NBA FINALS: KNICKS VS. SPURS

June 10, 2026

Mitch Johnson

San Antonio Spurs

Game 4: Postgame

Knicks 107, Spurs 106

Q. The 30 points in the second half, what went wrong offensively in your mind?

MITCH JOHNSON: I mean, obviously a few things. Score 30 points in a half. We got away from what got us the 76 points in the first half just in terms of putting pressure on the rim, rolling after screens, running, continuing to find the paint, whether it's for ourselves or for our teammate. We got on our heels, missed some shots.

You don't get as many free throws, high-percentage looks when you play on your heels like that.

Q. This has been a season just full of a lot of lessons for you guys. Where does that one fall?

MITCH JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, at the top of the list just in terms of obviously the circumstances and the stakes of what we're playing for. To put as much good work into that first half as we did, get the lead that we had and not finish the job, is disappointing to say the least.

Q. At what point tonight did you feel like the momentum started to become a little too much to overcome?

MITCH JOHNSON: Honestly, it's tough. We felt the momentum. Too much to overcome? I didn't feel that until the clock hit zeros.

There were parts, third quarter and early to mid in the fourth quarter, again where we got away from playing the brand of basketball that got us the lead. Then you saw at times the aggressiveness and just conviction that we played with early on dissipate a little bit.

They made some shots. That's where you felt the momentum a little bit. We just needed few more tough-minded plays to finish the job.

Q. The two quick trips to the bench that Victor had in the first half with the big lead, what was the thought process behind that?

MITCH JOHNSON: Yeah, no, he just kind of played his normal stint. He had a few more minutes tonight because we were trying to put the game away.

Yeah, with two days after this, what was at stake, we wanted to win the game and try to put it away.

Q. Any way to describe how painful this loss is? What did you say to your team afterwards?

MITCH JOHNSON: Painful, again, yeah, because we played so well. That's a game where you sit there and you say you had the type of personnel that you had, you shot the ball decent, played a pretty clean game. Then kind of didn't finish the job, stopped putting energy in the right spots that got you that lead, what we're playing for.

Now we got to go home in two days and approach it the same way. We got one game that we got to win. We got to win that game in two days and be more consistent and more tough-minded and finish the job and finish stronger at the end.

Q. It looked like the game really turned well for you in the first quarter after Towns came out the game. What did you like in the looks that you...

MITCH JOHNSON: I'm sorry?

Q. How much did you like your team's looks with Towns off the floor? What did you see on your end to call that challenge?

MITCH JOHNSON: Yeah, I think he grabbed Victor or hooked him or something. But there was something there that was a proximate foul, and if it wasn't, felt like Victor at least had a clean block, so that's why we challenged it.

It's a pretty clear picture if you watch the game in terms of what we did in the first half and why we scored so many points. It was pace, finding the paint, passing the ball to your teammate, taking good shots. The second half was opposite of that.

Yeah, 76 points one half and 30; that's a stark difference in a lot of surface-level things. You don't get to peel too many layers and dig too deep to find some differences.

Q. What did you see on the final play? What was the first intended look there? What messed up the inbound pass?

MITCH JOHNSON: I didn't get a clear picture of what messed it up. It was just a back pick from Victor for Steph. Then Vic was running off, Dylan had it in his vision. Whether it was Steph at the rim or Victor running to get a shot over his right shoulder. Obviously we didn't get the pass where we wanted to.

Q. On OG's tip-in, was that a great play by him, or did you see a breakdown on blocking out on that?

MITCH JOHNSON: Both.

Q. When you have a game like this, you're up almost 30, now you're down 3-1 instead of 2-2, the emotions obviously are going to be tough. How do you help the guys refocus?

MITCH JOHNSON: I told them to feel the emotion tonight, because they're competitive. That's unhumanly possible to not. Tomorrow take all the emotion out. They better be ready to play in two days and win.

Q. This is new territory for everybody in terms of what just happened. What do you draw from what this team has been around the last couple years to kind of get them back to an equilibrium where they can try to put this by the side and get ready for Game 5?

MITCH JOHNSON: Yeah, I think, again, we have two days to put everything we have into that game. That's the only game that matters. By no means am I not acknowledging the Knicks and what they've done. Give them credit for playing good basketball. But we feel like we've decided the outcome of all four games. We need to be better in the next game.

Q. Obviously your three-point shooting was great in the first half, cold in the second half. At a certain point, what did you try to do to change the flow of the offense to create looks?

MITCH JOHNSON: The same thing we've always done. We need to continue to put pressure on the rim and touch the paint and crash because you don't always make even the best three-point looks. Missed some really good shots in the second half. You have to continue to be tough-minded enough to play the brand of basketball, regardless of the outcome or what the score is. We did a really good job of that in the first half and not a good job of that at all in the second half.