{"id":730349,"date":"2026-06-11T20:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730349\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T20:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:16:10","slug":"how-mike-brown-saved-the-knicks-in-epic-nba-finals-game-4-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730349\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mike Brown saved the Knicks in epic NBA Finals Game 4 comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks are on the cusp of their first NBA championship in 53 years after the greatest comeback in the history of the NBA Finals<\/a>. What was looking destined to be a tied series with the San Antonio Spurs through four games is now a commanding 3-1 Knicks lead, with the first of three title-clinching opportunities set for Saturday night in San Antonio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Spurs, whose core pieces have come through the draft<\/a>, the Knicks are the polar opposite. Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>, Mikal Bridges<\/a>, Josh Hart<\/a>, and Game 4 hero OG Anunoby<\/a> were all acquired via trade, while Jalen Brunson<\/a> was the bargain of a free agent signing who got this era of Knicks basketball rolling. But there was another piece added at February\u2019s trade deadline who had a massive role in New York\u2019s epic 29-point rally.<\/p>\n

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Jose Alvarado, a fan favorite with the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>, was dealt to his hometown team for Dalen Terry<\/a>, cash, and a couple of second-round picks. Aside from his high effort and pesky defense, Alvarado gave the Knicks with another ball-handling guard who could initiate offense and create rim pressure with Jalen Brunson off the court. During the regular season, Brunson and Alvarado played all of 114 minutes together through 20 games<\/a>. In the postseason, that number dropped all the way to zero.<\/p>\n

That is, until Knicks head coach Mike Brown made maybe one of the most impactful coaching adjustments we\u2019ll ever see in a Finals game.<\/p>\n

As had been the theme all playoffs, Brunson and Alvarado\u2019s minutes were separate in the disastrous first half of Game 4. Alvarado played a shade over three minutes, fouled twice (perhaps fortunate to avoid a flagrant foul while grabbing Victor Wembanyama<\/a>\u2019s leg), and his turnover was a \u201cbad pass\u201d that sure looked like an uncalled goaltend against Luke Kornet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Down by 19 points at the 5:33 mark of the third quarter, Brown sat the largely ineffective Mikal Bridges and paired Brunson and Alvarado together. Brunson was in for all but two defensive possessions (10 total seconds) in the second half, while Alvarado was in for 12 of the game\u2019s final 17 minutes. It was the most Alvarado had played all postseason. The result was something the Spurs had no answers for.<\/p>\n

In 9:40 of fourth quarter action, Alvarado scored 8 points on 3\/3 shooting (including a critical 3 in clutch time), along with 2 rebounds and 3 assists, which was one fewer than the entire Spurs team had in the second half. The Knicks were a +19 overall in the Brunson-Alvarado minutes, and Alvarado had double the points of the rest of the bench, which combined to shoot 2\/16.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI know a lot of you guys can\u2019t [clap] because you\u2019re in the media and you\u2019ve got to be neutral, but I\u2019m gonna f\u2014king clap for Jose,\u201d Mike Brown said in his post-game press conference. \u201cSorry, Mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cJose was unbelievable tonight. He changed the game. His speed, his ability to touch the paint. You give San Antonio a lot of credit for trying to throw a lot of different things at us defensively\u2014kind of a match-up man\/zone. If you don\u2019t close out to Jose as hard as he works on his shot, he\u2019s going to make you pay. If you close out to him, he\u2019s quick enough to go by you. He made some great basketball plays offensively tonight, and then he was great defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvarado provided a much-needed release valve and screen-setter for Brunson in the face of Spurs double teams and constant on-ball pressuring up near half court. Brunson could work a little bit more off-ball while Alvarado spaced the floor in a way that, say, Josh Hart really cannot as a secondary ball-handler in a half-court offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cJose\u2019s been good in the pick-and-roll,\u201d Brown said. \u201cJose\u2019s been good touching the paint. And if Jalen wanted to get off the ball for a few possessions, Jose could handle it. And he could touch the paint and make the game easier for others. If Jalen was on the ball and the ball got sprayed and it found Jose, Jose can then touch the paint with his speed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo that\u2019s all I was trying to do, is see if we could touch the paint a little bit more with the two guards out there, while the floor was spaced the right way, see if we can get some easy looks, especially from the three-point line, while trying to play faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Brown was in desperate search of something to crack the Spurs defense. Nothing was working in the first half and Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 early foul trouble created a cascading effect where he went seven-deep in his rotation. Much like in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals when Brown sat Josh Hart for the three-point shooting of Landry Shamet<\/a> in New York\u2019s other improbable 20+ point comeback, Brown unstuck the offense by finding his solution off the bench\u2014an antithetical to what\u2019s regularly felled his predecessor, Tom Thibodeau.<\/p>\n

On an unforgettable, still scarcely believable night at Madison Square Garden, the decision to call on the New York City native to play the role of backcourt super sub alongside the Knicks\u2019 superhero could end up as a championship-winning coaching masterstroke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks are on the cusp of their first NBA championship in 53 years after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,347483,353497,20455,94993,87780,20449,16113,15609,12834,15566,590,7210,1666,9275,12837,10549,85,12838],"class_list":["post-730349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-champagnie","tag-dalen-terry","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-landry-shamet","tag-luke-kornet","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-mike-brown","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-og-anunoby","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}