Jersey Guy Sports

353 - Miracle at MSG! Knicks storm back from 29 down in Game 4 to win 107-106!!!

• Don Signorino

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0:00 | 21:20

Insanity!  Ridiculous!  insane ! impossible, bonkers, unreal!  Call it anything you want, but it happened. The Knicks are now 1 win away!!!

A 29-point hole in the NBA Finals usually ends in garbage time and hard questions. At Madison Square Garden, it turned into a night Knicks fans won’t forget, because Game 4 ends with OG Anunoby flying in for a tip-in with 1.2 seconds left and a miracle 107-106 win that puts New York up 3-1 on the San Antonio Spurs. The crowd swings from disbelief to absolute chaos, and I walk through how the comeback actually happened possession by possession, not just as a highlight. 

I get into the turning points that made this “miracle at Madison Square Garden” possible: OG’s lights-out shooting and two-way steadiness, Jalen Brunson’s big buckets through heavy pressure, and the late, unexpected help that swings momentum when the rotation looks broken. I also talk about the part Knicks fans don’t want to repeat, starting with Karl-Anthony Towns picking up two early fouls and how that changes everything against Victor Wembanyama. When KAT is available, the defense looks different, the matchups look different, and the offense has a ceiling the Knicks can’t reach without him touching the ball more. 

Then I pivot to what matters next: Game 5 in San Antonio. The Knicks can’t keep starting slow, Brunson can’t spend entire possessions fighting double teams just to begin the offense, and the secondary scoring has to show up. We also hit the spicy stuff, including officiating frustrations and why this Spurs core with Wembanyama feels like a long-term problem for the league. If you care about Knicks basketball, NBA Finals analysis, or what it takes to close a championship series, this one is for you. 

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Welcome And The Miracle Setup

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Jersey Guy Sports, your sports talk home for the Yanks, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, and the Rucker Scarlet Knights. I'm your host, Don. Want to thank you for listening today. I will be discussing a miracle at Madison Square Garden. OG Ananobis tip in with 1.2 seconds left in game four of the NBA Finals, Captain Miraculous. Knicks comeback from down 29 points to stun the San Antonio Spurs and win 107-106. So let's go ahead and get started.

A Comeback For The Ages

SPEAKER_01

Oh baby, in Sanity at Madison Square Garden. And what was the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history? The next storm back in the second half and steal. Game four at Madison Square Garden and escape with a dramatic, incredible, sanity-defying 107, 106 win in game four of the NBA Finals. And with that, take a 3-1 series lead over the Spurs. Oh my god, if you're a Knicks fan, this has got to be one of the greatest moments of your sports watching life. What a tremendous, unbelievable comeback. The Knicks looked dead and dusted in this game, and it was just incredible to watch and listen to the crowd and see the Knicks come back, play with grit, play with some determination, and come away with an unbelievable comeback victory in one of the biggest spots in history. Use whatever words you want if you're watching this game. Ridiculous, insane, improbable, bonkers, unreal, historic. Just keep going. Whatever you want to use. Use whatever words you want to describe it. The Knicks did it. They did it. Oh my god. In a game where the Knicks looked absolutely cooked, done, finished, demolished. They were getting destroyed. It was 72 to 49 at one point. They were down 29 points in this game. Just in a game that was just done and dusted somehow, somehow, led by OG Ananobi and Brunson with some great late help, unsung, by the way, by Kat and Alvarado late in the game. The Knicks did the impossible. The impossible. The Knicks came back for a dramatic win 107 to 106 in game four. The

The 1.2 Second Game Winner

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last, or the winning play, I should say, was Brunson got the ball inbounded with about six seconds left, ended up missing a long three-pointer, and OG Ananubi, Ananobi, flew in like friggin' Superman out of nowhere, tipped him in the rebound, which ended up being the game winner with 1.2 seconds left, flying through the air like a mass crusader. Unbelievable. Tips it in, beautiful. The rebound goes in, puts the Knicks up 107, 106. And the Spurs could not get a shot off at the end. And the most improbable of NBA comebacks was in the books. And, you know, if you are a Knicks fan, you have to be absolutely elated and pretty much dumbfounded. Because if you watch the way the Knicks played early, and you were like me, you're thinking there is no way they are coming back in this friggin' game. And if you're a Knicks fan and a true Knicks fan and watch all their games this year like I have, you know that they've done this many times before. But with the way the Spurs are playing, they were coming out and just hitting three-pointer after three-pointer. They're playing stout defense, the Spurs. They're making all the right plays. They're not turning the ball over. And then they're up 29, and you're thinking, the Knicks just don't have a chance in this game. And then you're thinking about, I'm I was already thinking about game five in the rest of the series. I'm like, uh, not only are they going to lose this game, you know, are the Knicks gonna win another game this series? I'm thinking, oh my God, this this series is really turned because if the Knicks had ended up losing this, you know, especially in big fashion, like they were about to do, then they would have lost all their home court advantage, headed back to San Antonio 2-2, and really with doubts of every kind in their mind.

KAT Foul Trouble Breaks Flow

SPEAKER_01

And it started out really, really rough. And I gotta tell you, you know, with the tone was set early when Carl Anthony Towns took two early fouls. The first one was kind of a ticky-tack foul with about 18 seconds into the game where I already threw my hands up and I'm like, oh, come on. You know, it seemed like uh the refs were calling some silly thing, but okay. So you're cat, you took an early foul. You think, okay, cat, just be careful, let's not be dumb. And sure enough, within one more minute, he takes another dumbass friggin' foul. It was after review, they they called it a foul on him, where he hooked Wemby's arm and took an offensive foul. And I'm thinking, you dumbass, Carl Anthony Towns is critical to the Knicks. And I said it. I'm watching the game here with my son, and we're two minutes in, and I said, here you go. Kat's going to be on the bench the rest of the first half. And I cannot believe we're one minute, two minutes into this game, and it's already completely turned on its head because Kat cannot stay out of foul trouble. And that's how critical it is that Carl Anthony Towns actually stays out of foul trouble because it completely turned this game on its head. And before you looked up, the Knicks were down five, they were down ten, they were down twelve, they were down 17, they were down, you know, 20, 28, 29. I mean, and because they never got into a flow, because backup after backup after backup, you're covered for the center position with Robinson, then he couldn't be in so much, so you had to put Hawk Porti, then you had to cover other positions. It was crazy, all the gyrations that the Knicks went through and how many people they actually put in the game. And all because Kat took two early fouls, one of which was extremely questionable. That first one was nuts, but it is beyond critical. And I said that before the series started, and I'll say it again now with Wemby and this great San Antonio team. You have to stay out of foul showable if you're a cat, because Kat is invaluable to this team. He is such a great player, so important. And you could see when he got back in the game in the second half in the fourth quarter, he made a couple big contributions, made a big three falling out of bounds in the last minute or two. He made a couple other big shots. He's able to defend well. He defended Wemby very well. Wemby did not shoot or play nearly as well in the second half as he did in the first half, because in the first half there was no cat. And it it's almost hilarious at this point to think that you know Mitchell Robinson covering Wemby is a lesser kind of matchup than when Kat is defending Wemby, because it was never that way. He always wanted Robinson because he was a great defender. Now Kat has become such an excellent defender, and he's sort of found a way to neutralize Wemby most of the time, though not in game three, that you know, it was great to have him back in the second half, and and what a big difference it was. The whole game was night and day, you know, when you know Carl Anthony Towns takes early fouls and he's out of the game. It is it is a different ballgame for the Knicks.

Grit, Defense, And The Turnaround

SPEAKER_01

In the end, though, the Knicks used every bit of the clock, every bit of their will, every bit of defense, every bit of grit and determination, and came back in one of the biggest games and one of the most memorable games anyone will ever remember as a Knicks fan. Down 29 points, down by 20 in the fourth quarter, storming all the way back to take the lead with 1.2 seconds left and holding on for a thrilling, unbelievable NBA Game 4 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. And some of the celebrities that were there today got to see a pretty good game. I saw Taylor Swift in the front row cheering with her little buddies, and she got to see a damn good game, I gotta say. I heard they uh knocked Sidney Sweeney back a couple rows. She didn't make celebrity row. I don't know what's up with that, but in any case, boy, what a game that both the celebrities and the regular rooting fans got to see tonight because it is one of the most memorable defying logic games you will ever see, think about, read or or be a part of. And if you're a Knicks fan, this will be seared into your memory, especially if the Knicks go on to actually close this out and win one more game and win the NBA championship. This will be the one of the more or most memorable games ever in Knicks history, especially if they win the championship. Now, if they go and lose three straight here, you know, then then we're talking about something else, and this will just be sort of an anecdote somewhere. But assuming they can the Knicks can win one of the next three games, this will be a forever game in in the lore of New York sports. That is how unbelievable, incredible, illogical, improbable, and just insane this miracle imagination square garden was.

Ref Complaints And Wemby Factor

SPEAKER_01

Other things, really quick here. I do want to discuss the refs because, again, the the referees here just seem to bug the shit out of me, and particularly my son, uh, where it seemed like they continued to call everything against, you know, when Wemby touches the ball, anyone guarding him gets fouled. Most of the things in my mind today were fouls. It's just that they did not seem to call them evenly at all, right? We we got called on a few things and they got called on nothing. They did finally call a technical on Wemby, you know, on the you know, what I thought was sort of an inadvertent elbow, you know, that that ended up, you know, hitting Kat in the head. You know, they did not call a technical from game three after they reviewed it when he pushed Brunson's head to the ground. Apparently, that's somehow not a technical, but him, you know, inadvertently grazing Kat's face with his elbow today was a tactical. So there the rest were annoying as shit again. And you know, Wemby has become a supervillain now against the Knicks, and this is something win or lose that is going to continue in the NBA for a long time, and that is the San Antonio Spurs with Wemby, with Dylan Harper, who is a rising superstar at 20 years old, with Castle, and all the other good young players that San Antonio has, they are going to be a force to be reckoned with, win or lose this series for many, many years to come in the West. So look out if you're in the Western Conference, because boy, oh boy, good luck getting by the San Antonio Spurs over the next 10 years. You got Dylan Harper, who's 20. You got Sam Castle, who's 21, you have Victor Wemignana, who is 22. So you have three legitimate stars, 2021 and 22, who might be together eight or 10 more years. So, not to mention anyone else they can build around them. So they are going to be something to be dealt with. But many said they have arrived here earlier than possibly expected. And you know, the Knicks, if so, have to capitalize on that and go for broke, go for blood, try to close this out in five games. And the next

Spurs Future And Series Stakes

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game is Saturday night at 8:30 in San Antonio. And for the New York Knicks, they have to do a lot of things better than they've been doing lately because certainly they continue to falter early in games. And so to talk about the next game and what they need to fix, we have to sort of take a look at this game. And early in the game, again, the Knicks continue to get outscored. This is the fourth consecutive game. All four games, San Antonio has had at least a 10-point lead in the first quarter over the Knicks. So the Knicks have opened up slowly in every single NBA finals games, and they have to find a way to not be trailing, especially by double digits, in the first quarter of every game, because it is just not only is it hard to come back physically on the court, it's hard mentally. You know, you're going out there, and every time you're sitting on the bench, you're coming in, you're bringing the ball up, you're thinking, geez, I can't make a mistake. I'm already down 14 here. You have to play from ahead some of this time. You know, and the Knicks have been doing a great job of that in the playoffs, but not at all in the finals here. It's been a whole different story against the Spurs because you know the Spurs are just a great team all around. So the Knicks need to look to do that. Kat has to keep his ass out of foul trouble. That's number two. Number three, the the Knicks have to play offense through Kat much more than they do. When he is in the game, he has to touch the ball more. He has to be more the center of attention. Brunson is getting played too well defensively by San Antonio. He brings the ball up very slowly. You know, he's probably tired because he's playing so many minutes, but he brings it up slowly. As soon as he gets across midcourt, he's double-teamed immediately. Sometimes he turns it over. He had too many turnovers today. Sometimes he just wastes in shot clock because he doesn't want to turn over. And by the time the Knicks actually try to get into an offense, there's five, seven seconds left, and they end up either not getting a shot off, getting a terrible shot off, getting the block, turning it over, all because we're taking way too long to get something started, and all that is because of great defense, and because we run the same sort of you know play up the court. Maybe an option is to let somebody else bring the ball up the court and just let you know Brunson run around and try to get open. And this way we can get into more of a flow. Run everything through Kat, you know, while he's on the thing, have someone else bring it up, have Kat touch the ball, and then give it to Brunson or something, and then kick it out, or whatever you want to do. But A, get Kat more touches, B, stop having Brunson slow rush the ball up the court every single time, and and that has to change. As

Game 5 Fixes And Adjustments

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far as how the scoring went tonight, OG Ananobi was again an absolute superstar stud. 33 points on 10 of 15 shooting. For three-point shots, OG was seven of nine. He hit all six free throws, six of six. Right? He had that clutch, incredible, forever moment rebound tip-in with 1.2 seconds left. Of course, he added his normal four rebounds, one assist. You know, he had a steal, he had a block, an offensive rebound, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. OG Ananobi continues to be probably one of the most reliable, consistent, offensive, and defensive forces the Knicks have. He is a steadying force that you can count on every single night, and he has played exceptional basketball in the postseason and particularly in the NBA finals. OG's been great. Kat killed himself early in this game, ended with 13 points, which was really good because he didn't really play much at all. Honestly, he he only played 26 minutes, I say only, because he played most of the second half after not playing almost anything in the first half. You know, and he shot, again, four of five field goals for Kat, right? So he only took five shots, right? The New York Knicks cannot play an NBA Finals game and have Kat only take five shots. I'm sorry, that is not the way to win basketball games. They got lucky, it happened tonight. There was a miracle comeback win. I'll tell you what, if Kat gets five shots in game five, the Knicks are losing this game. Kat has to stay in the game, and Kat has to shoot the ball more, and the Knicks have to run their offense through Carl Anthony Towns more frequently. Great game for Towns after he actually had a terrible, terrible first half and and dumbass fouls early. But when he was there, he finished really, really strong and was very efficient from the field. Josh Hart only had six points. He was fine. He did hit one big three-pointer at one point, you know, but he did get his normal eight rebounds, six assists. You got a couple steals, you know. He he he did his Josh Hart things. He did miss a critical, critical dunk slash layup, you know, when the Knicks were fighting, fighting, fighting all the way back, and they were down one point and stole the ball, and he's in the open and somehow was in between a dunk and a layup and missed it. And oh, and the crowd was so at that point, it was under a minute left, and I was so thinking that was going to turn the game around, but it ended up not happening, and you know, he did okay. Bridges had a second consecutive poor game after so many good gains from Mikhail Bridges. You know, these last two games, Bridges has been pretty much terrible. I think he had three points in the last game. He had seven points this game. That is not good enough. Only three for nine shooting, only one for three from three, not great at all. Of course, his normal zero free throws attempted, etc., etc. So Bridges, that would be another key point for game five, has got to be more involved in the offense and has got to hit more shots. Brunson ended up with 36 points on 12 of 25 shooting. He had too many turnovers, though. It only says three. It felt like a lot more. I think he's doing a lot of this, you know, drive into the paint, leave his feet and not know what to do because Wemby's there and at the last second try to look to kick it out to someone. You know, he hit some big shots late, Brunson did. Certainly we had help from other people too, but Brunson, 36 more points, 12 of 25 shooting. He did miss a few free throws, but yeah, I guess he hit them when it really mattered. Mitchell Robinson only had two points, had to play a lot more than we were used to. Even Hawk Porti got in there, and you know, Landry Shamut, believe it or not, zero points. If you're gonna tell me in this game, right, if you told me before the game, that Landry Shamut would have zero points, Miles McBride would have zero points, and Mikhail Bridges would have seven points. So between Bridges, Shamut, and McBride, the total point production would be seven. I would say there's not a chance in hell that the New York Knicks could win this basketball game. But that's what happened. McBride had no points on 0 for 4 shooting, Shaman had no points on 0 for 3, and you know, that was it. That was it. It's just awful. You know, Deuce. But, you know, to offset that, Alvarado played really well. He had eight points, including a big three and a big two, five points in the last couple minutes of the game that really, really helped the Knicks, you know, continue their big comeback with the crowd roaring. So, you know, we got some contributions from players we didn't think were going to play, and then we got some really poor production from Bridges and from Shamit and from McBride

Stat Check And Celebration Close

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account. So that has to turn around. But let me tell you what, this is not a night for that. This is a night for celebration. This is a night where you think about how amazing, incredible, unbelievable this comeback was. It is a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment that the New York Knicks pulled off tonight, a sort of generational win in one of the biggest stages, you know, you can play in the world, an NBA finals game at the Mecca, you know, at at Madison Square Garden, right? The unbelievable atmosphere, a tremendous deficit. The New York Knicks just pulled off a heroic, unbelievable, impossible comeback to take a 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals, and they are one game away from an NBA championship. Game five, Saturday night, San Antonio. Let's go, baby. That is gonna do it for the podcast. Thank you for listening to Jersey Guy Sports. Please subscribe to the podcast. Tell your friends all about it. I'll be back soon with some more sports talk. Thanks and have a good day.

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Don Signorino

Host