Knicks edge Spurs, move two wins from first title since 1973

The final possession said everything about where this series now stands. Victor Wembanyama turned the ball over, Jalen Brunson stepped to the line and made the go-ahead free throw with 9.5 seconds left, and then Wembanyama missed a jumper at the buzzer as the Knicks escaped San Antonio with a 105-104 victory and a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals.

For New York, the win carried the weight of more than one close game. The Knicks returned home with two chances to finish off a franchise that has not won a championship since 1973, and they did it after beating the Spurs on their own floor at Frost Bank Center in Games 1 and 2. Only the 1993 Chicago Bulls and the 1995 Houston Rockets had won the first two Finals games on the road before; both went on to win the title.

Karl-Anthony Towns powered the Knicks with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Brunson and Mikal Bridges each scored 20, giving New York enough scoring balance to survive a huge night from Wembanyama, who finished with 29 points after a quiet first half. De’Aaron Fox added 20 for San Antonio, but the Spurs could not turn their home-court start into a split. Mike Brown summed up the finish with a short verdict: “What a ballgame.”

The larger picture is even starker for the Knicks. Their 13th straight postseason win, which came Friday night, moved them past the 1998-99 Spurs for the second-longest single-postseason streak in NBA history. Only the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors, who won 15 in a row, have done better in one playoff run. New York’s surge has been built on depth, defense and the kind of repeated late-game execution that has turned an entertaining run into a legitimate championship opening.

The signs were there in Game 1, when New York controlled the second-chance battle 23-14 and scored on nine of 13 such opportunities. Game 1 also drew nearly 17 million viewers, with a peak audience of 19.63 million, the most-watched Finals opener since 2018. Game 3 is scheduled for Monday, June 8, 2026, at 8:30 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden, with Games 4, 5, 6 and 7 if necessary to follow. Towns made clear what the crowd in New York is waiting for now: “New York City showed up. The fans showed up. The energy showed up. And we found a way to get it done.”