NEW YORK — A championship drought spanning five decades for the New York Knicks may have turned on a single play lasting just 4 1/2 seconds.
Those precious few seconds will be etched forever in both Knicks and San Antonio Spurs history.
The scene: Game 4 of the NBA Finals, with New York trailing by a single point in a contest where they had fallen behind by as much as 29 points. With 5.7 seconds remaining on the clock, they called a timeout just after Jose Alvarado nearly turned the ball over with a backcourt violation.
The dramatic sequence unfolded like this.
Following the timeout, New York’s Josh Hart was devastated. He took responsibility for a defensive breakdown that allowed San Antonio’s Stephon Castle to sink two free throws, giving the Spurs a 106-105 advantage.
“I’m sitting there just hoping my guys make a play,” Hart said.
OG Anunoby handled the inbound pass for New York. San Antonio chose not to pressure the inbounder, instead using all five defenders to cover the four Knicks players in motion. Jalen Brunson broke away from multiple defenders, including the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, this season’s Defensive Player of the Year, and received the pass around midcourt.
Brunson dribbled once before launching a shot from approximately 31 feet away, arcing it over Wembanyama’s extended left hand. The attempt, which stayed airborne for roughly 1.2 seconds, fell short and caromed off the rim into the air.
Anunoby — completely unguarded — raced from his inbound position toward the basket, anticipating a potential rebound opportunity.
“I just went and crashed,” Anunoby said. “Tried to get a tip-dunk or something. The ball went over my head, so I couldn’t really dunk it. So, I tried to tip it in softly.”
With 2.5 seconds showing, Anunoby jumped. Several Knicks players, including Karl-Anthony Towns, were being blocked out by San Antonio defenders. However, Anunoby slipped past the Spurs’ Dylan Harper and Devin Vassell undetected.
“I was contesting the first shot,” Wembanyama said. “Turned around and saw him up there. That’s all I saw.”
As Anunoby soared through the air, he extended his right arm upward, just beyond Vassell’s reach. He managed to get his thumb and several fingers on the basketball, redirecting it toward the basket.
“Right hand from God,” Towns called it.
Anunoby crashed to the court. The ball cleared the front rim. Brunson raised his fist skyward. The Garden held its collective breath.
Announcer Mike Breen initially thought Brunson’s three-pointer would find its mark. Ultimately, Breen shouted “Bedlam here at the Garden! They can’t believe it!” as Anunoby’s tip shot swished through the net.
Hart — who also missed a potential go-ahead layup in the closing moments — expressed eternal gratitude.
“I’ve got a special shoutout for OG, man,” Hart said. “He saved me, at least for this game, a lifetime of regret.”
If Brunson’s missed shot had bounced differently, Anunoby never would have reached the rebound.
“Bounced off the rim the right way,” Harper said. “He tipped it in the right way. It went in. I could play, ‘Wish I could have did this, wish I could have did that.’ But at the end of the day, he tipped the ball, and it went in.”
The one-point advantage represented New York’s largest lead of the entire evening.
It proved to be sufficient.
“That has to be the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “I’m not you guys. You guys know better than me. But it was just unbelievable.”
