De’Aaron Fox went at the rim late in Game 4, thinking he had a step on OG Anunoby. He did not. Anunoby caught him, blocked the layup and then finished the play with the putback that lifted the New York Knicks past the San Antonio Spurs, 107-106, on Wednesday.
That one possession changed everything for Fox and the Spurs, who are now down 3-1 in the Finals. said he was trying to get a quick two, not waste the chance. “I just thought I’d be able to outrun him,” he said. “Try to get a layup, get up three and force them to need a 3.” Instead, the drive ended with Anunoby’s block and the Knicks’ winning basket.
The numbers around the loss make the miss sting even more. Victor Wembanyama had missed two free throws with 1 minute, 47 seconds left while the Spurs were up one, and the game still came down to a final sequence in which Fox chose to attack rather than bleed the clock. He later gave Anunoby credit: “OG made a good block.”
Fox’s decision fit the read he saw in the moment, but the finish exposed the margin for error in a Finals game this tight. He thought he could beat Anunoby to the cup. Anunoby caught him anyway, and that split-second gamble turned a chance to push the lead to three into a loss that now leaves San Antonio needing to do something almost no team has done.
The Spurs would have to become only the second team in NBA history to recover from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals, with the only comeback of that kind coming in 2016. They are also trying to shake off a shaky stretch that has already included Wembanyama’s late pass to the back of Stephon Castle’s head in Game 2, another costly sequence in a series that has kept slipping from their grasp. Fox has been slowed recently by a high ankle sprain he reinjured in the Western Conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but he said the Spurs can still come back. Now they have to prove it in the next game, with no room left for a finish like this one.
