Spurs Defeated Knicks 115-111: Series 2-1

In the third match of the NBA Finals, San Antonio Spurs closed the gap in the series with the victory they gained away. In the match played at Madison Square Garden, the Spurs defeated the New York Knicks with a dramatic score of 115-111 and reached their first victory after two consecutive defeats in the series. The series thus continues as 2-1 in favour of the Knicks. The defeat cast the first major shadow on the home crowd's hopes of ending the 53-year championship drought.

The guest team was the side that started the match fast. The Spurs caught an early gap by passing the first quarter with a superior score of 33-22; the home Knicks could not catch the desired percentage in outside shots during the first twelve minutes and could not put forward a fluid picture in attack. In the second quarter, the team under Mike Brown, who came to the position after the Tom Thibodeau period, raised the tempo; the Knicks, fed by Jalen Brunson's playmaking quality and OG Anunoby's outside shots, won this quarter 42-24. At the end of the first half, the score changed to 64-57 in favour of the Knicks and the home crowd found great morale.

Things changed again in the second half. The quality Victor Wembanyama reflected on the court in defence and rebound struggle enabled the Spurs to take superiority in the third quarter. The guest team completed the third quarter with a 35-27 superiority and took the lead in the score table as 92-91. In the last quarter too, the Spurs maintained their superiority and won the quarter 23-20 again with a three-point difference, welcoming the final whistle of the match with a 115-111 victory. Until the last seconds of the match, both teams witnessed changes in the score within one or two points.

The star player of the match was Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs' 22-year-old French centre, who stayed on the court for 38 minutes 41 seconds, scored 32 points, took 8 rebounds and made 6 assists; the player's +/- value reflected on the table as +7. On the Knicks side, Jalen Brunson also responded to the other side by producing 32 points; although the team captain contributed 5 rebounds and 5 assists, his +/- value remained as -9. Another standout name of the match was OG Anunoby, who scored 28 points; the Knicks' English forward caught high accuracy in three-point shots but still could not prevent his team from not getting the victory.

The match statistics showed that the two teams competed in a close picture. While the Knicks passed the Spurs' 84 with 87 in shot attempts, the shot percentage of the two teams was equal at 46 percent. In rebound data, the home Knicks provided a 46-37 superiority but this difference did not reflect on the score table. The match was officiated by US referees Curtis Blair, Marc Davis and James Goble. The match started at 03:30 on Tuesday morning June 9 by Turkish time and was broadcast through Amazon Prime Video Turkey and NBA Global League Pass. The fourth match of the series will be played again at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night June 10; this time the Knicks will look for the chance to widen the gap in the series again.

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