Editor’s note: This column was written before Game 4. In that game, the San Antonio Spurs blew a 29-point lead en route to a loss, putting them on the brink of elimination.

NEW YORK CITY – In professional sports, there is often a large amount of importance put on home court advantage, in being able to play in a team’s own city for big games. In the NBA Finals, where they play best-of-seven series, home court advantage allows up to four games at home, including the seventh one if it is needed. Anyone who has watched games in the NBA playoffs this season knows the fans have been loud and raucous in supporting their teams.

Going into the NBA Finals this season, the San Antonio Spurs gained home court advantage so the first two games were played there. The Spurs’ opponent, the New York Knicks, were considered the underdogs if one looked at the odds of who would win the contest between the two, and the fact the Spurs had home court played in as a factor.

Looking at the bigger picture, it was a bit of a surprise to have the Knicks not favored. They were on an 11-game winning streak coming into the finals, having swept the two previous rounds of playoffs and they had an astounding +271 point differential over their first 14 games meaning they outscored their opponents by an average of 19.4 points per game. The Knicks also beat the Spurs two out of three games this season with the first win coming when the teams met in the Emirates NBA Cup final match.

The Spurs, meanwhile, had to fight their way past the Portland Trailblazers, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and went a full seven games against the Oklahoma City Thunder to make it to the playoffs. They had spent a lot more energy than the Knicks so far in their path to the championship.

As the Finals started in San Antonio, all the pressure was on the Spurs to prove they belonged there, to show they could win on a big stage considering it is most of their teams’ first time in the playoffs, let alone the Finals. Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs’ 24-year-old phenom and unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, needed to prove his superstar status on the biggest stage. Their team is the second youngest to ever make it to the NBA Finals, and youth and inexperience are not selling points to a team’s success.

The Knicks took Game 1 of the Finals and “stole” home court advantage from the Spurs at that point. They also went on to win Game 2, extending their win streak to the second longest in NBA history with 13 straight wins in the playoffs. In both games, the Spurs were able to stay close and actually had double-digit leads at some point. The Knicks just had too many answers to the Spurs runs and closed out the games with excellent play from their superstars Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby.

In both games, the Knicks earned their wings, they didn’t just luck into them. While the Spurs had a variety of issues leading to their demise, the Knicks were always around to capitalize, make the big shots, and do what they needed to do. Perhaps most humbling for the Spurs was Wembanyama’s turnover late in Game 2 followed by his miss on the last shot of the game that could’ve sealed their win instead of their loss. What happened to that home court advantage?

For Game 3, the Knicks were returning to New York and seemed invincible. Madison Square Garden is an insanely loud place for teams to play when the audience has a reason to cheer on the Knicks, and this year they have every reason to. Wembanyama said playing there feels like they are playing 6-on-5, like there is another player in the game for the Knicks. Home court advantage would surely mean smooth sailing for the Knicks as the chants were loud for them sweeping the series in four games, right?

Two of the first three possessions for the Knicks were turnovers, and they ended up committing 13 throughout the game. They were down 33 – 22 at the end of the first quarter. While they outscored the Spurs 42 – 24 in the second quarter and had a seven-point lead at halftime, they were outscored by the Spurs by 11 points in the second half, losing 115 – 111.

Oddly, every game so far in the NBA Finals has provided home court jitters instead of an advantage as the teams feel immense pressure to perform for their home crowd. The opposing teams have stayed calm and stepped up every time they needed to in order to secure the win. This is the first time since 1993 that the road team has won the first three games of the NBA Finals, and those are the only two times it has ever happened!

Now, both teams have the chance to show who they are in Game 4. Many say that the teams know everything about one another by the time they are done playing a playoff best-of-seven series, but both of these teams seem to learn something new about the other team every game.

Would Game 4 show the rebounding of the dominant Knicks team seen so far in the playoffs? Or will the Spurs show they are over their Finals jitters and can put together a full game where they are playing in sync, Wembanyama is fully involved on both sides of the ball, and they are a force to be reckoned with?

Another important stat everyone has most likely heard many times already is that no team in NBA history has lost the first two games at home and gone on to win the NBA Finals. The statistics of the past are not in favor of the Spurs, but no one expected them to win more than 60 games this year, to make the playoffs at all, and certainly not to make it all the way to the Finals.

Then again, the statistics also put the Knicks as the underdogs in this series and they certainly showed they don’t ascribe to that sentiment with their play in the first two games. In short, the Spurs win in Game 3 shows this series is far from done and there is still everything to play for.