Brunson’s surge – Jalen Brunson powered a remarkable comeback as the Knicks erased a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit, beating the Cavaliers 115-104 in overtime on May 19. Cleveland let a golden road chance slip, and the matchup the Knicks built around hunting James Harden expos
NEW YORK — The building was warm, but the mood in it wasn’t.
Just minutes earlier, the New York Knicks were standing still near midcourt, dazed and silent. Then Jalen Brunson took over. dragging his team and this city out of a hole they weren’t supposed to climb out of. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. the Knicks erased a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit to stun the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime. 115-104. Tuesday. May 19. Now New York sits three victories away from the NBA Finals.
The scale of the comeback landed with weight: it was the second largest comeback in the fourth quarter of a postseason game since 1997, the start of the play-by-play era.
Cleveland’s blown chance was almost impossible to overstate
Entering Tuesday night, teams holding a 22-point lead at any point in the fourth quarter of a postseason game were 594-1, a winning percentage of .998. After the Knicks’ rally, that mark became 594-2.
From the 7:49 mark until the end of regulation, the Cavaliers allowed the Knicks to ignite on a 30-8 extended run that pushed the game into overtime.
If the stretch is extended even further, the Knicks closed regulation plus overtime with a 44-11 fusillade that snatched the game’s control away from Cleveland.
Afterward, Cavaliers All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell didn’t dress it up. “Should’ve won the game,” Mitchell told reporters after the game. “Even if there was complacency, we were up 22 with God knows how much time — eight minutes? Gotta win the game.”
In the fourth quarter and overtime, Mitchell and James Harden combined to go 2-of-13 for 9 points. The pair was scoreless after regulation.
As New York clamped down defensively and forced Cleveland into turnovers, possessions tightened and shots became forced. The Cavaliers were initiating actions well beyond the paint and started late in shot clocks — moves that stopped being “available options” and started looking like desperation once the game turned.
Mitchell made the immediate stakes personal. “We lost,” Mitchell added. “We (expletive) blew it. All right, let’s get ready for Game 2. Simple as that.”
Brunson was the engine once the game finally opened up
This wasn’t just a rally driven by randomness. Brunson delivered it with surgical timing.
The Knicks All-Star captain went on an absolute heater in the fourth quarter, firing 7-of-9 in the period and finishing with 15 points. During one stretch, he scored 11 consecutive points, shrinking Cleveland’s lead to five.
His performance looked like everything the Knicks needed in that moment: no wasted movement, an understanding of space and leverage, and a commitment to getting to his spots. When Brunson is doing that, New York is hard to beat.
Brunson finished the game with 38 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals.
Cleveland’s defensive plan for Harden looked fragile — and it stayed that way
The Cavaliers didn’t lose only because of one breakdown, but Tuesday night showed a clear problem: how easily the Knicks hunted James Harden on defense.
New York repeatedly sought out Harden in pick-and-rolls so that Brunson would match up with him. Every time that scenario appeared, the Knicks found advantage.
Cleveland tried to do the same thing on offense, searching for a matchup involving Brunson.
To mount a run large enough to erase a 22-point deficit, the Knicks had to lean into the strategy the game demanded.
Knicks coach Mike Brown described it bluntly. “Sometimes you’ve got to do what the game dictates,” Brown told reporters after the game. “They were trying to do the same thing with Jalen. so we said. okay. we feel like we can play that game. We try not to play that game much. but we feel like we have a guy we can play that game with in Jalen.”.
Brown continued with the simplest explanation of the Knicks’ intent: “There is no secret: we were attacking Harden.”
What remained puzzling for Cleveland was that coach Kenny Atkinson didn’t adjust. He didn’t bring in Max Strus, a guard who has solid (if unspectacular) defensive ability. Atkinson also called timeout only once during New York’s relentless barrage.
Atkinson later said, “Yeah, I like to hold my timeouts,” Atkinson said. “I didn’t want to have one timeout at the end of the game. One or two-point game, I try to hold them.”
That approach won’t change what New York will try to do next. The Knicks will continue to exploit the matchup. and Cleveland will need a real answer for Game 2 — whether it means avoiding switches. sprinkling in zone. or having Harden drift off to less potent scorers — to keep runs like Tuesday night from happening again.
New York’s deeper path: attack the paint, not just the perimeter
The 3-point shooting struggles played a major role in why the Knicks fell behind early. The late shooting surge helped them swing it back.
But the more sustainable edge in the series is what New York did in the paint.
On Tuesday night, the Knicks outscored the Cavaliers there by a margin of 60-38.
That stands out because Cleveland tied for 10th in paint points during the regular season, putting up an average of 52.0 paint points per game, while the Knicks ranked 22nd, at 47.8.
The matchup left the lane vulnerable. With Jarrett Allen guarding Josh Hart and Hart leaking out toward the perimeter, the paint opened for New York’s attacks.
Going forward, Cleveland will have to find ways to keep both Allen and Evan Mobley closer to the basket to protect the rim. If New York continues to win that space down low, it will be hard for the Cavaliers to stay competitive in the series.
Jalen Brunson Knicks Cavaliers Eastern Conference finals Game 1 overtime Donovan Mitchell James Harden Mike Brown Kenny Atkinson Max Strus Jarrett Allen Evan Mobley