The Comeback Knicks are the Champion Knicks.
The New York Knicks closed out the San Antonio Spurs, 94-90, in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, winning the series 4-1 and ending a championship drought that stretched back to 1973. The Knicks rallied from double-digit deficits in all four of their wins in this series—including a historic 29-point comeback in Game 4—and Saturday’s 16-point hole felt, by comparison, almost routine.
Jalen Brunson made sure of it. The Finals MVP scored 45 points, including 13 straight for New York in the fourth quarter, setting a Knicks record for points in a Finals game. The previous mark of 38 had belonged to Willis Reed since Game 3 of the 1970 series against the Los Angeles Lakers. It now belongs to the lefty point guard who arrived in New York four years ago and changed everything.
“I have no words,” Brunson said during the on-court celebration. “It’s everything I ever dreamed of.”
San Antonio Dominates Early . . . Again
The game itself nearly did not look like it would end this way. San Antonio took a double-digit first-quarter lead for the fifth time in the series—the first team in the play-by-play era, dating back to 1996-97, to do that in a single Finals. The Knicks, meanwhile, could not find the basket. They missed 16 of their first 18 shots and started 0-for-11 on two-point attempts. At one point in the second quarter, Victor Wembanyama had more blocked shots—5—than the Knicks had made field goals—4. San Antonio’s lead grew to 10 in the first quarter and 16 in the second.
None of it mattered.
New York answered with a 22-9 run in the second quarter to cut the deficit to three, though Devin Vassell beat the halftime buzzer to give the Spurs a 42-37 edge at the break. The first half produced just 79 combined points—the lowest in a Finals game since Game 7 of the 2010 Lakers-Celtics series—and a combined 31.8% shooting clip, the worst first-half shooting in a Finals game in the play-by-play era.
Then the second half arrived, and so did Brunson.
“It’s surreal,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.
Brown, hired just a year ago, became the franchise’s 24th coach since its last championship. “I still can’t believe it’s happened.”
“Nova Knicks” Step Up
Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart—the other two-thirds of the “Nova Knicks” trio with Brunson, all three former NCAA champions at Villanova—combined for 27 points, with Bridges scoring 14 and Hart adding 13. For Brunson, the symmetry of the moment was not lost on him. He won NCAA titles with Villanova in Houston in 2016 and in San Antonio in 2018—just a few miles from the arena where the Spurs play. A Texas three-step of championships, and this one topped them all.
“It’s why I came to New York,” Brunson said.
Dylan Harper led San Antonio with 25 points, while Wembanyama added 19 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 blocks in a losing effort. The young Frenchman tried to find meaning in the defeat.
“This is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment,” Wembanyama said. “I can’t tell exactly what the lesson is, but we’re learning.”
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson did not mince words.
“We weren’t ready to win an NBA championship,” Johnson said. “The better team won. We did a lot of good things, and we didn’t finish the job. That’s what it is.”
New York Celebrates
The Knicks finished a perfect 4-0 in closeout opportunities this season—all on the road. It barely felt like the road on Saturday, with thousands of New York fans having made the trip to Texas to witness 53 years of waiting come to an end.
Back home, the city erupted. Fireworks lit the sky. Horns blared on packed streets. Firefighters leaned out of their trucks to high-five delirious fans below.
“HISTORY,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote on social media, confirming the championship parade for Thursday.
It started with a 29-point comeback on Wednesday—the largest in NBA Finals history. It ended with a 16-point comeback on Saturday and a 45-point performance for the ages. The Comeback Knicks are champions. New York, at long last, rules the NBA again.
