NBA finals 2026 Game 2: New York Knicks v San Antonio Spurs – live

Key events

Mary Waltz writes: “Why I am dreading a Knicks championship. The constant refrain of MSG, the mecca of basketball. The Knicks have won 2 measly titles. I understand Yankee arrogance, 27 titles. But 2 or 3, please.”

I’ve always sensed the talk about Madison Square Garden has more to do with the arena than the team in it.

Fun story: Over the years, many people have claimed to have been in Madison Square Garden the night Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points. What they were doing there is anyone’s guess. Wilt was in Hershey, Pa.

Knicks 39-42 Spurs, 7:01, 2nd quarter: Put a pin in this – Alvarado, running out of options with the shot clock running down, gets into the corner and draws a foul from Castle. That’s his third. Uh oh. Alvarado makes two of three free throws.

Fox finally misses one. The Spurs defense collapses on Towns, who dishes out to Bridges for a 3. The lead is down to three, and the Spurs will take a timeout.

Knicks 34-42 Spurs, 8:01, 2nd quarter: Towns scores in the post. What a half he’s having. With Brunson gone quiet, he’s keeping the Knicks in the game.

Fox engages in a bit of jiu-jitsu, then drives, scores and draws a foul.

Knicks 32-39 Spurs, 9:21, 2nd quarter: We have an offensive foul call in the NBA! It’s Harper, who swung his forearm backwards.

Alvarado tries a floater, and Wemby soars about 18 inches above the basket to swat it away. Towns ends up with the ball and dunks, thereby negating the long arms of the Spurs star.

Castle hits two free throws. Big first half for the second-year player.

Knicks 30-37 Spurs, 10:01, 2nd quarter: Castle opens the scoring in this period with a 3. Towns hits one for the Knicks.

Castle drives into a wall of Shamet. There’s no call, and Alvarado ends up with the ball in acres of space but a defender near the basket. He drifts over for 3 but misses.

Wemby again misses a perimeter shot. Towns makes two free throws to cut the lead to seven.

End 1st quarter: Knicks 25-34 Spurs

Robinson muscles his way to score inside.

Wemby is fouled at the other end and will make his first trip to the line. He’s only taken two shots – the long-range dunk (made) and the long-range 3 (missed). He hits one of two free throws.

The Spurs’ trap is taking a toll, forcing a turnover. But the Knicks force one of their own, and Brunson feeds Shamet in transition.

Wemby fakes the 3, beats Robinson and drives against McBride. Pretty easy matchup. When is Towns coming back in?

Knicks 21-31 Spurs, 1:30, 1st quarter: Robinson misses a couple of line-drive free throws.

Fox hits another 3, and the Spurs foul … again? Robinson? It’s Hack-a-Shaq revisited. He makes them pay by hitting both shots.

Fox scores at the other end – the Spurs have had a lot of success just driving through traffic.

And Fox scores again. The lead is 10.

Knicks 19-24 Spurs, 2:56, 1st quarter: Vassell scores on an exuberant drive. Spurs back up 5.

Robinson is fouled again. Timeout on the floor.

Knicks 19-22 Spurs, 3:25, 1st quarter: Holding players is now legal in the NBA, at least if the Spurs do it. Seriously – tonight’s refs are showing a laissez-faire attitude on that sort of thing.

Towns makes a powerful drive for a layup and slides across the floor, toppled by his own momentum.

Kornet barrels into Brunson near midcourt. That is a foul.

Brunson tries to draw a foul. Doesn’t get it. De’Aaron Fox hits a jumper to put the Spurs up four.

Kornet fouls again – this time, it’s Mitchell Robinson, who is not a great free throw shooter. He gets the first, misses the second.

Knicks 16-20 Spurs, 4:49, 1st quarter: Towns fouls Kornet out on the perimeter on an inbounds pass. That’s the fifth Knicks foul already, so Kornet will go to the line. He hits one of two.

Landry Shamet races down the court for a wild layup that he misses. Dylan Harpers goes the other way for a dunk that he does not miss.

Towns hits a 3. Harper misses a 3, but Shamet misses a 3 worse. Airball.

I looked it up – the two teams that opened the NBA Finals by losing Games 1 and 2 at home were the 1993 Phoenix Suns and 1995 Orlando Magic. The Suns climbed back into the series but lost in six to the Bulls. Orlando was swept by Houston.

Knicks 13-17 Spurs, 5:46, 1st quarter: Wemby tries a 3, and honestly, I’m starting to question the idea of having him shoot so much from the perimeter. Why not stay inside and either score or draw a foul?

Timeout, with the Spurs going to the line when we resume.

Knicks 13-17 Spurs, 6:44, 1st quarter: Hart tries to drive the baseline against Wemby but runs out of room and steps out.

Wemby gets the ball about 800 feet away from the basket, jumps about one foot forward and dunks.

Brunson answers with a 3. The stars have come out early tonight.

Knicks 10-13 Spurs, 8:02, 1st quarter: Champagnie had a hot streak behind the arc in Game 1. The Spurs get him started with an open look that he hits easily.

Knicks lose the ball, and Castle drives for the tough shot.

Anunoby answers with a nifty move past Wemby and then shielding the big man away for a reverse layup.

Champanie again hits a 3. Anunoby hits one in response.

We’re on pace for a 156-120 final score.

Knicks 5-5 Spurs, 10:18, 1st quarter: Knicks nearly threw the ball away on their first possession, but Jalen Brunson saves it and dribbles in for a mid-range jumper.

Champagnie drives and draws a foul. Hits both FTs.

The Spurs play a hyperaggressive halfcourt trap that rattles the Knicks. But after a couple of misses, Brunson draws a foul behind the arc to get three free throws. Good, good, good.

Tipoff

Knicks 0-3 Spurs, 11:43, 1st quarter: Ball is kicked back out to Vassell for 3 on the game’s first possession.

Matthew Bentham writes: “Even though it’s only game 2, it feels like do or die for the Spurs , no?”

I just saw a stat that said the home team is 16-2 in Game 2 of the NBA Finals when they lose Game 1. I won’t have a chance to look it up for a while, but I’d have to think the two that lost did not lift the trophy.

Players have been introduced. Wemby doesn’t have a jersey on. They’ll surely take care of that.

National anthem singer Kels is holding a microphone with three US flags just above her hand, arranged in a triangle. It looks like a cheesecake. Or I’m just hungry.

Tipoff is … not yet. Haven’t heard the national anthem or seen the player intros yet.

Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but it appears that anyone who has ever played for the Spurs or Knicks is present at tonight’s game. We even have a representative from the last Knicks teams to win the championship – Walt “Clyde” Frazier, who won it in 1970 and 1973.

Draft dynamics …

The NBA Draft is June 23-24, and we’ll take a break from seeing everyone’s mock drafts to look backwards and see how these players got here.

Knicks
Mitchell Robinson: 2nd round, 36th overall, 2018 (New York)
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Karl-Anthony Towns: 1st round, 1st pick, 2015 (Minnesota)
Mikal Bridges: 1st round, 10th pick, 2018 (Philadelphia)
OG Anunoby: 1st round, 23rd pick, 2017 (Toronto)
Landry Shamet: 1st round, 26th pick, 2018 (Philadelphia)
Josh Hart: 1st round, 30th pick, 2017 (Utah)
Jalen Brunson: 2nd round, 33rd overall pick, 2018 (Dallas)
Miles McBride: 2nd round, 36th overall, 2021 (Oklahoma City)
Jordan Clarkson: 2nd round, 46th overall, 2014 (Washington)
Jose Alvarado: undrafted

Welcome to Game 2

With 2:16 left in Game 1, an air of inevitability set in. The Knicks had a nice run, but Victor Wembanyana had taken over and restored the Spurs’ lead. Game 1 would go to the home team.

With 21.1 seconds left in Game 1, the Knicks had wrapped up the win.

Jalen Brunson was the key offensively, bouncing back after three quarters of missed shots and irritating injuries, but the defense should get the bulk of the credit. Karl-Anthony Towns arguably got the better of Wemby at both ends, though Wemby’s 12 free throws in 13 attempts gave him a higher scoring total on the night.

And so the Knicks have now won 12 straight playoff games. It seems like years ago that the Knicks trailed the Atlanta Hawks 2-1 in their first-round series, and not just because the NBA playoffs last longer than Grateful Dead tours.

Victor Wembanyama warms up prior to Game 2. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, catch up on what happened in Game 1, where the Knicks extended their postseason winning streak to a stunning 12 games with a 105-95 victory in San Antonio:

The New York Knicks entered Game 1 of this year’s NBA finals on one of the hottest streaks in playoff history: 11 games won in a row with opponents humiliated, humbled and crushed along the way. On Wednesday night in San Antonio many believed that streak would end as they faced the Spurs, who had knocked out the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the previous round, and are led by the most exciting player in the world, Victor Wembanyama.

The Knicks won anyway, keeping Wembanyama quiet for long stretches in a 105-95 victory on the Spurs’ home court. They are now just three wins from their first title since 1973.

Jalen Brunson, an inspiration for the Knicks throughout these playoffs, came alive once again when it mattered as he saved his best for the closing minutes, ending the game with 30 points, 13 of them coming in the fourth quarter.

Read the full report here.