The San Antonio Spurs led for 72 percent of the 2026 NBA Finals, held double-digit leads in every game and still lost the championship to the New York Knicks. The numbers behind the collapse are difficult to believe.
From a record-setting blown lead in Game 4 to late-game failures throughout the series, the statistics paint a brutal picture of how Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs let a title slip through their hands.
Three of the four losses were decided by four points or fewer, and San Antonio held leads or ties in the final two minutes of every single game, according to The Athletic‘s Chris Vannini.
Getty New York Knicks fans celebrated well into the night after their team won its first NBA championship since 1973.
Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs’ Total Collapse
“The Spurs led by 12+ points in every game and led or tied in the final two minutes of every game. Lost the series 4-1,” Vannini wrote.
Win probability data, shared by ClutchPoints‘ Tomer Azarly, illustrates how late each collapse arrived. San Antonio held a 91.6 percent win probability in Game 1 while up 13 in the third quarter. In Game 2, the Spurs led with a minute left and still owned a 72.8 percent chance of winning. Game 4 saw San Antonio at 99.6 percent with a 20-point cushion and over nine minutes on the clock. Finally, in Game 5, the Spurs held a 95.4 percent chance of winning with a 10-point lead and under eight minutes remaining.
All four leads evaporated as New York won all four games and the 2026 NBA championship.
The worst single disaster came in Game 4, when San Antonio built a 29-point advantage on 14 first-half three-pointers and 76 points before halftime. But to the Spurs’ horror, their dominant advantage turned into the largest blown lead in NBA Finals history, surpassing the 2008 Lakers. Wembanyama was dominant early, but the Spurs shot 20.5 percent from the field after the halftime break, scored only 30 second-half points, and committed more turnovers than they converted field goals. OG Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds left sealed a 107-106 New York victory.
Spurs Coach Addresses Wembanyama’s Struggles
“We weren’t ready to win an NBA championship. The better team won. We did a lot of good things and we didn’t finish the job. That’s what it is,” Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said after Game 5, according to Spurs Nation.
Johnson also acknowledged that the team abandoned the aggressive style that built its advantages, a failure in late-game execution that repeated itself across four losses.
“In losing the NBA Finals, the young Spurs learned that being more talented doesn’t make you the better team. Their offense was too often a journey without a destination. There’s a difference between being a great player and being a winner,” Jared Weiss of The Athletic wrote on Sunday.
San Antonio Express-News beat writer Jeff McDonald captured the mood of a team that reached the Finals and couldn’t close it.
“From pain comes perseverance. From frustration comes fight. From disappointment comes determination,” McDonald wrote.
Jalen Brunson claimed Finals MVP honors after averaging 32.6 points per game, delivering the clutch-time production that San Antonio, for all its talent, could never match. The Knicks claimed their first title since 1973. The Spurs head into the offseason carrying the lessons that only a Finals loss can teach.
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