The New York Knicks and Jalen Brunson arrived at the AT&T Center on Wednesday night having won 11 consecutive playoff games, an absurd run of dominance that had flattened every opponent in their path. The San Antonio Spurs, fresh off eliminating the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, were supposed to be the team that finally slowed them down. Victor Wembanyama was supposed to make sure of it.
Instead, Jalen Brunson made a corner three with 2:16 left to put the Knicks ahead for good, and New York walked out of San Antonio with a 105-95 victory and a 1-0 series lead.
The Knicks have now won 12 straight games. They are three wins from their first championship since 1973.
Brunson delivers when the Knicks need him most
Brunson finished with 30 points, 13 of them in the fourth quarter when the game was genuinely in doubt. It was not a clean night for the Knicks or their star guard. He left the game briefly at the end of the first quarter after a collision with Harrison Barnes, then appeared to aggravate his ankle on a layup in the second. He kept playing through both.
That has become something close to his signature. Brunson does not disappear when the game gets complicated.
Karl-Anthony Towns added 18 points and 12 rebounds. OG Anunoby, the British forward, scored 17 points with 12 of them coming in the fourth quarter alongside zero turnovers from the Knicks as a unit in that period. San Antonio, by contrast, committed five turnovers in the fourth and shot 28.6% from the field when the game was on the line.
Wembanyama’s finals debut came with a difficult lesson
Wembanyama led San Antonio with 26 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. He also shot 6 for 21 from the field, with several attempts missing badly, and watched the Knicks close the game on an 11-0 run that he could not interrupt.
The moment had not overwhelmed him. He was blessed by nuns before tip-off, received the loudest ovation of the pregame introductions, and pumped his fist to the crowd multiple times. He looked comfortable inside the NBA Finals, right up until the final minutes.
After the game, he did not offer excuses. He said he was bad and left it at that.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said he expected his young star to study the film and respond in Game 2 on Friday. San Antonio has done this before. The Spurs dropped Game 1 to Portland in the first round before winning the final three games of that series. They lost home-court again to Minnesota in the second round before advancing. They trailed both 2-1 and 3-2 against Oklahoma City in the Western Conference Finals and still won.
But those were not the Knicks, who have not lost since April.
The Knicks made history in San Antonio
Wednesday’s result was also historically significant for reasons beyond the comeback. The Spurs had never lost a Finals Game 1 in franchise history, entering the night 6-0 in those games. They had also never trailed a Finals series at any point before Wednesday. Both streaks ended before the fourth quarter was over.
Gregg Popovich, the legendary former Spurs coach, watched from a suite alongside David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Bruce Bowen and other franchise luminaries. They all saw something the Spurs organization had never experienced.
The Knicks finished the game on that 11-0 run and came away with an outcome that would have felt unlikely when the third quarter was in its darkest stretch. San Antonio led by 14 at the midpoint of the third period. The Knicks outscored the Spurs 22-9 to close the quarter and entered the fourth tied at 76.
New York led by eight midway through the final period before Wembanyama pulled San Antonio within one on a pair of free throws. Brunson’s three ended any remaining suspense.
Game 2 is Friday night in San Antonio.
