Knicks steal Game 1 as Spurs stumble again

Knicks steal – The New York Knicks took a major early lead in the 2026 NBA Finals with a 105-95 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, turning a brief late scare into an 11-0 closing run after Jalen Brunson and the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama traded moments of momentum. D

Wednesday’s Game 1 didn’t feel like it was moving toward the Knicks’ version of basketball for long stretches. New York looked rusty at points. The shots weren’t always there. The spacing, the rhythm, the comfort—some of it was off.

Then came the second-half turn. the kind that makes even the best teams look briefly mortal before they decide it won’t last. The Knicks grinded out a 105-95 win over the Spurs in San Antonio. stealing the opener with a 24-point swing in the second half. They climbed back from being down 14 in the third quarter and. after a scare late in the fourth. finished the night on an 11-0 run to close it out.

San Antonio made a push when Victor Wembanyama connected on a triple late in the fourth quarter to put the Spurs up by one with 1:52 to play. But the Knicks answered immediately—first with a quick three from Jalen Brunson. then with another jumper from the man who has been doing this all postseason as a 30-minute catalyst. When the Spurs’ final chance window passed. the Knicks were still moving. still attacking. still finishing. and the score kept turning back in their favor.

For all that momentum, the Knicks didn’t even play their best brand of offense. They shot 41.5% from the floor and 30.6% from three, and the 105 points were their lowest output of the playoffs. The Spurs showed why they were dangerous anyway—especially on the nights when the game tilted toward the paint and Wembanyama had something to prove in his NBA Finals debut.

Wembanyama still produced a full stat line: 26 points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks. But he also had a hard time finding consistency. He shot 7-of-21 from the floor and committed six turnovers. And what the Knicks seemed to want was simple: let him show off what he can do. then live with the limited damage.

That gamble paid off. The Knicks allowed Wembanyama to demonstrate his perimeter skills to only limited effect. even as they conceded stretches where his size and athleticism could have rewritten the game. Instead. New York collapsed at the rim. accepted the trade of free throws for stops. and made the Spurs earn every possession.

San Antonio, for its part, enters the series carrying a heavy consequence. By falling behind 1-0 on their home floor. the Spurs surrendered the momentum they had built by eliminating the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Now the situation looks sharper and harsher: they have to find a way to blunt the Knicks’ 12-game post-season win streak or risk heading to New York down 2-0.

Game 2 is set for Friday, with Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ listed for 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. PT.

The biggest swing was how the Spurs tried to slow Shai Gilgeous-Alexander—then what that plan did to the Knicks’ primary driver.

The Knicks’ second-half surge didn’t start in a vacuum. San Antonio’s whole path to these Finals runs through the defensive work they put together against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. the two-time MVP. In this series. the Thunder star was held to 17 points per 100 possessions below his season average. and his efficiency dropped as well. He shot 40.1% against the Spurs after being a 55% shooter during the regular season. His paint production also fell from 40% of his regular-season points to 26.5% against San Antonio.

There was a blunt idea embedded in Gilgeous-Alexander’s own reflection after the Finals: “There’s a guy on their back line that’s a little bit different from everyone else’s.”

In Game 1, the Spurs’ perimeter identity showed up again through Stephon Castle, who has emerged as one of the NBA’s best perimeter defenders in his second season. The question for the Knicks, of course, was whether San Antonio’s attention could do the same thing to Jalen Brunson.

Through the first three quarters, it did—at least enough to make the early picture ugly. Brunson was 7-of-22 with four turnovers through that stretch.

But then the fourth quarter belonged to him. As Wembanyama’s presence and the Spurs’ athletic wing defenders started to feel less like a wall. Brunson got rolling partly because the Knicks set their offense up quickly. That pace gave him opportunities against scrambled defenses. New York also found specific isolation looks, getting Brunson isolated on Justin Champagnie for a couple of key possessions. Those matchups mattered. Brunson scored 13 of his 30 points in the last eight minutes of the game.

Even when San Antonio tried to lean on its best big-game structure for Wembanyama, the Knicks still managed a night that didn’t fully allow the Spurs’ star to settle into the role he wants.

OG Anunoby was described as one of the better answers for guarding Wembanyama—six-foot-seven. 240 pounds. built to feel comfortable at the square-up but also strong enough to stop the paint from becoming easy. Advanced tracking data. among players who have guarded Wembanyama for at least 100 possessions. places Anunoby as the most effective holder at 18.3 points per 100 matchups.

Yet the interesting part of Game 1 was that Anunoby didn’t spend much time directly matched up with Wembanyama. Karl-Anthony Towns drew most of that assignment, while Anunoby was free to help. When he did get a chance, he had some success disturbing Wembanyama on spin moves.

The approach worked because the kind of aggressiveness Wembanyama showed at the rim and in the paint against the Oklahoma City Thunder didn’t fully materialize here. With Towns’ bulk in front of him, Wembanyama leaned more toward playing as a giant two-guard offensively. His shooting wasn’t there. The Knicks repeatedly collapsed on him in the paint. and even when they were trading fouls for shot deterrence. the end result stayed under control.

Wembanyama went 12-of-13 from the free-throw line, and yet New York still kept getting the looks and stops it wanted—willing to exchange free throws for lob dunks.

That leaves the Knicks with a kind of insurance they might not even need yet: they were able to hold Wembanyama to a sub-par game without spending Anunoby on him directly, a wrinkle they can keep ready for later.

Another story unfolded for San Antonio in a way that felt almost inevitable once you started watching the rhythm shift. Dylan Harper turned 20 three months ago. and he arrived in the Finals with a name that carries weight behind it—his father. Ron Harper. who won three titles with the Chicago Bulls from 1996-1998 and then won with the Los Angeles Lakers alongside Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in 2000 and 2001.

In Game 1, Harper looked like he belonged in the room. He was a sparkplug off the bench. He was the Spurs’ best player in the first half—apologies to Champagnie, who scored 15 of his 16 points in the first half and hit five threes—but Harper lifted San Antonio after a slow start.

Harper drove and earned a three-point play, stole a Brunson pass, got fouled and made his free throws, and then knocked down a three. In those 16 first-half minutes, he had 12 points and was +12.

Early in the third quarter, his driving lay-up gave the Spurs a 14-point lead—the high point for San Antonio. Even though the Spurs didn’t hold that momentum, Harper’s comfort in the Finals environment gives them something to believe they can build on going into Game 2.

Defensively. San Antonio’s plan on paper was straightforward: Wembanyama was to cover Josh Hart in name. while realistically ignoring him. Hart has been one of the Knicks’ most dangerous pieces when he’s rolling. but the Spurs were comfortable leaving him open because Hart came into the game shooting just 30% from three in the playoffs.

For the most part, the plan landed. Hart was 1-of-5 from the floor and 0-for-3 from deep, and through the first three quarters the broadcast statistic pointed to the same theme: the Knicks were 3-of-14 with Wembanyama as the contesting defender.

Then Hart made it clear why “open” doesn’t always mean “safe.” He paid attention to the rest of the game. Hart finished with 15 rebounds, six assists, and four steals and was +22 in his 27 minutes. San Antonio will need to account for him differently if it wants to avoid another late-quarter swing.

The night’s most complete big-man performance came from Towns. He was the Spurs’ and Knicks’ best big on the court, forcing Wembanyama to guard him away from the basket with elite perimeter shooting. Towns had early success driving past the Defensive Player of the Year.

He also attacked the glass every time San Antonio put a guard on him or when Wembanyama was drawn away to defend the ball or block shots. Towns finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists without a turnover. Four of his rebounds were offensive boards.

If the Spurs hope to win Game 2. they’ll have to match the kind of aggression Towns showed—and they’ll have to find a way to turn their defensive structure into something that lasts past the third quarter. In Game 1, the Knicks didn’t need everything to go perfectly. They needed enough. And in the last minutes, they had the extra answers.

NBA Finals Knicks Spurs Game 1 Jalen Brunson Victor Wembanyama Shai Gilgeous-Alexander OG Anunoby Karl-Anthony Towns Dylan Harper Stephon Castle