New York (AFP) – The New York Knicks, fueled by 38 points from Jalen Brunson, erased a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit to stun the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-104 in overtime Monday in game one of the NBA Eastern Conference finals. The Knicks looked done for when they trailed 93-71 with 7:52 left in regulation. But Brunson spearheaded an 18-1 New York run and banked in a floater to tie it at 101-101 with 19.3 seconds left in regulation. When Cleveland’s Sam Merrill missed a three-pointer, they went to the extra session — in which the Knicks scored the first nine points.
Brunson admitted he did not know how the Knicks had pulled off the sensational comeback. “I don’t have an answer for you,” he told broadcaster ESPN. “We got some stops. We kept fighting, kept believing, just kept chipping away. They were playing great basketball, and we just found a way.” Mikal Bridges added 18 points, and OG Anunoby, back from a two-game injury absence, was one of three Knicks players with 13. Donovan Mitchell scored 29 points to lead the Cavaliers and James Harden added 15.
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The Knicks will have a chance to double their lead in the best-of-seven series when they host game two on Thursday. The winner of the series will face either the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs in the championship series. The Spurs, fueled by a 41-point performance by Victor Wembanyama, beat the Thunder in double-overtime in game one of the Western Conference finals. It is the first time in NBA history that the first games in both conference finals have been decided in overtime.
Rust may have played a role in a sluggish Knicks start. New York had been off for nine days after sweeping the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, were battle-tested if not rested, having polished off a second straight seven-game series with a triumph at top-seeded Detroit on Sunday. A three-pointer by Mitchell saw Cleveland emerge from a back-and-forth first half with a 48-46 lead, and the Cavaliers pulled away relentlessly in the second half as the Madison Square Garden crowd looked on in stunned, silent disbelief. But they were celebrating wildly by night’s end as the Knicks moved one step closer to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999. They reached the conference finals last year but were beaten by the Indiana Pacers.
The Cavaliers are in the conference finals for the first time since 2018, when they were led by LeBron James. Harden, 36, is back in the penultimate round for the first time since his 2018 Most Valuable Player season with Houston, when the Rockets fell in seven games to the Golden State Warriors. It was a crushing welcome to the conference finals for seven-time All-Star Mitchell, who never made it past the second round in five post-season appearances with the Utah Jazz.
“We should have won the game,” Mitchell said. “We’re up 22 with god knows how much time? Eight minutes? Gotta win the game. We didn’t.” But he added there’s still plenty of time to regroup. “It’s one game,” Mitchell said. “We could have lost by 40, still would have been 1-0. We played pretty solid for three quarters or so. We’ll make adjustments and go from there.”
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