The New York Knicks dropped Game 3 of the NBA Finals but are still set up fairly handsomely on the championship ledger.
New York Knicks fans waited 27 years for the graces of the NBA Finals to return to 7th and 8th Avenues. They'll have to wait at least 48 hours to see the end of another streak, that of a Finals game victory under Madison Square Garden's iconic ceiling.
A crowd of 19,812—an output that included sitting U.S. President Donald Trump—was treated to a thrilling Finals fracas on Monday, but that was likely no consolation to a passionate Knicks fanbase that had to witness a 115-111 defeat to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the best-of-seven showdown.
Jalen Brunson scored 32 points while OG Anunoby followed with 28, but that wasn't enough to grant the Knicks a 3-0 series lead in the ongoing championship set. New York was on the wrong end of the scoreboard for the first time since April 23, when it fell behind 2-1 in its opening round series with Atlanta.
"We've done our best to try to learn from wins over the past couple weeks, but now we have to learn from a loss," a stoic Brunson said in the aftermath. "I think the most important thing is that we are going to learn regardless, because we knew there were things that we were going to have to improve on going into next game. So the mindset stays the same."
A Frantic 48 Begins
The Knicks' reputation as a gold mine of engagement for aggregators and prognosticators set make for an eventful countdown until Game 4.
Viral takes emerged even before the final buzzer sounded: the most egregious came from Charles Barkley, the NBA legend and ABC commentator who was willing to call the series "a wrap" with the Knicks nursing a seven-point halftime lead. Equally egregious takes from the opposite end of the spectrum will no doubt emerge in the wake of the Spurs' recovery.
With a hope of keeping things rational, BIL looks at a trio of trials the Knicks faced in Game 3 and reasonable reactions for present and future ...
Brunson frustrated at Wemby 😳 pic.twitter.com/0xd2HO78NV
— ESPN (@espn) June 9, 2026
RIDICULOUS: Momentum belongs to San Antonio.
REALITY: The Knicks are firmly in control of their destiny.
Four years into this Brunson era, one where the Knicks regularly rent the Association penthouse, the world still doesn't know how to act when they lose. For all the flack that Knicks fans get for their overexuberance that turns MSG's surrounding areas into a madhouse for any and all playoff wins, the team's critics are equally rash.
It feels like Knicks season has "ended" on multiple occasions this year, be it the struggle to defeat conference-leading Detroit or MLK Day maladies against lowly Dallas. Heck, many were ready to print head coach Mike Brown's walking papers for the crime of falling behind to the Hawks in the opening round, a feeling that gained further traction when previous head coaching target Jason Kidd was relieved of his own duties in North Texas.
Public perception will no doubt try to pull a similar heist of momentum now that the Spurs are on the board. The more optimistic approach is that San Antonio needed to throw all of its physical paint at the wall to survive this round, a canvas where the focal point is a 24-8 free throw discrepancy over the final 24 minutes.
Eight different Spurs visited the foul line in that stretch while only Anunoby and Brunson shot singles for New York. Even with all that, the Knicks kept the game in the one-possession realm until the final stanzas, a stark contrast to another San Antonio lead that dominated the early stages before going by the wayside in favor of late dramatics.
New York can also take solace in the fact that Game 3 warmed up some of its hibernating talents: Josh Hart broke loose for a 16-point performance built primarily on a four-three performance that served as the foundation for the Knicks' comeback while Jordan Clarkson had 10 off the bench after going scoreless in the first two games. Mikal Bridges, noted for frequently emerging in the Knicks' most dire hours of postseason need, was handicapped by early foul trouble but still posted a team-best plus-11 in his 28 minutes.
RIDICULOUS: The Knicks are playing both the Spurs and the refs.
REALITY: The Knicks' issues are fixable from the inside.
The Knicks made their displeasure with officiating quite clear in their postgame comments. Noted for his mild-mannered sideline demeanor, Brown took a more polite route than the Knicks' supporters by offering San Antonio its props all while expressing shock at a whistle that was hardly charitable.
"We didn't play good. San Antonio played great. We could have played better ... But to go 24 free throw attempts in the second half, that's 48 for the game if you think about the way they called that second half, compared to eight," Brown remarked. "All the shots we took, we got fouled four times, roughly, for eight free throw attempts. Again, I don't complain much. I never thought I'd see that in an NBA Finals game, and I saw it tonight. That's tough to overcome when you're playing against a great team."
Brown's proteges, however, mostly absolved the whistleblowers. Karl-Anthony Towns, for example, chided himself and his teammates for drifting away from the principles that built the streak.
"[Officiating] ain't cost us the game," Towns said. "[We] turned the ball over, didn't execute, didn't do what got us 13 straight wins in a row. That's how you lose a game. We didn't do what we've been doing for 13. We decided to do something different, and it ain't going to work. Throwing the ball away is a clear indication of how you're going to lose the game, especially in the playoffs."
Towns had several data points on his side: after losing nine turnovers in the entirety of Game 1, New York lost eight alone in Monday's second half, preventing them from building upon their fleeting leads in the frame. Forcing them on the other end proved equally problematic. The Knicks forced seven steals in the narrow fourth quarters of the first two games but had none in the last dozen of Monday's game.
What the Knicks accomplished over the last month-plus was a self-made streak, handily handling business en route to the Finals. But that works for better and worse: they'll win on their own and lose on their own. They were able to recover well enough the first time around. Their work amidst the streak hints that they'll be able to conjure up something similar.
OG Anunoby pump fakes, goes around Victor Wembanyama and dunks it (with replays).
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) June 9, 2026
A deja vu pic.twitter.com/pYWaA1QwyO
RIDICULOUS: Wembanyama is the Finals MVP front-runner.
REALITY: Have we forgotten Anunoby?
For better or worse, the Finals MVP title named after the late Bill Russell feels destined to land in the hands of either Wembanyama or Brunson. Such titles, after all, often boil down to popularity contests and Wembanyama certainly got a hand on the title on Monday thanks to a 32-point showing that featured brilliant bookends. Brunson, for his part, has maintained the clutch gene despite lacking his usual shooting touch.
But Anunoby is putting forth one of the finest cases for a steal and a single loss shouldn't negate that: in addition to continuing to hound the San Antonio threats as the Knicks ate away at the early deficit, he put up a postseason-best 28 points that mixed both his newfound three-point prowess but also agile blows by Wembanyama and his contemporaries. A corner triple toward the end kept the Knicks' hopes alive until the very end, only further spotlighting his importance to the cause.
When all is said and done, Anunoby may go down as the magnum opus for Knicks president and primary decisionmaker Leon Rose. The Brunson case was a brilliant example of flipping the script in the family's favor but the Anunoby trade involved legitimate risk by trading homegrown franchise faces RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. Raising the Russell trophy would be the finest form of vindication, even if it doesn't get social media talking.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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