Fantastic Finish: Knicks complete largest comeback in NBA Finals history<\/p>\n
OG Anunoby’s game-winning putback in the final seconds caps an unprecedented 29-point comeback victory by the Knicks in Game 4.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Complete coverage: 2026 NBA Finals<\/a> New York Knicks reserve guard Jose Alvarado was hardly noticeable in the first half. That is, except for his foul on San Antonio Spurs forward-center Victor Wembanyama that underwent an official review to determine if the foul was flagrant.<\/p>\n Other than that, Alvarado played three nondescript minutes \u2013 no points, two fouls, one turnover and the Knicks were outscored by eight points during his brief time on the court in the first two quarters of Game 4 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n He played 2 1\/2 scoreless minutes in the third quarter as the Knicks crept back in the game, trailing by 15 entering the final quarter.<\/p>\n But in the fourth, Alvarado was as indispensable as Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart.<\/p>\n Alvarado, who was born in Brooklyn and played high school basketball at Christ the King in Queens, was everywhere: scoring, rebounding, passing, defending, helping the Knicks pull off an improbable and stunning come-from-behind victory.<\/p>\n Alvarado played nine minutes, 40 seconds in the fourth quarter and had eight points, three assists and two rebounds. The Knicks outscored the Spurs by 17 points with Alvarado on the court as New York came back from a 29-point deficit in the third quarter to beat the Spurs 107-106 and take a 3-1 series lead.<\/p>\n Knicks coach Mike Brown made sure he mentioned Alvarado in his opening statement in his postgame news conference.<\/p>\n \u201cJose was unbelievable tonight,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe changed the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Alvarado said he was on the verge of tears when the final buzzer sounded. \u201cJust to be part of the journey is amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cI appreciate Coach and everybody giving me my flowers, but this is what I worked hard for, to be in moments like this and shine with it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad it went our way today, and I\u2019ll definitely remember this for the rest of my life. But you know, next game. We\u2019ve got to worry about when we play over there.\u201d<\/p>\n Down 76-49 at halftime, Alvarado said he addressed the team.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically, I went in there at halftime and said, \u2018Regardless of the outcome, these next 24 minutes, we better bring it and show them how we really play basketball,\u2019\u201d Alvarado said, \u201cAnd that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n Alvarado checked in to the game with 9:46 left in the fourth quarter, and 30 seconds later he made a 3-pointer, cutting the Spurs\u2019 lead to 95-78. When he next checked out of the game with 30.3 seconds remaining, the score was 105-105.<\/p>\n His layup with 3:49 remaining trimmed the Spurs\u2019 lead to 102-97, and his 3-pointer with 3:07 left made it 104-100. He also assisted on an Anunoby 3-pointer and a Brunson triple during a two-minute stretch late in the fourth when he had five points and two assists.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you talk about somebody who not only lives up to the moment but plays with his emotion, and utilizes that to his advantage, that\u2019s a rare quality,\u201d Towns said. \u201cA lot of times, you play with a lot of people and they play with emotion, but it gets the better of them. For Jose, that emotion is what drives him and makes him take it to another level.\u201d<\/p>\n Alvarado cut into minutes normally given to Mikal Bridges. But Brown was searching for answers and found one in Alvarado.<\/p>\n \u201cJose has been good in the pick-and-roll,\u201d Brown explained. \u201cJose has been good touching the paint, and if Jalen wanted to get off the ball for a few possessions, Jose could handle it, and he could touch the paint and make the game easier for others.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Jalen was on the ball and the ball got sprayed and it found Jose, Jose can then touch the paint with his speed. So that\u2019s all I was trying to do, is see if we can touch the paint a little bit more with the two guards out there while the floor was spaced the right way. See if we can get some easy looks, especially from the 3-point line while trying to play faster.\u201d<\/p>\n That strategy worked. The Knicks made six of their 15 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a special player,\u201d Towns said. \u201cHis tenacity, his defensive ability and his offensive ability that I got to see firsthand \u2026 Now I know, he really can shoot. It\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n Said Alvarado: \u201cWhen you play this game, that\u2019s where you want to play \u2013 (in the) fourth quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n Alvarado was undrafted out of Georgia Tech in 2021 and signed with the New Orleans Pelicans where he earned a reputation as a tough defender at 6-0. The Knicks acquired him from the New Orleans Pelicans at the February trade deadline to bolster depth especially with Miles McBride needing hernia surgery at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has so much to his basketball game that people don\u2019t give credit to, and I\u2019m glad on this stage on a night like this, he was able to show the world what he can do when he\u2019s given a chance,\u201d Towns said. \u201cAnd Jose Alvarado clearly told everyone in the world tonight he\u2019s a big-time player.\u201d<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Jeff Zillgitt has covered the NBA since 2008. You can email him at\u00a0jzillgitt@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fantastic Finish: Knicks complete largest comeback in NBA Finals history OG Anunoby’s game-winning putback in the final seconds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[301978,355,99],"class_list":["post-697238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-knicks-spurs-game-4","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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