Both NBA – Victor Wembanyama delivered 41 points and 24 rebounds as the Spurs beat the Thunder in Oklahoma City, while Jalen Brunson poured in a 44-11 closing run to rally the Knicks past the Cavaliers. Both Game 1s ended 101-101 in regulation and went to overtime for th
The NBA conference finals started like a script that somehow got better with every rewrite.
In Oklahoma City. Victor Wembanyama put up 41 points and 24 rebounds as San Antonio went to the home of the defending champion Thunder and won Game 1. In New York. the Knicks faced a different kind of chaos: they were down by 22 points with about eight minutes left in regulation. then surged past the Cleveland Cavaliers. Both games finished regulation tied at 101-101, sending the conference finals to overtime in each case for the first time.
Well done, Spurs and Knicks.
One shared thread ran through both comebacks and both closings: the best player on the winning team decided the final moments belonged to him. Monday night belonged to Wembanyama for the Spurs. Tuesday night belonged to Jalen Brunson for the Knicks, who led a 44-11 run over the last 13 minutes.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen that in a playoff game,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “I take my hat off to my group.”
Brunson, asked what they found in the closing stretch, kept it simple. “Found a way. … We got some stops,” he said. “Kept fighting, kept believing, kept chipping away.”
At Madison Square Garden. the swing was so sharp it defied the kind of history that usually makes late leads feel safe. A 44-11 run does not happen in the NBA, certainly not in the conference finals. Teams that led by 22 points or more in the fourth quarter were 452-1 this season. including playoffs; they are 452-2 now. In the playoffs. teams had won 330 consecutive games when leading by 22 or more points in the fourth quarter since 2013; they are 330-1 now.
“I don’t have an answer,” Brunson said.
The Cavaliers’ coach Kenny Atkinson saw the same story unfolding from the other sideline. “We got a little unlucky,” Atkinson said. “Brunson obviously took over at the end. … We played great basketball tonight for three quarters. Unfortunately, the fourth quarter, they dominated us in the fourth quarter.”.
Wembanyama’s night was its own reminder that greatness doesn’t always wait for the perfect moment. A 41-point, 24-rebound conference finals performance doesn’t arrive often, and this one came in the Spurs’ first conference finals game. Spurs rookie guard Dylan Harper also played a standout role.
San Antonio, like Cleveland, let a double-digit fourth-quarter lead slip. The difference was in how it ended: in Game 1. the Spurs’ lead in regulation was 10. not 22—still a cushion that should have felt comfortable. But the Spurs settled for overtime. and then. unlike the Cavs. found a way to calm things down repeatedly in both extra periods Monday night.
“That game was in the balance multiple times for both teams,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said Tuesday. “You can’t get preoccupied with the outcome because there was so much in the balance that could have went either way.”
The rhythm of those late stretches mattered. too. because the stakes were never as clean as the numbers could make them look. Winning Game 1 and taking home-court advantage can feel like a turning point—but it doesn’t automatically mean the series is over. The Thunder know the meaning of a Game 1. They also know how quickly a first win can get swallowed by the rest of the series.
“The cumulative experience just teaches you that it’s a series,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Tuesday. “Game 1’s a starting point, not an end point. We’ve lost playoff series that we’ve won Game 1 pretty convincingly. And we’ve also won series that we won Game 1. So, every series is different. It’s the first to four. They’re 25% of the way there and we’re at zero right now. But there’s a lot of basketball left to be played. I think this team kind of understands the length of the series. the length of the playoff run and the length of a playoff game.”.
Pressure, emotion, and momentum all landed somewhere different for each team. The defending champions are feeling it. New York is riding it. Wembanyama’s star keeps rising. And the Cavaliers—winners of two Game 7s in these playoffs—need to dig their way out of trouble, again.
The sequence is already undeniable: in regulation. both Game 1s ended at 101-101; in overtime. the games became tests of who could keep control when leads evaporated. One night, it was Wembanyama turning the late game into a statement. The next, it was Brunson rewriting the fourth quarter with a 44-11 run.
With Game 2s next, the drama isn’t slowing down. Game 2 of Spurs-Thunder is Wednesday. Game 2 of Knicks-Cavaliers is Thursday.
Chapter 2 awaits.
NBA NBA playoffs conference finals Spurs Thunder Knicks Cavaliers Victor Wembanyama Jalen Brunson overtime Game 1