being outscored 58-30 in the second half. Yet Harper believes the response must be collective rather than emotional.
“But just at the end of the day, we just got to stay together as a group,” he said.
Before turning attention to Game 5, Harper said the team took time to process the loss and reset mentally.
“I mean feel like everyone took a day to relax, debrief and just hit that reset button,” Harper said. “But you know we got another great opportunity to go and prove who we are as a team.”
