Knicks need a quick response from first loss since April as the Spurs try to even the NBA Finals

NEW YORK: Last time the New York Knicks lost a game, they didn’t do it again for another month and a half.
When they fell behind against Atlanta in the first round of the NBA playoffs, desperation turned into domination. The Knicks won 13 straight games, many of them blowouts, in one of most impressive postseason stretches in NBA history.
They don’t need to do anything so dramatic now.

With a 2-1 lead over the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, a simple 2-2 record the rest of the season would give New York its first championship since 1973.
So after dropping Game 3, the Knicks don’t need an overhaul. But they do need to be better.
“We have a veteran group.

Nobody is quote-unquote panicking or anything like that,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said Tuesday. “Everybody is disappointed that we didn’t go out and execute and play to what we feel our standard is.

That’s not taking anything away from San Antonio, but we feel like we can play a lot better than what we did.
“We’re looking forward to going out on the floor and showing it.”
Game 4 is Wednesday in a series in which the road team has won all three games, only the second time that’s happened in the NBA Finals.
The Spurs jumped on the Knicks right at the start and then outplayed them late in their 115-111 victory on Monday. Victor Wembanyama controlled the action on both sides with 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three blocked shots.
Showing no fear of a rowdy road environment in the first NBA Finals game in Madison Square Garden since 1999, just as they didn’t in winning a Game 7 on the road against defending champion Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals, Wembanyama and the Spurs again looked like a team that might be able to win a title without