Jalen Brunson (bottom) and Victor Wembanyama’s (top) matchups in Game 4 played a crucial role in New York’s historic comeback.
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NEW YORK — In a one-point game, every play matters … a lot. When that game is the most important game of the season to date, that importance is magnified.
There were several huge plays in Game 4 of the Finals, with the New York Knicks coming back from 29 points down in the second half to defeat the San Antonio Spurs by a single point and take a 3-1 series lead.
Just in the last 12 seconds, there was …
- De’Aaron Fox’s decision to try a contested layup against OG Anunoby when the Spurs were up one and he didn’t need to shoot.
- Anunoby’s incredible tip-in to give the Knicks the lead with 1.2 seconds left.
- Karl-Anthony Towns getting his fingertips on the Spurs’ inbounds pass when Stephon Castle was seemingly open for the lob.
The big plays were all different. But there was one play, one action, that was consistent throughout the Knicks’ comeback on Wednesday: a meeting of the best player on each team — Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama.
According to tracking data, the player whom Wembanyama was guarding set 28 ball screens for Brunson in Game 3. That’s the second most ball-screens from Wembanyama’s man for a single opposing player in any game in his three-year career and almost as many as the Knicks had set for Brunson (using Wembanyama’s man) through the first three games (33).
Here’s the thing … That action wasn’t working for the Knicks through the first three games. On those 33 ball-screens, they had scored just 0.73 points per chance (22/30). There was some success with it in Game 2, but almost none in Games 1 and 3.
In Game 4, the Knicks more than doubled that success rate, scoring 34 points on 23 chances (1.48 per) when Wembanyama was the screener’s defender on a ball-screen for Brunson. The Knicks went to it consistently as they scored 32 points on their final 18 trips down the floor to pull out the win, and the Brunson-Wembanyama matchup directly led to Anunoby’s game-winning tip-in.
Here are a few examples of how the 6-foot-2 Brunson’s willingness to take on the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama determined the outcome of Game 4.
1. One-on-one
After seven Brunson-Wembanyama ball screens in the first half, the action really picked up in the third quarter. Early in that quarter, Brunson crossed Wembanyama over on the left wing, putting three defenders behind him. Julian Champagnie had to help from the weak side and two passes later, Anunoby had one of his seven 3-pointers …
The Knicks still had a long way to go, but Wembanyama’s inability to contain Brunson on that play may have affected the Spurs’ defense later on.
Wembanyama has generally avoided a straight switch onto Brunson, but he did switch late in the fourth quarter. Brunson promptly hit an audacious pull-up 3-pointer in his face to cut the Spurs’ lead to one with 2:20 left.
2. Spurs scrambled by Knicks’ counter
The Spurs have often tried to pre-switch these ball-screen actions. As his man goes to set a screen for Brunson, Wembanyama stays near the basket and another Spurs player defends the screen instead.
That was the tactic with just under five minutes left on Wednesday. Wembanyama was guarding Towns, who went to set the screen. Instead of going with Towns, Wembanyama stayed at the right block with Jose Alvarado, while Devin Vassell switched onto Towns.
But Towns just took Vassell to the other side of the floor as Alvarado brought Wembanyama into the ball-screen action …
The Spurs clearly don’t like the Brunson-Wembanyama isolation, so Stephon Castle came from the top of the key and took over. With Wembanyama still on the perimeter (and guarding nobody), Brunson smartly passed the ball to the other side of the floor, where the Knicks now had a 3-on-2 situation.
As Towns swung the ball to Alvarado on the right wing, Champagnie anticipated the next pass going to Josh Hart in the right corner, so he left Anunoby alone in the left corner, sprinting all the way across the baseline.
De’Aaron Fox also anticipated the swing pass and jumped out to deflect it. But Alvarado read both defenders and drove into the paint. Wembanyama had no choice but to protect the rim, and Anunoby was still all alone in the left corner …
Anunoby is now an amazing 12-for-19 (63%) on corner 3-pointers in the Finals (including 8-for-11 from the left corner) and 24-for-45 (53%) on corner 3s in the playoffs.
3. Alvarado takes advantage again
The Spurs did another pre-switch on the very next Knicks possession. Again, Towns cleared out and again, Alvarado brought Wembanyama into the action. This time, he held up Brunson as Dylan Harper got back in front …
The Spurs’ game plan in these situations isn’t for Wembanyama to get back to the screener, but for the weak-side defenders to rotate, so he can get back to the paint and “guard” the offensive player in the weak-side corner.
Champagnie rotated over to Alvarado as he caught Brunson’s pass. But Alvarado attacked Champagnie’s closeout, got him on his heels and used a crossover-spin move for a layup that put the Knicks within five with a little less than four minutes left …
Brunson and Alvarado had not played together in the playoffs before Wednesday. But in Game 4, they played 12.1 minutes together, and the Knicks outscored the Spurs by 21 points, scoring 38 on 24 offensive possessions (1.58 per) in those minutes.
4. Bigs on perimeter, smalls under the basket
When the two teams left the timeout with 5.7 seconds left, the Spurs were a bit confused about who Wembanyama should be guarding. He was with Towns at first, but then took Mikal Bridges (who had replaced Alvarado after sitting for the previous seven minutes) before the referee handed the ball to Anunoby.
Defenses usually employ a “switch everything” scheme in these late-game situations, and Wembanyama switched Bridges’ screen for Brunson. But he wasn’t able to deny Brunson the ball, and we got one more Brunson-Wembanyama showdown.
Again, the Spurs brought another defender to help. This time, it was Fox, leaving Anunoby alone again.
Brunson still shot the ball, but Anunoby had a clear runway to the offensive rebound that changed everything …
Wembanyama was on the perimeter and only guards were left to rebound for the Spurs. It was another Brunson-Wembanyama matchup that went in favor of the Knicks.
Expect more in Game 5 on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
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John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.
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