Listen to article 0:00 min
NEW YORK — The ’Nova Knicks finally lost.
All it took was Donald Trump.
The least-loved New Yorker since Boss Tweed, the Donald on Monday took it upon himself to ruin pregame plans and pleasures of thousands by becoming the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game. It tracks: Trump always seeks to steal the shine from winners, and the Knicks, fueled by NCAA champs Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges, were winning like nobody’s business. They had won 13 consecutive playoff games and held a two-games-to-none lead when they took the court at Madison Square Garden.
Trump’s presence created traffic snarls and ingress nightmares, and he was buried by boos during the singing of the national anthem, but nobody in the joint paid him much mind after that. He’d wanted to sit with Spike Lee and Larry David courtside, but the Secret Service (and perhaps his more sane advisers) convinced him to retreat to a suite. There, in the shadows, he rested as the streak ended, a 115-111 downer.
Then, he fell asleep.
You can’t make it up.
Later, Trump blamed Karl-Anthony Towns. He wasn’t wrong.
Look, it wasn’t all Trump’s fault, or KAT’s fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault, really.
Well, maybe it was the refs’ fault. That’s what Knicks coach Mike Brown claimed.
“They outshot us 14-3 (from the line) in the third quarter. Maybe we did foul. But they fouled, too,” Brown said. “If they do this, 24-8 (in the second half), in Game 4, it’s going to be tough to win.”
It will be interesting to see the league’s reaction to Brown’s comments, since he was fined twice in 2024 for interactions with officials before he was fired by the Kings.
His players had no axe to grind.
» READ MORE: The Mike Gansey era has begun. Where do the Sixers go from here?
“That didn’t cost us the game,” said Towns, who finished with just 11 points. “We turned the ball over. We didn’t execute. We didn’t do the things that got us 13 straight wins in a row.”
It was a very non-’Nova-Knicks night, the sort they cannot afford against an assemblage like San Antonio’s.
The Spurs won nine more regular-season games than the Knicks. Third-year center Victor Wembanyama finished third in MVP voting this year and was Defensive Player of the Year, De’Aaron Fox was an All-Star this season, Keldon Johnson was this season’s Sixth Man of the Year, and point guard Stephon Castle won Rookie of the Year last season.
Wemby had 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and three blocks. Castle has 23 points. Fox had the dagger and eight assists.
They are a very, very good team.
The Knicks trailed by five with 9 minutes, 18 seconds to play when Brunson, who leads the Knicks like he led the Wildcats, returned to the game. That set the scene for another comeback, like Game 1 in the Eastern Conference finals against the Cavaliers or Game 2 on Friday in San Antonio, Texas. Those comeback wins branded these Knicks the same way the gritty, deep Villanova teams were branded when the won NCAA titles in 2016 and 2018 under Jay Wright.
Alas.
The Knicks got 32 points from Brunson. They got 16 points and nine rebounds from Josh Hart. But they got just two points from Bridges, the hero of Game 2 just three nights before.
Alack.
Whether it was the 13-game run, the 53-year drought, or the presence of the president, Brunson & Co. were making no excuses.
“There are going to be a lot of distractions, positive and negative,” Brunson said. “Most important is how we compose ourselves as a team, and we have to make sure we have accountability as a team.”
» READ MORE: Mikal Bridges is in his second NBA Finals. His grit comes from his mom.
To be fair, it was thrilling to the end.
Brunson hit a putback and-one, a jumper as the shot clock expired, and a three-pointer with 33.7 seconds to play that cut the lead to three points, but Fox’s jumper with 12.2 seconds and two late free throws from Castle were just enough.
You felt early that not even the steely pedigreed forged on the Main Line almost a decade ago would be enough Monday.
Wembanyama had nine points and a blocked shot in the first five minutes. Bridges had two fouls, a turnover, and had his shot blocked in the first four minutes.
That’s how the Spurs built a double-digit lead. A constellation of stars of stage and screen looked on, hoping for a sweep, the sweetest possible end of a 53-year title drought. From Lee to David to Ben Stiller, they all felt it. The Knicks seemed … affected. Tight. Flat.
Mostly, anyway.
Marcus Hayes alerts
Weekly
Bold opinions and must-read commentary from Marcus Hayes, delivered right to you.
The Knicks took their first lead when Brunson — who else — canned a 25-foot three-pointer with just over four minutes left before halftime. He hit it over Wembanyama, reluctant to extend his defense too far, lest Brunson burn him to the basket again.
About a minute later, with the Knicks down by four, Castle bulldozed Brunson while pursuing an offensive rebound. Hart scored on the ensuing possession and tied it at 54. Hart’s trey gave the Knicks the lead again, and Brunson dropped another 25-footer on Wemby. Brunson’s feed with 9.6 seconds soon sent Towns to the line, where he made both free throws, the end of a 14-3 run, and the Knicks’ halftime lead was 64-57.
But the Spurs won the third quarter by eight, scored the first six points of the fourth, and held off the valiant ’Nova Knicks.
They resume the series Wednesday, but don’t expect Trump to be back.
Knicks fans might burn down the city.
