Jalen Brunson leads Knicks on furious 22-point comeback, defeat Cavs in OT thriller

Atlantic76ersCelticsKnicksNetsRaptorsCentralBucksBullsCavaliersPacersPistonsSoutheastHawksHeatHornetsMagicWizardsSouthwestGrizzliesMavericksPelicansRocketsSpursNorthwestJazzNuggetsThunderTimberwolvesTrail BlazersPacificClippersKingsLakersSunsWarriorsScores & ScheduleStandingsThe Bounce NewsletterNBA DraftPodcastsFantasyNBA OddsNBA PicksWhat's Next For Lakers?Hollinger's Top ProspectsVecenie's Mock DraftNBA Playoffs The Knicks were completely out of the game. Then Jalen Brunson started to heat up. Sarah Stier / Getty Images Share article15NEW YORK —  For the second time in as many years, the New York Knicks are in the Eastern Conference finals and found themselves in overtime in Game 1. The vibe, and the result, was much different this time. The Knicks overcame a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter to stun the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-104, on Tuesday night. Jalen Brunson led all scorers with 38 points, including a heroic fourth-quarter effort that enabled the Knicks to wrestle away a victory from the jaws of defeat. The Knicks trailed 93-71 with 7:40 left before Brunson got cooking. He scored 15 in the fourth and New York reeled off an 18-1 run to get within striking distance. Landry Shamet’s bouncing 3-pointer (remember Tyrese Haliburton from Game 1 of last year’s conference finals, here at MSG, that beat the Knicks?) with 45 seconds left tied the game at 99. James Harden responded with a short jumper to regain the lead for Cleveland, only for Brunson to retie it at 101 on a short jumper of his own. The Knicks coasted in overtime, outscoring the Cavs 14-3. Cleveland’s Sam Merrill had a clean look at a 3-pointer that rattled around the rim and off just before the buzzer sounded. The Cavs shot 5-of-17 in the final quarter as their lead collapsed. It was highly reminiscent of the game between these teams here on Christmas Day, in which Cleveland led by 17 in the fourth quarter and lost. This loss hurts much, much worse for the Cavs, who were coming off a historic Game 7 in the second round Sunday in which they became the third team in NBA history to win a Game 7 on the road by 30 or more points. The Knicks, meanwhile, hadn’t played since May 10 because they made such quick work of Philadelphia in the second round. Perhaps the layoff had something to do with them falling behind by three touchdowns. But they got it together in time to set a whole new tone for this year’s conference finals, and devastate the Cavs in the process. Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs with 29 points but was held scoreless in the fourth quarter. Evan Mobley added 15 points and 14 rebounds. Game 2 of the Eastern finals is at 8 p.m. (ESPN) Thursday at Madison Square Garden. — Joe Vardon How many capes does Jalen Brunson have? Does he just use the same one? With the Knicks down 22 points with a little over seven minutes remaining, Brunson rattled off a fourth-quarter performance that your children will tell their children about. He scored 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the game’s final frame to will New York to overtime, where it eventually won. Brunson has done stuff like this over and over again. It’s getting challenging to even write about. The game was eerily similar to what happened at this stage last season, when the Indiana Pacers rattled off a comeback overtime victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals to steal one on the Knicks’ floor. Only this time, Brunson was Aaron Nesmith, Tyrese Haliburton and Rick Carlisle all rolled into one. The All-NBA guard continues to find impressive ways to take the Knicks to new heights. New York likely won’t shoot this badly again in the series and Brunson was able to still get them a victory. It’s just one game, but this can swing a series, even if New York was expected to win it anyway. This had loss written all over it. That was until Jalen Brunson saved the day again. — James L. Edwards III This will be a loss that sits with the Cavaliers for a while. They were up 22 in the fourth quarter and then it all went awry. The series isn’t over, but this puts Cleveland on the back foot. They nearly stole Game 1, which would have been a huge lift when they were two days removed from a Game 7 win and in a series in which they don’t have home court advantage. Now they’ll have to hope they can take Game 2 and have the weight of this collapse on their minds as they do it. It also hurts at a time when energy is at a premium for the Cavaliers after they played 14 games over the first two rounds. Cleveland expended a lot of it in Game 1 and it got them nothing, even on a night in which Donovan Mitchell was excellent despite going scoreless in the fourth quarter. Kenny Atkinson will have to figure out how to counter the Knicks’ big fourth-quarter innovation: seek and destroy James Harden on defense. He’ll either have to hide his star or bench him; one seems harder than the other, but it’s not what you might think. The Cavaliers might want to run from their self-affixed motto that the lights were too bright in New York a few years ago, but they couldn’t Tuesday night. — Mike Vorkunov Karl-Anthony Towns has a healthy ego because, well, you could not survive in the NBA without one. You definitely could not be a No. 1 overall draft pick, a six-time All-Star, and a franchise cornerstone in New York City without one. But the big man in the big city has subjugated that ego in these playoffs, which is a significant reason why the Knicks have been a better team (as in much) over their previous seven postseason games than they were during the regular season. Towns had been rightfully celebrated for embracing the role of point-center, dishing the ball like a modern-day version of his idol, Magic Johnson, who also wore No. 32. The flip side of that, of course, was seen in his plunging shot totals. Entering Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against Cleveland, KAT had 55 field-goal attempts during the Knicks’ seven-game winning streak. He passed for 56 assists in those games. That’s right, he had more assists than shots. That changed Tuesday night, when Cleveland proved it is a more explosive offensive opponent than Atlanta or Philadelphia before completely falling apart in the fourth quarter, blowing a 22-point lead and ultimately losing in overtime. Jalen Brunson was unbelievable, on cue, exploding for 38 points. He was the first, second, and third storylines from this game. But it was worth noting that Towns ended up with only five assists, four of them in the first half, while taking 14 shots, 10 in the second half. He never had more than 11 field-goal attempts during the seven-game winning streak over the Hawks and Sixers. He had eight or fewer in five of those seven games. A career 22.8 points-per-game scorer, Towns might need to shoot and score a bit more in this series… if a trip to the NBA Finals is definitely to come to pass. — Ian O’Connor The Cavaliers could have essentially stopped playing basketball. They led by 22 points with 7:52 to go in regulation. The Knicks could not score. Maintain the lead for another couple of minutes, and they could have literally taken 24-second violations on every possession until the final buzzer while still fending off the Knicks. But the Cavs could not get out of their own way. The defensive alignment that made the Knicks stumble out of the gate — the one with a center, Jarrett Allen, on Josh Hart — was no longer relevant with New York going to a five-out lineup to close. Brunson hunted Harden. And the Cavaliers, the same team that has suffered too many late-game breakdowns this postseason, added to the list. After going up 22, they closed the game shooting just 3 of 18. They committed five turnovers during that span. They could have stolen one in New York, and now they trail the series. — Fred Katz Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms