The San Antonio Spurs turned the first half of NBA Finals Game 4 into a shooting exhibition, building a 76-49 halftime lead over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden while making a Finals-record 14 three-pointers before the break.
Spurs Break Open Game 4 From Deep
San Antonio's first-half number was not just good shooting. It was historic. The Spurs made 14 of 24 attempts from beyond the arc, passing the previous NBA Finals record for three-pointers in a half and forcing the Knicks to defend a court that suddenly looked wider than the building itself.
Victor Wembanyama led the Spurs with 16 points at halftime, and Devin Vassell added 12. Rookie Dylan Harper scored 11, while De'Aaron Fox had eight points and 10 assists. That distribution mattered as much as the total. New York could not load up on one option because San Antonio kept turning possessions into clean rhythm shots.
Knicks Lose Control At Madison Square Garden
The Knicks entered Game 4 with a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals, but the first half gave New York very little room to breathe. The Spurs opened the game with sharper spacing, quicker decisions and enough made threes to make every defensive rotation feel late.
Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns tried to steady the Knicks, but New York's problem was less about one matchup than the math. A team can survive a few difficult shot-making stretches. It is much harder to survive a half in which the opponent turns the three-point line into a conveyor belt.
NBA Finals Momentum Can Shift Fast
The score was still only a halftime snapshot, and the Knicks had already shown in this series that they can punch back. But Game 4's opening half changed the tone around the matchup. San Antonio did not merely take a lead; it showed the kind of offensive ceiling that can turn a series from comfortable to complicated in one quarter.
For the Spurs, the challenge after halftime was obvious: protect the lead without treating it like it came with a lock. For the Knicks, the job was even simpler and much less pleasant. They had to make the Finals look like a basketball game again, not a three-point contest accidentally held inside Madison Square Garden.