Knicks can clinch first title since 1973 in Game 5 against Spurs

The Knicks arrived in San Antonio with history within reach and pressure hanging over both benches. New York led the NBA Finals 3-1 heading into Game 5 on Saturday, June 13, 2026, and the question was stark: whether the Knicks would finish off their first championship since 1973 or the Spurs would buy themselves one more night at home.

Game 4 turned that question into a national event. The Knicks escaped with a 107-106 win after OG Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds left completed a 29-point comeback, the largest in NBA Finals history. For a franchise that has spent more than five decades chasing another banner, the finish carried the weight of generations in New York, where championship droughts are measured not only in seasons but in decades of civic identity and fan memory.

The stakes were sharpened by the numbers around the series. The NBA said Game 4 generated more than 3 billion views on social media and that the Finals as a whole had reached 8 billion views across platforms. Game 4 also drew 20.9 million viewers on ABC, the largest audience for an NBA Finals Game 4 since 1998, and peaked at 23.2 million viewers at 11:15 p.m. ET. In a league built on stars and moments, this series had become something larger, a rare point where sports, market identity and national attention all converged.

San Antonio entered Game 5 with its own burden. The Spurs had to fend off elimination in front of their home crowd while knowing that only one team in NBA history, the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers, had erased a 3-1 deficit to win the championship. The Larry O’Brien Trophy was already in the building, and rehearsal for a presentation had been completed in case the Knicks finished the job. That preparation said as much about the series as any standings line: New York was close enough to celebrate, and San Antonio was close enough to stop it.

For the Knicks, the path to a title has been defined by patience, scars and expectation since 1973. For the Spurs, Game 5 represented the narrow line between survival and becoming another footnote in Finals history. Doug Williams reported from San Antonio as the series reached the point where legacy, pressure and market gravity were all on the same floor.