SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The Larry O’Brien Trophy will be in the building. The rehearsals for the presentation ceremony, if one is needed, are complete. Thousands of New York fans have made the trip to Texas, looking to see something that hasn’t happened in 53 years.
The rest is up to the Knicks.
New York can win its first NBA championship since 1973 on Saturday night, with the Knicks holding a 3-1 lead going into Game 5 of the NBA Finals against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.
The Knicks are 3-0 in closeout opportunities this season, winning them by an average of 39.3 points — all of them on the road.
“We’ve been preaching all year it’s about the next possession, the next possession, the next possession,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “We understand any time you try to play a closeout game, the level of desperation — for your opponents — increases (and) the level of desperation for the fans of your opponents is increased. You have to bring your best effort because even if you bring your best effort, it may not happen, especially on the road.”
New York got to the brink of this title by rallying from 29 points down in Game 4 to win 107-106 on OG Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds left. It was the largest comeback in NBA Finals history and the biggest comeback in any game this season, regular season or playoffs.
The Spurs have led each of the four games entering Saturday by double figures and let three of those games become losses.
“The biggest thing for us is just can’t take our foot off the gas in a sense,” Spurs guard Dylan Harper said. “Can’t get comfortable with a lead. It’s the NBA Finals. Anything could happen, like we just saw. But just at the end of the day, we’ve just got to stay together as a group.”
The referees selected for Saturday’s game were Scott Foster, James Capers and Tyler Ford. Foster and Capers both worked Game 1 and Ford worked Game 2 of the series.
If the Spurs win, Game 6 would be Tuesday in New York.
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Game 5: Knicks, and their fans, are in San Antonio, hoping to close out the NBA Finals with a title
