For first time since April, pressure is on Knicks to adjust after loss. What do they plan for Game 4?

It’s been a while since New York has been in this position: The team coming off a playoff loss and having to adjust. It’s the first time since April 23rd, 13 wins ago.

That’s the Knicks reality after San Antonio came into Madison Square Garden and took Game 3 behind 32 points from Victor Wembanyama, making it a 2-1 series.

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“We have a veteran group. Nobody is ‘panicking’ or anything like that,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “Everybody is disappointed that we didn’t go out and execute and play to what we feel our standard is. That’s not taking anything away from San Antonio, but we feel like we can play a lot better than what we did.”

“We learned from film today, and we’ll be better tomorrow,” is how Josh Hart put it.

The Spurs made some key adjustments in Game 3, both on offense — relentlessly attacking the rim even when the Knicks packed the paint — and defensively, where Victor Wembanyama spent more time on Josh Hart (even when he hit 3-pointers) and around the basket than matched up on Karl-Anthony Towns. What do the Knicks do now in a critical Game 4? Here are three things to look for on Wednesday night.

More Karl-Anthony Towns

Jalen Brunson rightfully drew praise for scoring 32 points in Game 3, a dozen of those in the fourth quarter. However, he wasn’t efficient getting there — he was 11-of-25 shooting in Game 3, and that was better than he has been in these Finals. Brunson is shooting 37% from the floor through three games with as many turnovers as assists — and the Knicks are -13 for the series when he is on the court (they are +31 with Towns on through three). This is not a knock on Brunson, in the previous two rounds the Spurs turned Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Edwards into inefficient scorers (compared to their regular-season selves).

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The Thunder and Timberwolves didn’t have the depth to overcome that. New York is supposed to, but when Brunson came out in the second half of Game 3 overdribbling and trying to hunt mismatches — of which there are no great ones, there is no James Harden to target on the Spurs — it took the Knicks out of their flow. Brown talked…

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Publish date : 2026-06-09 23:45:00

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