New York Knicks beat San Antonio Spurs 105-95 on the road on Wednesday, June 3, after falling far behind. The Knicks were down 8 at one quarter break and still finished 10 ahead.
The turnaround
The Knicks trailed by 8 after the first quarter. From there they outscored the Spurs 86-68, a 18-point swing over the rest of the game.
The turning point was the fourth quarter, which the Knicks won 29-19.
What flipped it
The Knicks gave the ball away on 8% of their possessions while the Spurs did so 13.1% of the time and the Knicks shot 47.3% on an effective basis to 42.1% for the Spurs. Protecting the ball is an easy edge to overlook, but each turnover costs a shot.
The Spurs did win one battle, second chances: ORB% of 26.4% against 20%. The Knicks made up for it elsewhere.
The game played at about 100 possessions per team. The Knicks scored 105.6 points per 100 possessions and the Spurs scored 95.5, a difference of 10.1.
Who carried the comeback
Victor Wembanyama (SAS) posted the best line of the night by Game Score (15.8): 26 pts, 12 reb, 2 ast, 3 blk on 6-21 shooting. The team was -3 in the minutes Victor played.
For the Knicks, Karl-Anthony Towns was the best of the rest at 15.4: 18 pts, 12 reb, 4 ast on 7-15 shooting.
Julian Champagnie (16 pts, 10 reb, 1 ast), Victor Wembanyama (26 pts, 12 reb, 2 ast), and Karl-Anthony Towns (18 pts, 12 reb, 4 ast) each recorded a double-double.
Game Score is a single number that weighs points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, shooting efficiency, fouls and turnovers. It is not an official stat, just a quick way to rank lines.
What it means
The pre-game Win Meter had it close to a coin flip, at about 36% for the Knicks.
Across the last 5 meetings in our records, New York Knicks lead 3-2.
Written automatically by Tip Off Live software from box score data. Ratings and probabilities are our own model estimates.