The San Antonio Spurs 107-106 loss to the New York Knicks that saw the Eastern Conference champions come back from 29 points in Game 4 of the NBA Finals ranks as the most brutal in these 2026 playoffs and among the worst in the storied history of the Silver and Black. Where, exactly, though, does it rank?
Thanks to five championships and now seven NBA Finals appearances, the Spurs have won a great share of consequential games. With that has come some incredible heartbreak.
Here are the five worst single losses in a history that dates back to the ABA and 1967, including in the Alamo City since 1973.
5. 1979 Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 vs. the Washington Bullets
In their first conference finals appearance since joining the NBA three years earlier, the Spurs took a 3-1 lead on the defending champion Washington Bullets. A San Antonio era that featured George Gervin, James Silas, and Larry Kenon (the franchise’s original ‘Big 3’) ended up coughing up the series advantage to Elvin Hayes, Bob Dandridge, Wes Unseld, and company. The Spurs then lost a ten-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 7, aided by a controversial non-call in which the Bullets appeared to get away with stepping out of bounds on a key play late. It would prove the closest San Antonio would get to the NBA Finals until actually getting there twenty years later.
4. 2006 Western Conference Semifinals Game 7 vs. the Dallas Mavericks
After rallying from a 3-1 series deficit of their own, the defending champion Spurs came back from a 20-point deficit against a Dallas Mavericks squad that, like them, had also won at least 60 games during the regular season. But, after Manu Ginobili broke a tie to put the top-seeded Spurs up three courtesy of a trey with 32.2 seconds remaining in regulation, the Hall-of-Famer fouled Dirk Nowitzki for a successful and-one that essentially forced overtime. The Spurs lost at home to end what was probably their best chance to repeat, which the franchise has never been able to accomplish.
3. 2026 NBA Finals Game 4 vs. the New York Knicks
We all just lived it. For the sake of Spurs fans, no need to rehash it again. Suffice to say, blowing a 29-point lead that would’ve tied the Finals at two with two of the next possible three games in San Antonio will haunt the franchise for years to come if the Knicks finish the job.
2. 2004 Western Conference Semifinals Game 5 vs. the Los Angeles Lakers
The pure shock – not the prolonged agony of the New York game we just witnessed – is enough to place this instant classic here. After Tim Duncan sent the then SBC Center crowd into a frenzy by hitting a hurried acrobatic shot to give the Spurs a one-point lead with under a second to go, Derek Fisher’s miracle with 0.4 has become the standard for late unlikely makes. No other NBA moment with under half a second left has come close before or after. Up 3-2 with that victory, the Los Angeles Lakers closed out the second round series in the next game to eliminate the defending champion Spurs.
1. 2013 NBA Finals Game 6 vs. the Miami Heat
The champagne was on ice. Up 3-2 in the series and leading by five with roughly 0:30 left, the Spurs were about to deny LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and the Miami Heat a second straight title. Instead, Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard both missed free throws before Ray Allen’s corner three-pointer tied the game with 5.2 to go. The Spurs lost in overtime and then couldn’t overcome the devastation in time for Game 7.
They’d avenge the loss to win their fifth championship a year later against the same Heat squad. But that doesn’t erase the massive pain suffered across the Alamo City on June 18, 2013.
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