OG Anunoby tips Knicks past Thunder for 3-1 Finals lead, capping the largest comeback in NBA Finals history
The New York Knicks were down 29 points in Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals on Wednesday night in Oklahoma City. They left the arena with a 3-1 series lead and a piece of league history, after OG Anunoby's putback in the final seconds sealed the largest comeback ever recorded in an NBA Finals game.
The final margin and the timing of the winner — a tap-in rather than a contested jumper — understated how thoroughly the game had tilted. For three quarters the Oklahoma City Thunder had played the kind of pace-and-space basketball that took them to the league's best regular-season record. Then the Knicks, coached by Mike Brown, reset the terms of the series in roughly fifteen minutes of play.
How the comeback built
Oklahoma City built its lead methodically, stretching it to 29 before the Knicks bench began chipping away. The Knicks' defence tightened on the Thunder's primary creators, and the visitors started generating live-ball turnovers that converted into run-outs. The third-quarter run was less about shot-making than about pace: New York pushed the ball before the Thunder's defence could set, and the foul count tilted.
By the time the fourth quarter opened, the Thunder's margin had been cut to single digits. The last two minutes were an exchange of empty trips, missed free throws, and one long Knicks possession that ended with Anunoby crashing the offensive glass and tipping the ball in as the buzzer sounded. The Knicks bench, the broadcast showed, spilled onto the floor.
The quotes that will travel
Brown, in his postgame remarks, framed the finish in historical terms. "That has to be the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball," he said of Anunoby's putback. He was almost as struck by the comeback itself, calling it the largest in NBA Finals history.
Anunoby, who finished with 33 points, was characteristically spare. "Do whatever it takes to win... I just tried to make a play," he said when asked to describe the sequence. The line travels because it describes the play, and the night, accurately: a tip rather than a dagger, won on effort as much as skill.
What the comeback obscures
The 3-1 lead is the headline number, but it flatters a game the Knicks were losing for the first three quarters. Oklahoma City still generated open looks at the rim in the fourth; the Knicks still relied on Anunoby to clean up a miss. The Thunder remain a young, switchable team with home court for the rest of the series if they win Game 5, and the historical record on 3-1 leads in the Finals is favourable to the leader but not inviolable — the 2016 Cavaliers are the obvious counter-example.
The cleaner read is that New York has now demonstrated two different ways to win a game in this series. In Game 3, the Knicks controlled tempo for four quarters. In Game 4, they absorbed a punch and answered with a run. Defences tend to find the first one harder to game-plan against.
What Game 5 decides
Game 5 returns to Oklahoma City on Friday. A Knicks win closes out the series and delivers New York its first NBA title in decades; a Thunder win turns the Finals back into a best-of-three and reframes the comeback as a memorable moment inside a longer series. The structural read is that New York has, over four games, made its depth and its offensive rebounding the swing variables. The Thunder have not yet solved either.
What remains uncertain is whether the Knicks' fourth-quarter defence — the lineups, the coverages, the rotations on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams — is repeatable on the road. Wednesday's win was historic; it was not, on its own, conclusive.
Desk note: Monexus framed this as a sports story with a structural angle — a record comeback that also reset the series' tactical terms — rather than a highlights reel. The wire had the moment; the question worth holding is what the moment says about the next game.
Wire provenance
This editorial synthesis draws on the following public wire/social posts:
- https://t.me/s/NBALive/101
- https://t.me/s/NBALive/100
- https://t.me/s/NBALive/99
- https://t.me/s/NBALive/98
- https://t.me/s/NBALive/97