SAN ANTONIO — The Knicks brought in the New Year with an anomaly: a crunch-time failure.
With Victor Wembanyama out after appearing to hyperextend his knee, the Knicks still squandered a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and fell Wednesday night to the Spurs, 134-132.
Jalen Brunson missed two of his big three treys in the final seconds, including the clank with about 15 clicks remaining. That represented New York’s last best chance at another nail-biting win, although a last-gasp jump ball involving Kevin McCullar Jr. would ultimately remove the Knicks’ final breath with seven seconds left.
“They just, s–t, excuse my French, but they just outworked us in a lot of ways,” coach Mike Brown said. “[Spurs coach Mitch Johnson] kicked my ass. The rest of the team kicked our ass. We all got our ass kicked today.”
The Spurs got a career night from St. John’s product Julian Champagnie, who bombed 3-pointers with regularity and finished with 36 points on 11 for 17 from beyond the arc.
Wembanyama added 31 points before his injury with 10:30 remaining in the fourth quarter. He ultimately returned from the locker room to the bench, witnessing the end of a discouraging evening from New York’s defense.
The Knicks (23-10) entered the night 19-0 when leading after three quarters. They’re now 19-1.
“First of all, it’s our physicality wasn’t good. We haven’t figured out how to be physical for 48 minutes in the last I don’t know how many games,” Brown said. “And doing it without fouling. We pick up some silly fouls that we have to do a better job of. I feel everybody understands that. But now we have to go do it. So now our physicality isn’t good. And we just haven’t been able to — I don’t know we’re tired or what, we haven’t been able to sustain anything defensively for 48 minutes. And we’ve won a lot of games and you want to win games and feel good about it. But at the end of the day, if we don’t figure out how we’re going to sustain what we’re supposed to do on defense for 48 minutes, it’s going to be a long year for us and it’s going to catch up with us.”
Brunson scored 29 but shot just 10 for 24. Karl-Anthony Towns fouled out in 33 minutes while scoring 20. But the Knicks, overall, played well offensively while shooting 48 percent from the field and 42.3 percent on 3s.
The problem was the defense. Especially against Champagnie.
“He shot the mess out the ball,” Brown said. “I was a little disappointed in our guys because it was almost like we didn’t respect him. We didn’t pick him up in transition. … He just kept getting look after look after look after look. Wide open. … I was really disappointed in the way we defended him.”
It was ugly but the Knicks had plenty of excuses. They were at the end of a long trip and probably road-weary, having spent most of the last three weeks of 2025 sleeping in hotel rooms. They just squeaked by two lesser opponents, the Hawks and Pelicans.
They were missing two key pieces — Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson — pushing rookie Mohamed Diawara back into the starting lineup.
The Spurs (24-9), a borderline contender so long as Wemby isn’t seriously injured, were likely motivated by their recent loss to the Knicks in the NBA Cup final, not to mention their consecutive defeats at home to the Cavs and Jazz.
“They know what happened in the cup, they’re going to play with a little extra edge,” Brown said. “Especially they lost a couple here now lately.”
It looked and felt like a schedule loss for Brown’s squad. Then they hung around despite a lackluster defensive effort, until they let go of the rope.
Before Wednesday, the Knicks had won 15 of 18 games, a stretch that included the NBA Cup title. It had everybody giddy about the possibilities.
Brown, for the first time publicly, spoke confidently about the Knicks chances of winning the championship.
“You come here you want to win,” the coach said. “You look at a team on paper, you’re around the team a little bit. You’re like, ‘OK man, we legitimately have a chance to like win this whole thing.’
“But in terms of my preparation with the team and all that, I mean, it’s all the same. We’re trying to friggin’ win and win at a high level. We have a chance here because of the roster, the guys on the roster and the coaches I have on my staff and Leon [Rose] and Jim Dolan. We’ve got a chance.”
One defeat isn’t going to change Brown’s mind about title hopes. But it did remind him that the defense still needs work. A lot of it.
Plus, Brunson and the Knicks finally looked mortal in the clutch.
They trailed late in the third quarter, the result of a 21-5 Spurs run. But then Brunson finally started hitting shots, and New York went on a 11-0 run and entered the fourth quarter with a 102-93 lead.
Those circumstances always led to a Knicks victory.
Until New Year’s Eve.
“I think at times we think, ‘We’re good, we’re going to end up winning this, or we’re going to outscore them,’ ” Brown said. “And that’s not the mentality to have. There has to be a sense of urgency defensively for 48 minutes.”
