Spurs’ historic first half from deep blows open Game 4 at Madison Square Garden

The San Antonio Spurs used an unusually efficient stretch of perimeter shooting to seize control of Game 4 at Madison Square Garden, delivering a performance that began with three-point makes and ended with a commanding margin at halftime. According to the report, the Spurs sank a record 14 three-pointers in the first half, producing a 27-point lead on their way to a dominant start that set the tone for the night.

The setting mattered. Madison Square Garden has a way of tightening the atmosphere around playoff basketball, especially in the NBA Finals. Yet the Spurs did not look rushed or tentative when it came time to play from the outside in front of a loud Knicks crowd. The early barrage forced New York into difficult decision-making, because the game’s tempo quickly shifted from “compete for possessions” to “claw back from distance.”

A run that heavy from beyond the arc is rarely a one-shot phenomenon, and the numbers described in the report suggest it was both purposeful and sustained. Fourteen made threes in a half is not just volume, it is rhythm, ball movement, and shot selection aligning at the same time. In practical terms, it also means San Antonio could create defensive stress even when New York adjusted, because the Spurs had multiple ways to attack the floor and keep the defense from settling into a single look.

New York, meanwhile, entered the game as the opponent under pressure, facing not only a deficit but also a challenge that can be hard to solve midstream. When an opponent is hitting that many threes that quickly, the margin for error shrinks. The Knicks had to defend the arc, but defending the arc while chasing shooters also creates openings for drives and interior scoring. The longer the Spurs stayed ahead, the more those choices become tradeoffs, and the report’s halftime cushion indicates San Antonio benefited from that kind of tradeoff.

The Spurs’ first-half scoring output also carries a deeper postseason implication: it changes how the opponent plans the next phase of the series. Teams facing an opponent that can reach a record mark in one half are forced to reconsider what “stopping the offense” means. In many Finals matchups, the adjustment is about limiting good looks; here, the adjustment has to address the possibility that good looks are arriving in volume, and that the defense may need to accept less ideal outcomes on other parts of the floor while still contesting shots.

For San Antonio, the emphasis on three-point shooting in this particular stretch underscores a broader identity for a modern playoff team: spacing, perimeter accuracy, and the ability to turn one strong sequence into a larger run. The report does not detail individual shotmaking breakdowns, but the headline figure, a Finals-record 14 threes in a half, suggests a level of execution that can tilt a high-stakes game before a single major swing from the bench or a late defensive adjustment even has time to matter.

What to watch next is whether the Spurs can replicate the underlying conditions that produced the record half, not just the makes. If San Antonio’s outside efficiency was rooted in shot quality and movement, the Knicks can try to deny those looks in future games. If, instead, the Spurs were creating high-quality attempts despite coverage, that would raise the difficulty of defending them for the remainder of the series. Either way, Wednesday night’s first-half numbers set a benchmark for what San Antonio is capable of when its shooting pace and spacing click.