Barbara Barker: Knicks prove to be human with Game 3 loss to Spurs
Knicks forward OG Anunoby tries to defend against San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama during the first quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday at Madison Square Garden. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams
OK, so the Knicks are mortal.
The Knicks succumbed to the San Antonio Spurs, a great bounce-back game by Victor Wembanyama and perhaps the craziness of the night Monday.
As a result, they suffered their first loss in 45 days, dropping Game 3 of the NBA Finals, 115-111.
The loss means the Knicks will not sweep their third straight opponent. Instead, it narrows their lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 is Wednesday at the Garden.
Twenty-seven years. That’s how long New Yorkers had waited for this game, the first NBA Finals contest to be played this century at Madison Square Garden.
They had endured countless bad draft choices, 15 coaching changes, and free agent snubs by the likes of LeBron James and Kevin Durant. Instead of good basketball, they had been force-fed nostalgia and tales of long-ago glory years that many fans were too young to remember.
This all goes a long way in explaining the craziness that overtook the arena Monday night, why fans were willing to pay $6,000 or more to come two hours early and face TSA-level screenings to get in the door. Everyone from President Donald Trump to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Cardi B to Derek Jeter were in the house to watch the first NBA Finals game to be played in New York since June 21, 1999.
This Knicks team, however, is far better than that one that lost to Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs in five games. This Knicks team had won 13 straight games with their last loss coming in Game 3 of their first-round series against Atlanta. No Knicks team has won a championship since 1973, but this Knicks team still has a good chance if they can quickly learn from this loss.
This is the seventh time the Knicks’ Mike Brown has coached in the NBA Finals. He did it once before as a head coach in Cleveland and five times as an assistant with Golden State. He admitted that this level of craziness is something that could be a challenge for his team.
“You know, right now, the amount of media and noise that’s outside is something that the guys, most guys, haven’t seen,” Brown said. “And so trying to continue to ignore it; they are human, so they are going to hear some of it.
“And [we’re] going to try to continue to ignore it by telling them or constantly reminding them about it is huge, so that they don’t get distracted from the task at hand, which is the next game or the next possession.”
Karl-Anthony Towns, who had been stellar against Wembanyama in the Knicks’ first two wins, shot just 4-for-10 and finished with 11 points. He blamed turnovers and lack of execution for the loss, not the high expectations from fans.
“Our fans brought it,” He said. “They always do. Of course, they lived up to the expectations. Exceeded them. We didn’t do our job to give them something to cheer for [during] the game.”
The Spurs had won games in hostile arenas before. They clinched a trip to the Finals by winning a Game 7 in Oklahoma City in the Western Conference Finals. Still, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson realized that the atmosphere at Madison Square Garden was going to be a whole new level of toughness.
“This will be as hostile of an environment as we have been in this season,” Johnson said in his pregame news conference. “Obviously, it’s the Finals. It’s New York. I don’t know what measurement or level of explanation would probably describe it accurately.
“But I think our group is confident. I think our group has been sharp. I think we are continuing to get clarity on how we need to play this series as we have in the previous three series. And we’re playing a team that’s playing high, high-level basketball right now with a ton of confidence. I love where our disposition and temperament is at going into the game.”
Wembanyama had taken a lot of heat for the way he crumbled down the stretch of Game 2, turning the ball over and missing a potential game-winning shot. All the pressure should have been on the 7-4 Frenchman entering what everyone saw as a must-win game.
Wembanyama, however, looked anything but stressed. Early that morning, a photo circulated on social media of the 22-year-old, sketch pad in hand, drawing a picture of a statue in Gramercy Park.
He then took his artistry to a new level Monday night, scoring 32 points with eight rebounds and three blocks.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
