Jalen Brunson is a liar.
When asked by ESPN’s Lisa Salters how the New York Knicks completed a 22-point fourth-quarter comeback to pick up an overtime victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the captain entirely side-stepped the truth, telling a fib the size of the Mecca itself. “I don’t have an answer for you.”
Yes you do, Jalen. The answer is you, the player who went on your own personal 11-1 run in the fourth quarter, who dropped 17 points over the final 12:40 of gameplay, who scored almost three times as many points during this span as Donovan Mitchell, James Harden and Evan Mobley did…COMBINED (six).
That was you. It is you. You are him. Knicks fans knew it. They know it. They understand that you were the best, most valuable player in this series.
Now, the Cavs, and Michell, and Mobley, and Harden know it, too.
Jalen Brunson just defied logic at the Cavs’ expense
There are other basketball reasons that can begin to explain what just happened. Most notably, the Cavs conceded favorable matchups on switches and possessions that Brunson was able to exploit.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson waited way too long to call timeout while JB was erupting in the fourth quarter. Overall, Cleveland too liberally allowed Harden and even Sam Merrill to get matched up against one of the best shot-makers in basketball, and then paid the price.
Still, it wasn’t like Brunson was dusting these matchups with ease. He hit tough floaters in the lane, worked impossible angles off the glass, and drilled a 26-foot bomb with 3:30 to go in the fourth quarter.
It also wasn’t like the Knicks were working their way back from a teensy-tiny deficit. They trailed by 22. History says they were dead in the water:
NBA teams were 3-747 when down by 20 or more in the 4th quarter of a playoff game over the last 30 years. They are now 4-747.
— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) May 20, 2026
Knicks come back from 22 in the fourth quarter, the second-largest 4th quarter comeback in the playoffs in the play-by-play era (since 1997).
New York wasn’t dead. It never is. Not this team. Not with Brunson at the helm.
The Knicks have the best player in this series
You’d be hard-pressed to find a Knicks fan entering this series who’d take Mitchell, Mobley, or a 36-year-old Harden over Brunson. But even if his status relative to the matchup wasn’t up for debate, Game 1 is a reminder of why it’s important to have the best player in the series.
Cleveland derailed New York’s reimagined offensive attack for most of the night. The Cavs abandoned Josh Hart, daring him to take and make threes, which he largely didn’t. Cutting and driving lanes got clogged. Karl-Anthony Towns could facilitate like he has over the previous seven games. OG Anunoby didn’t look right. Donovan Mitchell attacked every defensive sore spot.
It didn’t matter. The fact that the Knicks had Brunson, the ultimate closer, did.
Credit Mike Brown for (finally) opening the floor by taking Hart off the floor in the fourth quarter, but this comeback exists almost entirely because of Brunson, along with some bizarro decisions from Cleveland.
Watching JB play every offensive possession like it’s his last is an outer-body experience, yet at the same time is also a routine experience. The very things that can frustrate you about him also make him special. He can survive and thrive through the muck, all while carrying you on his back. As he’s shown over and over and over this postseason, he is also highly adaptable, a superstar who remains a superstar whether he is monopolizing offensive touches or playing off others.
Mitchell and Mobley (and in a previous life, Harden) have each explored mountainous peaks in their own right. None are as high as Brunson’s—not just because of what he did to steal Game 1, but because he continues to do things like this, over and over and over, a metronome of masterful mayhem, who in a series featuring plenty of top-end talent, stands entirely on his own.
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