New York Knicks fans waited over a week to their team win again. Five extra minutes was nothing.
A jaw-dropping New York comeback opened the Knicks’ Eastern Conference Finals set with the Cleveland Cavaliers. A late breakout from captain Jalen Brunson erased a late 22-point deficit and gave the Knicks a 115-104 overtime win in the debut chapter of the 2026 semifinals at Madison Square Garden.
Brunson scored 38 points, all but two of the last 17 coming in the furious fourth that saw them shoot 59 percent from the floor as they finally found an outside game. Mikal Bridges had 18 on 7-of-11 in a similarly clutch effort while OG Anunoby rendered a sleepy return long forgotten by scoring 9 of the Knicks’ 14 overtime points.
Now three wins away from a return to the NBA Finals, the Knicks own a lead in a conference finals series for the first time since their last such showing in 1999. No one can say it wasn’t earned.
The Knicks erased a fourth-quarter deficit that summitted at 22 over the last eight minutes of regulation. Limiting Cleveland to but a single Max Strus three in the five-minute overtime session, the Knicks outscored the Cavs by a 44-11 final over the last 12:39 of game time.
The comeback from 22 down in the fourth is the biggest in a conference final showing since play-by-play stats were first tracked in 1997 and the second-biggest in any playoff game in that same span behind only the Los Angeles Clippers’ 24-point tally in the 2012 postseason’s opener. It’s also the largest in Knicks postseason history.
Tuesday’s game was a matchup of fresh vs. frenzied: the Knicks’ sneakers touched the Garden floor for the first time May 10 while the Cavs went the distance in each of their first two series, the latter getting over with on Sunday night in Detroit. Both sides needed some time to get legs back.
A 10-4 Cleveland lead held just before the midway mark of the opening frame and each team struggled from deep: each side was 3-of-22 with an extra point on the line in the opening dozen, with Jordan Clarkson hitting the Knicks’ sole such tally on 10 tries.
Another stifling defensive effort proved to be their redemption: the Knicks led 23-23-16 after the first and earned nearly a third of their 46 first half points off 11 Cavs losses. All that and more, including a combined 24 tallies for Brunson and Josh Hart, allowed the Knicks to keep a generally consistent first half lead.
But one-time Knicks target and Empire State native Donovan Mitchell showed exactly why his services were so coveted in the summer of 2022: Mitchell was a menace on both sides of the ball, needing less than three periods to set a career-best in steals.
Finding room in the opposing corner, the Cavs found a three-point groove thanks to the arms of Mitchell, Sam Merrill, and Dean Wade. The apparent dagger was delivered by Wade, as his four-point play was the highlight of a run of eight straight that created the fateful 22-point tally.
But that’s when Brunson belatedly defended his title as the original official Clutch Player of the Year: the point guard began the run with a floater off a missed James Harden free throw. A Landry Shamet three and Karl-Anthony Towns reverse double kept the show rolling before Brunson went on a personal run of nine straight that led to a Cleveland timeout since their lead was sliced to five.
Evan Mobley stemmed the bleeding with a long-sought three (putting the Cavs up eight with less than three minutes remaining) but Bridges, Brunson’s past and present teammate, proved to be equally clutch. A deep ball late in the shot clock was an instant response and he one-upped a Jarrett Allen tip-in with another triple that narrowed the gap to a possession.
Towns’ rejection of Mitchell on the other end set the stage for Shamet, whose equalizer sent MSG into hysterics. Harden and Brunson exchanged doubles after that and a would-be winner from Merrill went halfway down before coming out, forcing overtime and avoiding a similar fate from last year’s ECF, which saw the Knicks lose a late lead before Tyrese Haliburton heroics proved to be a foreboding precursor.
This time around, the Knicks kept the clutch antics local: Anunoby drove in on Harden and was denied a showstopping dunk but went to the line for free throws that gave the hosts a permanent lead. Further penetration from Anunoby and Brunson stretched the lead further and Shamet closed things out for good with another three.
One of Mitchell’s finest showings of the postseason yielded 29 points but he missed five of his final six over the fourth quarter and overtime. Harden was equally ineffective in that span at 1-of-7 and was 5-of-16 from the field overall.
Game 2 of the series returns to Garden hardwood on Thursday night (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
