The Game That Shouldn't Have Happened

The Knicks were down 27 points at halftime. Win probability: 1%. The largest comeback in Finals history before Wednesday night was 24 points. There was no scenario where New York won this game.

And yet.

I don't even have a clean way to explain what I watched. The Spurs put up arguably the best half of basketball they've played all season — 76-49, the third largest halftime lead in Finals history. Victor Wembanyama was otherworldly. The game was, for all practical purposes, over. You start thinking about Game 5, about how the Spurs go home with all the momentum, about how this is the year a 22-year-old alien from France wins the title.

Then the Spurs came out in the third quarter and shot 4-for-20.

Here's where it gets genuinely hard to rationalize: it wasn't just that the Knicks made their run. It's that the Spurs helped. Contested threes four seconds into the shot clock, down 20. De'Aaron Fox throwing it directly to no one. WBY missing both free throws with a one-point lead and under a minute to play. Fox driving and getting blocked by OG with 14 seconds left instead of just holding the ball. These are professionals. In the Finals. Making the kinds of decisions that end careers.

OG Anunoby went for six threes. Six. Brunson was Brunson — hit the dagger triple over WBY to make it a one-point game with two minutes left. But it was OG's tip-in off Brunson's missed floater with 1.2 seconds remaining that actually finished it. 107-106. The greatest comeback in NBA Finals history.

Is the series over? Knicks are up 3-1 and only one team has ever come back from that deficit. Do the Spurs have anything left after handing this one away?

I don't know. But I know I'll be watching Game 5 with the same sick feeling that nothing is guaranteed.