The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 105–104 in Game Two of the Finals, handing the visitors a second straight road victory and a 2–0 edge after Jalen Brunson tied the game and scored the decisive point following a late Victor Wembanyama turnover.
The scoreline — 105–104 — masked a finish won on small margins. Brunson knotted the game at 104 with an off‑kilter jumper and then collected the ball for the final score after Wembanyama threw the ball away in the closing seconds, a turnover that erased the Spurs’ second‑half rally and left San Antonio one point short.
Karl‑Anthony Towns was described as the fulcrum for the Knicks, and New York’s veterans again executed in the moments that mattered. The Spurs produced a serious second‑half push — Wembanyama helped bring them back into the game — but the Knicks’ late execution and composure closed it out on the road for a second consecutive win in San Antonio, following their Game One victory.
The result lands against a backdrop of heavy expectations and roster overhaul. In 2023 New York paid a steep price for Mikal Bridges, trading four unprotected first‑round picks to the Brooklyn Nets along with a top‑four protected first‑round pick from the Milwaukee Bucks, an unprotected pick swap, a second‑round pick and Bojan Bogdanović. Bridges had never missed a game in his N.B.A. career before joining the Knicks and arrived with established chemistry — he and Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo won a national championship at Villanova — but he struggled for long stretches this season, including the first three games of the first round against the Atlanta Hawks.
The friction between cost and contribution has followed New York all season. The franchise had lost in the second round to Miami before Bridges arrived, then reached the Eastern Conference Finals last season and fired Tom Thibodeau after the loss to Indiana — a move that put Mike Brown in charge. Brown has already made difficult choices: he benched Bridges for part of Game Three of the first round against Atlanta, a sign of how the club has jockeyed for balance between its high‑price move and playoff urgency.
None of that changed the decisive sequence in Game Two. With the clock winding down, Wembanyama’s turnover and Brunson’s composure produced the final two points that separated the teams. The Spurs’ second‑half resurgence proved close but incomplete; the Knicks’ road finishes in Games One and Two now tilt the series toward New York.
The immediate question is not whether the Knicks can win again — they have done it twice in San Antonio — but what the Spurs will do next. After a 105–104 loss sealed by a late turnover, the most consequential unanswered question is clear: what adjustments will San Antonio make to protect the ball and stop New York’s late‑game execution before Game Four?
