San Antonio Spurs vs New York Knicks: Spurs get 32 from Wembanyama, hang on to win 115-111

All three games won on the road in the Finals? That’s only happened once before.

Behind a bounce-back game from Victor Wembanyama, with him scoring 32 (plus eight rebounds and three blocks), the San Antonio Spurs hang on and get the Game 3 win, 115-111. Wembanyama outdueled Jalen Brunson in the clutch this time, outscoring the Knicks star 13-12 in the fourth.

An incredibly resilient win from a team that showed that last round (they were down 3-2 to the defending champs).

Jalen Brunson scored 32 on 11-of-25 shooting to lead the Knicks, while OG Anunoby had a huge game and scored 28 on 9-of-13 shooting.

Game 4, on Wednesday night in Madison Square Garden, becomes huge for both sides.

Stephon Castle, the UConn guy, is making big plays and causing pain in MSG again.

The Knicks gave themselves a chance. We saw the Spurs make the big mistake last game, can they inbound the ball and hit their free throws?

The Knicks will be aggressive going for the steal.

Brunson was making shots, the Spurs had been missing...

And that’s why De’Aaron Fox is an All-Star.

Brunson is up to seven in the fourth quarter but the rest of the Knicks are 1-of-10 in the quarter.

Victor Wembanyama has taken over with 13 points in the fourth quarter and he has the Spurs up eight.

Do we get another Brunson clutch game, or do the Spurs hang on and make this series a lot more interesting?

Just something to watch: Stephon Castle, De’Aaron Fox, and Dylan Harper have combined to shoot 2-of-16 from 3 this season, and some of those are wide open.

The Spurs advantage, the Knicks are in the penalty early and that means free throws with every foul.

Mike Brown’s challenge of Victor Wembanyama’s potential four-point play could prove to be crucial.

Wembanyama hit a 3-pointer and was fouled by Robinson, but as soon as the call was made, Brown challenged it saying Keldon Johnson pushed Robinson into Wemby. The referees agreed and the 3-pointer went away.

Then Brunson went down, hit a layup and what was going to be a 10-point Spurs lead was down to five, 100-95, with 7:31 left.

Victor Wembanyama is doing Wemby things — 22 points, 7 boards, five assists — but he is just +4 in a game the Spurs lead by one. Stephon Castle has 18, but the third quarter stars for San Antonio were Champagnie (now with a dozen points), and Dylan Harper has 13 (you can just tell he is going to be the second-best Spur in two more years).

OG Anunoby leads the Knicks with 22 on 7-of-9 shooting, and Brunson has 20. Jordan Clarkson has 10 off the bench.

Odds after Q3:
Spurs (-120), Knicks (-110)
Spread: Spurs -1.5
Total: 233.5

San Antonio is attacking in the third, with eight of their 16 shots so far at the rim.

Feels like we have a game that’s going to the wire tonight.

We don’t know how this game is going to turn out, but the resiliency of this young Spurs team is impressive.

They were down 3-2 to the defending champs and beat them twice to get to the Finals. They could have rolled over in Game 3 when the Knicks got on a run, but instead, they came out hard in the third and made it a game. That speaks to the makeup of this team.

Knicks guard Jalen Brunson has dealt with physical contact throughout the NBA Finals, and Game 3 has been no exception. However, the Spurs’ physicality wasn’t enough to keep him from making a wild shot during the third quarter.

After struggling with his shot in the first two games of the series, Brunson is 7-of-16 thus far in Game 3.

Just a couple of highlights from the crowd at MSG.

Cardi B was the surprise halftime performer.

Spike Lee’s jersey for the night is classic.

It’s hard to describe the energy in the building.

Jalen Brunson didn’t get the flagrant call he tried to draw on Julian Champagnie in the first half (it wasn’t one, just a hard playoff foul), nor did he get one on the shot from Wembanyama (that should have been a flagrant.

However, Brunson was given one in the third quarter for a close-out and taking away the landing spot for Champagnie, who hit the 3-pointer anyway.

Champagnie had the first six points of the second half for the Spurs.

68-67 Knicks early in the third quarter.

New York found its offense in the second half, scoring 42 points on 14-of-19 shooting and with that lead by seven at the half, 64-57.

It’s a huge turnaround from being down as many as 12 in the first half, but the Knicks had some success with a small-ball lineup. OG Anunoby has 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting to lead the way.

Josh Hart is hitting his 3-pointers (3-of-4) and has 13 points, and Jalen Brunson found his footing in the second quarter and has 15.

Stephon Castle has been the best Spur and has 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting, while Wembanyama has 15.

For a series that has been very defensive, this game has been very different, with the Spurs shooting 53.5% and the Knicks shooting 57.9%.

Stephon Castle is the story. After a rough couple of games, he has 18 early points on 7-of-8 shooting, and he got five of those buckets at the rim. He is the reason the Spurs lead by five.

New York has gone on an 8-0 run in under a minute and it’s 40-38 Spurs with 8:12 left in the game.

Karl-Anthony Towns has started to assert himself, but it was some strong play off the bench from Jose Alvarado and Jordan Clarkson — two guys who have seen very limited minutes this series — that sparked the run.

Give the young Spurs credit, they have responded to a gut-punch of a loss.

San Antonio shot 60.9% from the floor and had 11 assists on 14 made shots. More importantly, this has been the Spurs’ best defensive quarter of the series.

Victor Wembanyama has nine points and a couple of blocks. The Spurs lead the points in the paint 16-12 and the San Antonio bench has outscored the Knicks 6-1.

DraftKing Odds after one quarter:
Game: Spurs -250, Knicks +190
Spread: Spurs -6.5
Total: 213.5

San Antonio pushed its lead out to 11, but the second Victor Wembanyama went to the bench the Knicks got more aggressive, forced some turnovers, and Mitch Johnson decided to call a timeout to slow the momentum down.

Josh Hart leads the Knicks with eight points, and it is a good sign for them that he is 2-of-3 from 3.

Everyone knew it was coming, even President Donald Trump, who smirked when it happened (you could see it on the broadcast.

When Trump was shown on the Jumbotron in the arena during the national anthem, Knicks fans booed. Loudly.

San Antonio started out with a 7-0 run as the Knicks looked like the team dealing with a little bit of nerves.

While the scoring settled down, the Spurs have stayed hot and have shot 8-of-10 from the floor and now lead 19-9. San Antonio is doing a better job of getting its guards into the paint on drives, and those drives led to two fouls and a quick exit for Miles Bridges.

Wembanyama already has nine points.

A must-win game for the Spurs — or Wednesday night is going to be a coronation for the Knicks — started off with a missed shots by both teams.

The energy in the building is incredible.

It feels like Madison Square Garden will be filled with boos at least a couple of times during Game 3, but Knicks fans were starting early.

While a lot of fans struggled to get into the arena due to added security measures, there were still enough in their seats early to boo Victor Wembanyama when he came out to warm up.

Same when the Spurs came out before tip-off.

Sitting at the counter/bar at a restaurant in San Antonio last week, a couple seats down from me was a decked out Knicks fan, who was laying out the math for a bartender wearing her Spurs gear: The cost of a scapled ticket ($900) plus the round-trip flight to Texas, a couple nights in a hotel and even with all the drinks and meals, was going to be about half the price of just getting the cheapest ticket at Madison Square Garden for Game 3.

Concerns about the issues caused by extra security for Game 3 drove secondary ticket prices down a little, but the math still checks out for the guy at the bar in San Antonio. And if you really want to see how times have changed, check out this from Front Office Sports comparing 1999 and 2026.

The San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks are sticking with their usual starting lineups for Game 3 of the NBA Finals, with the latter looking to defend home court after winning Games 1 and 2 in San Antonio.

Starting for the Spurs are De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie and Victor Wembanyama. The Knicks counter with Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns.

After spending the majority of his time in Game 1 defending Towns, Wembanyama was assigned the task of guarding Hart more often in Game 2. That approach allowed him to take on a “free safety” role, and the Spurs may look to do more of that moving forward.

Today, Karl-Anthony Towns is a hero in New York, maybe the Finals MVP frontrunner after two games, less for his scoring (still 19.5 points with 12.5 rebounds a game) and more for his defense on Victor Wembanyama, keeping the future face of the league in relative check and never letting him get comfortable.

That was not always the case. Last summer and close to the February trade deadline, many (most, I would argue) Knicks fans were ready to trade him for Giannis Antetokounmpo without a second thought.

Now? He’s turning heads, including around the league, and the discussion is more “Is he a Hall of Famer?” There have long been flashes of this Towns, we’d see him for a game or two, but then he’d disappear. Now this time. During the Knicks 13-game win streak he has been the Knicks most efficient and consistent player, and this has been the best stretch of defense in his career. No doubt.

That will lead to questions about his next contract, but neither Towns nor the Knicks are thinking about that right now.

Mike Brown, like pretty much every player or staff member with the Knicks, does not live in Manhattan. That may be where the games are, but everyone with the team spends more time at the team’s practice facility in Tarrytown, about 27 miles away, closer to White Plains. So players and coaches live out there.

Brown usually just commutes to Midtown Manhattan on game days, but with the craziness around Game 3 — including President Donald Trump attending the game — he changed up his routine. Not that it threw him off.

“I’m just locked in, man, on Game 3...” Brown said. “I stayed downtown because we were practicing [at Madison Square Garden]. So I stayed downtown at the team hotel. I’ve never done that on a game before. But it’s easier because we’re practicing here, and so staying downtown and coming from our hotel to here was a shorter drive or a shorter commute than what I’m used to coming from Westchester County.”

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson (obviously already staying in a hotel) was unfazed by all of it.

“I have not felt any inconvenience,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a big game tonight, and trying to continue to find a way to play closer to our standard and our identity than we had in the first two games.”

There’s a lot going on, and I’d much rather be a part of it than not.

After being an underdog on the road (and winning both games outright), the New York Knicks come home to Madison Square Garden and are now the favorites to take a commanding 3-0 series lead.

Here are the odds for Game 2, courtesy of our partners at DraftKings:

Game odds: Knicks -1.5 (-115)

Moneyline: Knicks -125, Spurs +105

Over/Under: 215.5

(The line for Game 3 started with the Knicks at -2.5 but has come down.)

Odds to win series:

Knicks -500

Spurs +380

On a normal Monday, Midtown Manhattan is a beehive of activity and people. Throw in the first NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden in 27 years and the energy and buzz in the area and the city are at a fever pitch.

Then add President Donald Trump attending Game 3 — accepting an offer from Knicks owner/governor James Dolan — and you have something almost unprecedented. And a level of security to match.

Five blocks around Madison Square Garden have been blocked off and shut down to all vehicular traffic — only people with a ticket for the game can get past the security barrier. That means the outdoor watch parties planned near the arena in Midtown had to be canceled (which was announced days ago).

For those who do have tickets, there are no bags allowed at all, and there’s full TSA-level security — even Victor Wembanyama got extra screening.

“This President, Donald Trump, before he ever ran for office, he was a big Knicks fan...” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said at an NBA Cares event, adding that the “of course” the president was welcome to attend.

“I think sports, in particular, is something where we can emphasize what we have in common, not what pulls us apart, that it creates a sense of belonging. We’re seeing that in New York, and I think President Trump is very much a New Yorker, and I’m thrilled that yet another New Yorker wants to participate in the enthusiasm and the joy around this Knicks team.”

The simple breakdown of the first two games of the NBA Finals goes like this: The Knicks went into San Antonio and took Game 1, the Spurs handed them Game 2.

In Game 1, the Knicks had a double-digit lead, the Spurs stormed back, but when things got tight late, New York had Jalen Brunson, who scored 13 of his 30 in the fourth quarter, and the Knicks closed out the game on an 11-0 run to win 105-95.

In Game 2 (and stop me if you’ve heard this before), the Knicks had a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, but the Spurs stormed back to tie it behind the best basketball Victor Wembanyama has played in this series. But then came the blunder.

Brunson was clutch again, hit one of two free throws, and while Wemby had a clean look at a game-winner, he clanked it off the back of the rim. The Knicks won 105-104 and were up 2-0.