How the Knicks Pulled Off the Wildest Comeback in Eastern Conference Finals History Against the Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers had a 22-point lead with under eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. ESPN’s win probability gave them a 99.9 percent chance to win the game.
The Knicks won 115-104 in overtime.
That happened. In real life. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. And Jalen Brunson is the reason it happened.
Brunson finished with 38 points and six assists. He shot 15-of-29 from the field. He scored 19 points in the fourth quarter and overtime combined, which is the kind of stretch that gets put on a Hall of Fame video package decades from now.
The Knicks closed Game 1 on a 44-11 run. That’s not a typo. Forty-four to eleven.
The Numbers Are Insane
The 22-point fourth-quarter deficit was the second-largest fourth-quarter comeback in any playoff game in the past 30 postseasons. It was the largest playoff comeback in Knicks franchise history. It was the first time in NBA history that both Conference Finals Game 1s went to overtime in the same postseason, with the Spurs winning their own double-OT thriller in Oklahoma City the same night.
For the Cavaliers, a 99.9 percent win probability is basically the basketball equivalent of being one out away from a no-hitter. Cleveland was one possession of solid defense, one rebound, one made free throw away from a comfortable Game 1 win. Instead, they walked off the floor at the Garden in stunned silence.
How New York Did It
The Knicks went after James Harden. Cleveland’s veteran guard was a step slow defensively all night and the Knicks identified him as the weak link and hammered the same actions over and over. Brunson got him into screens. Mikal Bridges attacked closeouts. OG Anunoby dragged him into mismatches in the post.
The pressure compounded. Harden picked up fouls. The Cavaliers had to take him off the floor in stretches. When he was on the floor, the Knicks ran offense at him. When he was off the floor, Cleveland’s spacing got worse and the offense bogged down.
Brunson did the rest. Two pull-up threes. Two drives that ended in finishes through contact. A step-back three that pulled the Knicks within four. The Garden lost its mind. Cleveland called timeouts and the timeouts did not help.
What Cleveland Has to Fix
The Cavaliers were the better team for most of the night. They had Donovan Mitchell in a rhythm. Evan Mobley was bothering shots at the rim. The pace was where they wanted it. They were on their way to stealing home court advantage on the road.
Then they stopped attacking. The offense went stagnant. They settled for jumpers. The Knicks made every play down the stretch and Cleveland made none.
The fix is not complicated. Stop trying to dribble out the clock. Keep attacking. Don’t let Brunson get into a rhythm. And someone has to give Harden help on the perimeter so he’s not getting hunted every single possession.
Easier said than done. Brunson is going to play heroic basketball at the Garden no matter what Cleveland does. The Knicks are 4-1 at home in this playoff run. The crowd was a tangible factor in the comeback.
What This Means for the Series
The Knicks needed Game 1. They were the lower seed. They were the road team in the series before they took home court advantage. Now they’re up 1-0 with Game 2 at the Garden on Thursday and Cleveland trying to figure out how to flip the script.
For Brunson, this is another notch in a postseason career that is starting to feel like a different player than the one who left Dallas in 2022. He has now had multiple 35-plus point playoff games in three straight years. He delivers in the biggest moments. The Knicks gave him a max deal and he keeps proving it was a bargain.
Cleveland still has the talent to win this series. But the psychological hit of blowing a 22-point fourth quarter lead at the Garden does not just go away. They have a lot of work to do to forget it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
