Jalen Brunson scored a team-high 32 points on 11-of-25 shooting with five assists in Game 3, but the New York Knicks still fell 111-105 to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday at Madison Square Garden.
The late shot that defined Brunson’s night came with just over 30 seconds left — a 3-pointer that cut New York’s deficit in half and was his final field-goal attempt. The Spurs led 111-105 with just over 30 seconds remaining, and the result left the Knicks up 2-1 in the 2026 NBA Finals while the two teams had combined for 321 and 314 total points through three games.
Brunson has logged heavy minutes in the series, playing over 110 minutes among Knicks players through three games, and his late-game work has produced decisive plays earlier in the Finals: in Game 1 he erased San Antonio’s final lead with a second-chance 3-pointer with 1:50 remaining and scored after a Victor Wembanyama turnover in the final minute; in Game 2 he hit a game-tying basket with 39.3 seconds left and drew the foul that led to the go-ahead free throw.
But the metrics that matter for New York over three games point to a stubborn problem: the Knicks have been outscored by 13 points with Brunson on the floor. That gap exists alongside a striking split between Brunson’s late-series scoring and his first-quarter production. Through three games he totaled just 16 first-quarter points in 35 first-quarter minutes, making only 22.7 percent of his shots in those stanzas — he missed 17 of 22 attempts — and produced four assists and four turnovers in first quarters.
The Spurs have repeatedly taken advantage, building first-quarter leads of 10 points in Game 1, 10 points in Game 2 and 12 points in Game 3. New York’s first-quarter offense has cratered to 88.0 points per 100 possessions through the Finals’ opening periods, far beneath the team’s regular-season first-quarter mark of 120.2 points per 100 possessions. In Games 2 and 3 the Knicks were outscored 34-25 and 33-22 in the first quarter, respectively, with Brunson playing all 12 minutes.
Part of the early-series drag has been the Spurs’ defense and game plan — Brunson has struggled to reach the rim when Wembanyama is protecting it and has often settled for attempts inside the 3-point line against defenders such as Stephon Castle, Julian Champagnie, Devin Vassell and Dylan Harper. San Antonio also allowed the NBA’s lowest free-throw attempt rate, limiting Brunson’s ability to draw fouls and attack the rim to change the flow.
New York’s bench responses complicate the picture. During Brunson’s first rest in Games 1 and 2 the Knicks trimmed double-digit deficits toward single digits, suggesting the lineup mix without him can break San Antonio’s early momentum. Still, the larger pattern remains: Brunson’s late-game scoring and the team’s inability to hold pace with him on the floor have produced a puzzling mismatch between individual production and team outcome.
After the loss, Brunson stressed the process: "Each game, no matter what the situation is, we’re growing as a team," he said. "I think we’re learning and we’re getting better. No matter what the situation is, we’re going to stick together. We’re going to execute, we’re going to be better. That’s just how our mindset has to be going forward. As long as we have each other’s back and we keep fighting, that’s what we hope for."
Karl-Anthony Towns framed the immediate cost differently. "That ain’t cost us the game," Towns said after the game ended. "Turned the ball over. Didn’t execute. Didn’t do what got us 13 straight wins in a row. That’s how you lose a game. We didn’t do what we’ve been doing for 13. We decided to do something different, and it ain’t going to work. Throwing the ball away is a clear indication of how you’re going to lose the game, especially in the playoffs. I think it’s a combination. We have a game plan, and we want to execute it. We’ve got to pick up the ball movement, for sure. We have to."
The Knicks head into Game 4 on Wednesday with a 2-1 series edge but a narrow margin for error: Brunson’s 32-point night underscored his capacity to close games, yet New York’s tendency to fall behind early with him directing the offense has left the lead fragile. The single pressing question now is whether the Knicks can fix their first-quarter pattern with Brunson on the floor before Game 4 — or whether San Antonio’s early runs will continue to force New York into catch-up mode.
