The New York Knicks did not just win Game 1 of the NBA Finals. They stole something the San Antonio Spurs were not supposed to give up.
Jalen Brunson scored 30 points and dropped 13 of them in the fourth quarter to lead the Knicks to a 105-95 win at Frost Bank Center on Wednesday night. New York becomes the first team ever to win a Finals Game 1 in San Antonio. The Spurs were 6-0 in those games until tonight.
The win pushes the Knicks to 12 straight playoff victories. That number puts them in the same conversation as two of the most dominant runs in modern NBA history. Only the 1999 Spurs and the 2015 Warriors have done it. The 1999 team won a championship. The 2015 team won a championship. The 2026 Knicks are now on that list.
This was not supposed to happen. The Spurs were favored to win Game 1 at home. They had nine days of rest. They have home court. They have Victor Wembanyama in his prime year as the most dominant defensive player in the league. New York was supposed to take a few games to settle in.
Instead, the Knicks came out and played a near-perfect game. They shot 49 percent from the floor and 38 percent from three. They forced 14 turnovers. They controlled the glass. They turned every Spurs run into a wall of buckets from Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Mikal Bridges.
The fourth quarter was the part where it all came together. Down by two heading into the final frame, New York went on a 27-15 run to close the game. Brunson got hot from mid-range. Towns hit three big shots from the elbow. Bridges locked down Wembanyama for stretches and forced two crucial turnovers.
The Brunson injury scare in the first quarter could have killed the entire night. He got rolled into by Harrison Barnes on a rebound attempt and went straight to the locker room favoring his right knee. He came back. He played through it. He scored 30 points anyway. That is the heart of a Finals MVP candidate.
For the Spurs, this is a wake-up call. Wembanyama still finished with 26 points, 14 rebounds, and five blocks, but he could not bend the game to his will in crunch time. De’Aaron Fox added 23 points but turned the ball over six times. Harrison Barnes had 14 but went 1 of 6 from three. The supporting cast did not give Wembanyama enough.
The Spurs also have to figure out how to handle Brunson. Their defensive game plan was to switch everything and force him into mid-range looks. He just made those mid-range looks. There is no help defense for a guy who is hitting pull-up jumpers from 17 feet with two hands in his face.
Mitch Johnson is going to spend the next two days re-watching film and adjusting. The Spurs probably go to more drop coverage and try to force Brunson left, which is his weaker side. They probably also send a quick double on every catch from Towns at the elbow to take away his three-point look.
For the Knicks, the formula is simple. Keep playing the way they played in the fourth quarter. Trust Brunson late. Get Towns easy looks early in the shot clock. Make Wembanyama work for every shot.
Game 2 is Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC. If the Knicks win that one too, they go back to Madison Square Garden up 2-0 with a real chance to close out their first championship in 53 years.
The 1973 Knicks are getting nervous about losing their place in franchise history. The 2026 Knicks just made the strongest case yet that they are coming for it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
