Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The New York Knicks staged the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, overcoming a 27-point halftime deficit against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4.
- Their mental toughness has been on display all postseason, highlighted by a historic comeback against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
- The team's resilience has them one win away from their first championship in 53 years, embodying the spirit that makes sports unforgettable.
We all watch sports for plenty of reasons.
We watch sports to bond with family, friends and co-workers. We watch sports to witness human potential at its finest. We watch sports because at their peak, they captivate and invigorate us. We watch sports for the off chance of bearing witness to the improbable, if not the impossible.
In other words, this year's New York Knicks are why we watch sports.
What the Knicks accomplished in Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals wasn't just the biggest comeback in Finals history. It was something greater.
The never-say-die Knicks
Even before their historic comeback on Wednesday, the Knicks had already established a reputation as one of the most mentally tough teams in recent NBA playoff history.
Just ask the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs jumped out to a 22-point fourth-quarter lead over the Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Suddenly, the Knicks' six-game playoff win streak appeared to be in grave danger.
Instead, Jalen Brunson began hunting James Harden on every possession, fueling one of the biggest fourth-quarter comebacks in NBA playoff history.
Although the Cavs tried to keep their chin up after that meltdown, they couldn't overcome it. The Knicks swept them out of the conference finals despite the Cavs "analytically" winning two of the first three games.
That wound up being a precursor to what happened in Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.
In the first half, the Spurs could not miss, while the Knicks couldn't buy a bucket. They entered halftime down 27, which was the largest halftime lead by a road team in NBA Finals history and tied for the third-largest halftime lead ever, according to stat expert Keerthika Uthayakumar.
De'Aaron Fox put the Spurs up 81-52 with a 16-foot pull-up jumper with 9:40 left in the third quarter. From there, the Knicks proceeded to outscore the Spurs 55-25 over the final 22 minutes of the game.
As the Knicks began chipping away at the Spurs' lead in the third quarter, the Madison Square Garden crowd began to sense what was happening. Every ill-advised bricked three-pointer from the Spurs sent the Knicks faithful into more of a frenzy. By the end of the third quarter, the Knicks were down only 15 and the crowd was roaring with anticipation.
After all, this is becoming old hat for them.
The Knicks are 5-3 when they trail by 20+ points over the last 2 postseasons.
— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) June 11, 2026
The rest of the NBA is a combined 4-71.
A lesson in resilience
If the Knicks do wind up finishing the job and winning this year's title, this group's resilience will become the stuff of legend. After all, their Game 1 comeback against Cleveland helped them rattle off 13 straight playoff wins, which is the second-longest streak in NBA history. The two teams sandwiching them, the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors (15 straight wins) and 1998-99 Spurs (12 straight wins), both won a championship.
It would have been easy for the Knicks to let go of the rope both against the Cavs in Game 1 of the conference finals and against the Spurs in Game 4 of the Finals. Look no further than the Boston Celtics, who essentially rage-quit Game 6 against the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of this year's playoffs after Paul George put the Sixers up by 23 with 10:24 remaining in the fourth quarter.
At that point, head coach Joe Mazzulla pulled Jaylen Brown and Neemias Queta and went with a full-bench lineup for the rest of the game, even as the Celtics trimmed the Sixers' lead to 14 halfway through the fourth quarter. The Sixers wound up escaping with a 13-point win, and they proceeded to beat the Celtics in Boston in Game 7 for their first-ever comeback from a 3-1 series deficit and the Celtics' first-ever blown 3-1 series lead.
The Knicks easily could have done the same in Game 4. They were already up 2-1 in the series. Sure, they would have handed home-court advantage right back to the Spurs, but they had a win probability of 0.4 percent after Fox's jumper early in the third quarter, according to ESPN Analytics (h/t Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic).
Instead, the Knicks weathered the early storm and began methodically chipping away at the Spurs' lead.
"We're a resilient group. We've been through a lot," Anunoby told reporters afterward. "We've come back plenty of times when we're behind. Just staying with it, weathering the storm, not being too down or angry or frustrated."
A team imbued with that type of fighting spirit is exactly what sports fans dream of. It's something that the Knicks have been building on throughout the playoffs.
After the Knicks' furious comeback against the Cavs, Jalen Brunson explained why his team never threw in the towel.
"No matter how that game finished, habits translate," Brunson said. "They translate to the next game. So just finishing the game strong, regardless of whatever's going on, making sure we're having the right habits, so when we go into the next game, we're doing what we just were doing. We're not just giving up. We don't want to give up, ever."
That's a valuable lesson for 29 other teams around the NBA. It's also the type of mentality that now has the Knicks one win away from their first championship in 53 years.
It just took the most improbable comeback in NBA Finals history to get there.
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