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This is either the most hopeful or depressing statistic for Spurs fans watching the NBA Finals: Through four games, the point differential is Knicks +8.
It may be a little of both. This has been an intense, close NBA Finals, with three of the four games decided by four points or less. Yet San Antonio finds itself down 3-1 and on the verge of its season ending due to a combination of the Knicks’ grit and maturity in the clutch versus the Spurs’ self-inflicted wounds and mistakes of youth.
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“There’s no avoiding what’s happened,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “There’s no avoiding all four games have been winnable games. There’s no avoiding we’re down 3-1. There’s no avoiding ways that we could be better. There’s nobody that’s going to be harder on ourselves and accountable to ourselves than the people in the locker room and each other. That’s what helped us get to where we are, and how the group is built. There’s no circumstance that will change that.”
Will the NBA Finals end Saturday night in San Antonio, where the party from 7th Ave. in Manhattan would overtake the Riverwalk — there are going to be a lot of Knicks fans at the game — or can the Spurs finally win a game at home? There are two key things to watch in Game 5.
Can Spurs rebound emotionally?
I have a theory about NBA playoff series: There comes a point in nearly every series when one team realizes they are beaten, usually long before Game 6 or 7. They don’t have the answers to the questions the other team is posing. The players and coaches never say it out loud — players don’t make it to this level without being fierce competitors — but you can see it in body language and their eyes. They know.
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The Spurs had that look after Game 4, a gut-punch loss in which they blew a 29-point lead (and, more disturbingly, a 20-point lead with 9:30 left in the game).
Usually, after a loss like that, the end comes pretty quickly, as it could for the Spurs in Game 5 on their home court. However, these young Spurs have shown a genuine resilience this postseason — they won Game 7 on the road in Oklahoma City. They won a game in Madison…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/spurs-rebound-force-game-6-014320477.html
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Publish date : 2026-06-13 01:43:00
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