The NBA’s Last Two Minute report said OG Anunoby did not foul De'Aaron Fox on the closing play of Spurs Game 5, confirming that the disputed finish in the 2026 NBA Finals was ruled legal a day after the New York Knicks edged the San Antonio Spurs 107-106. The league also said officials missed other calls late in the game that helped turn a one-point loss into a fresh debate about the final minute.
That is why the result has kept moving beyond Wednesday night. The Knicks’ win gave them a 3-1 lead in the series, and the Spurs now need three straight victories to survive after a game that also included a 29-point comeback by New York, the largest in NBA Finals history. Fans searching for Spurs Game 5 are still circling the last possession because it came with the score tight and the outcome hanging on one whistle that never came.
On the disputed sequence, San Antonio had a one-point lead in the final 15 seconds when Fox forced a contested shot against Anunoby instead of dribbling away the clock for two free throws. The report said Anunoby made a legal attempt to block the shot, dislodged the ball from Fox’s control and made only incidental arm contact. New York then secured the rebound and scored the winning basket on the next possession, ending the night at 107-106.
The final minutes were not controversial only because of that play. The report said officials also missed a defensive three seconds violation on Victor Wembanyama, and it identified a Josh Hart foul on a critical possession in which Stephon Castle was ruled out of bounds for a turnover. Castle stepped out of bounds with just more than a minute remaining and New York leading by one, another call that fed the sense that the game was slipping on both ends of the floor.
That matters because the league’s review did not leave much room for a simple blame game. The foul that many viewers thought they saw on Anunoby was ruled clean, but the late-game ledger still showed several mistakes that shaped a Finals result decided by one point. For the Spurs, the frustration is now twofold: they lost the game, and the official review showed that the ending was messy even if the final shot was legal.
What remains is the math of the series. The Knicks are up 3-1 after one of the biggest swings in Finals history, and San Antonio must win three straight to take the title. After Game 5, the question is no longer whether the closing play was a foul. It is whether the Spurs can recover from a loss that the league has now confirmed was decided by a legal defensive stand and a handful of missed calls around it.
