Barbara Barker: Knicks impressive in shutting down NBA's hottest team
New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns protects the ball from San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Don’t stop here.
That’s how the Knicks need to think.
The Knicks, who have been frustratingly inconsistent since the calendar turned to 2026, on Sunday afternoon produced the kind of tantalizing win that makes us all wonder exactly what they are capable of. They can’t let something this good go to waste. They need to build on it.
That’s because the San Antonio team the Knicks defeated, 114-89, at Madison Square Garden isn’t just a good team. The Spurs were the hottest team in the NBA, having gone the entire month of February without losing a game.
The Knicks ended the Spurs’ 11-game winning streak in the most decisive manner, holding the team with the third-best record in the NBA to a season-low 89 points. It was an incredible defensive effort against a team that had not scored fewer than 95 points in any game this season.
The win was the Knicks’ most impressive against a good team since they beat the Spurs for the NBA Cup in December en route to starting the season at 23-9. Back then they looked like a title contender, but the trajectory of the two teams quickly began to switch.
While the Spurs began to play with increasing confidence and win big games, including the 134-132 victory they posted over the Knicks on New Year’s Eve, the Knicks looked like a team that had peaked way too early. In fact, beginning with that loss in San Antonio on Dec. 31, the Knicks had gone 15-13 heading into Sunday, losing to almost every elite team they played. Until now.
I don’t know if the Knicks saw this game as a chance to reverse-engineer the weird juju that seems to have been haunting them since they won the Cup and the team refused to hang the banner in their arena, but they ought to treat it that way as they head down the homestretch of the season.
Though the wins all count the same, the way the Knicks play in their final 21 games matters much more. And a victory like this has the potential to go a long way toward restoring the mindset the Knicks need if they are to go deep in the playoffs.
“It’s just an example of where we can be defensively,” Josh Hart said. “We have to do that on a nightly basis. Now we know it’s all about getting better every day and be the best team we can be going into the playoffs. We can’t have lulls at this point. It can’t be up and down. It has to be a steady climb.”
Coach Mike Brown is always careful not to get too high or too low after a single game, no matter how good or bad it might be. Before Sunday’s matinee, however, he said the team is getting to the point in the season when games can be used as a barometer.
“San Antonio is one of the better teams in the league,” Brown said. “You use every game as a benchmark after the All-Star break.”
On Sunday, you couldn’t have asked for a better barometer reading.
The Spurs committed a season-high 22 turnovers, including seven by Victor Wembanyama. Though the San Antonio center scored a healthy 25 points, the Knicks’ guards compensated by thoroughly outplaying the Spurs’ guards. The Knicks also shot 17-for-48 from three-point range, which is important against a player like Wembanyama who can control the paint.
It was Jalen Brunson who stopped the Spurs from getting off to a runaway start. The Knicks trailed 19-7 midway through the first quarter, but Brunson permanently changed the game when he scored 11 of his 24 points in the final 1:52 of the first quarter to give the Knicks the lead for good.
That scoring frenzy, which included a five-point possession because of Dylan Harper’s flagrant foul, launched the Knicks on a 19-0 run spanning the first and second quarters.
“They just needed one spark to get going, and then we couldn’t stop them,” Wembanyama said with a shrug.
While it’s no big news when Brunson has a big game, the Knicks also got a huge one from Mikal Bridges.
Bridges has been struggling in Brown’s offense, averaging 15.6 points a game, his lowest since the 2021-22 season with Phoenix. That’s the weird thing about him. For all of his struggles, he always seems to come up with the big play or the big game when you least expect it. (See last year’s playoffs.)
Bridges, who was awarded the game ball on defense after logging five steals, scored 25 points and shot 10-for-17, hitting five three-pointers.
“He’s able to do so much as a basketball player, and for him to have a night like tonight, it’s just good to see,” Landry Shamet said. “It’s good for the group.”
Just as this win should be good for the group as they head into a brutal week. After playing at the Raptors, who are in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, the Knicks host Oklahoma City, the team with the best record in the NBA, on Wednesday. They then hit the road, opening a five-game trip with games at Denver and at the Lakers.
Said Hart: “We have to continue to build off of this.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
