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jun 06 2026The San Antonio Spurs face an almost unprecedented mountain to climb. After losing the first two NBA Finals games at home to the New York Knicks, the Texas team travels to New York not only down 0-2 but also burdened by a devastating statistic.
Never in NBA history has a team won the championship after losing the first two Finals games at home.
The blow for San Antonio is evident. The Knicks won the first game 105-95 and repeated in the second with an extremely tight 105-104, decided in the final seconds. The series now moves to Madison Square Garden, where New York will have the opportunity to put the Finals firmly in their grasp in front of their home crowd.
The overall statistic was already difficult for the Spurs. In the NBA Finals, teams that go up 2-0 have won the series in 32 of 37 occasions. Only five teams have been able to overcome that deficit. But San Antonio's situation is even more precarious, because those comebacks did not come after losing the first two games at home.
That's why the third game appears as a must-win. The Spurs need to win in New York to avoid a 3-0 deficit that would be practically insurmountable. No team has ever come back from that score in an NBA playoff series.
Victor Wembanyama and San Antonio remain alive, but the margin is already minimal. To change the Finals, the Spurs not only need to respond: they need to do something no one has ever done.
