OG Anunoby’s flying tip-in in the final seconds might get all the headlines.
But it was the Knicks forward’s play on the other end that went down a few seconds earlier that helped make the miracle of all miracles comebacks happen in NBA Finals Game 4 on Wednesday night.
With 16.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Knicks trailing by a point, Jalen Brunson missed a two-pointer before the ball got deflected into the backcourt, allowing the Spurs’ De’Aaron Fox to scoop up the ball for what seemed like an easy dunk or layup on the other end.
But Anunoby, playing hard defense as always, got a piece of the shot for a block, stopping a would-be gimme basket and giving the Knicks the ball back.
Fox could have held onto the ball and killed some of the clock to force the Knicks into a foul, but he instead went for the immediate shot that obviously didn’t work out.
On the “Inside the NBA” postgame show, Charles Barkley called the decision for Fox to go for the layup “bonehead.”
“That was a dumbass play,” Barkley said. “He did not have to shoot that ball.”
After the Knicks set up on the next possession — following a Fox foul at midcourt and a timeout — Brunson’s miss set up Anunoby for the winning tip-in for the 107-106 victory, putting the Knicks one win away from their first championship since 1973.