Behind Jalen Brunson, New York closes on a 44-11 run for a 115-104 win over the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the East Finals.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App<\/a><\/p>\n NEW YORK \u2014 It was a sight both strange and sensational, which says plenty in the city that doesn\u2019t blink, and it defied the laws of physics.<\/p>\n Because in the last several minutes of the opening game of the Eastern Conference Finals<\/a>, a grown man grew an entire foot.<\/p>\n That would be Jalen Brunson, small guard who went swole.<\/p>\n He shredded the Cleveland Cavaliers and an old basketball belief two at a time, one shot at a time. Step-backs. Driving layups, some off the wrong foot, all with his strong hand, the left in his case. A 3-pointer. All told, 17 points in the quarter and the overtime period he forced. Seriously? Yes, it\u2019s true, there are witnesses. It all came in a rush.<\/p>\n It was all so sudden, so unexpected on a night when the New York Knicks and their 6-foot-1 guard appeared six feet under and their fans ready to beat the rush.<\/p>\n \u201cThey could\u2019ve walked out if they wanted to,\u201d said Brunson.<\/p>\n Eventually, Brunson accomplished two necessary things. He shocked the Cavs, who lost the game and may never recover in this series from watching their 22-point fourth quarter lead get erased so rudely. And he perhaps changed the conversation regarding guards of a certain size and whether types like him are, ahem, big enough to win a championship, let alone reach the championship round.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Jalen Brunson leads the Knicks with 38 points in a dramatic comeback win over the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n Well, well: After this thrilling comeback, the Knicks are three wins away from the latter, and because of Brunson, kept hope alive about the former.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously,\u201d said Knicks coach Mike Brown, \u201cWe don\u2019t get it done if Jalen Brunson doesn\u2019t play like one of the MVP guys in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n What Brunson did wasn\u2019t exactly new, nor was it foreign inside Madison Square Garden, a place he owns. The Knicks have seen this before, he\u2019s a former All-NBA player after all. Difference is, this is the best-of-seven playoffs. Difference is, the Knicks are legitimately pushing hard for their first Finals trip since 1999.<\/p>\n So everything is magnified here in May \u2014 the stakes, the awareness, the prayers of a desperate and starved fan base, and in Game 1, the heart and desire and stature of their 6-foot savior.<\/p>\n The manner in which he sternly lectured his teammates in the timeout huddle right before the comeback, then capped a 38-point night, said plenty. It said this: The Knicks have their big man, with all due respects to Karl-Anthony Towns, and he tends to rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s an amazing player,\u201d said Knicks forward OG Anunoby. \u201cI\u2019m happy he\u2019s on this team. I think we\u2019re all happy he\u2019s on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n Brunson made eight of 10 shots in the quarter and overtime. Compare this to James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, a pair of certified scorers who missed nine of 10 shots, combined for one point, over the same stretch for the Cavs.<\/p>\n What struck you about Brunson\u2019s ballistic fourth quarter is this \u2014 the Cavs assigned Harden to guard him. That was \u2026 curious. And fatal, unsurprisingly.<\/p>\n Harden lacks the lateral movement and the foot-speed to keep up. He aged about a year for every minute he was on the floor in that run. Brunson turned him into a statue, put him in Madame Tussauds.<\/p>\n Brown said: \u201cIt was no secret we were attacking him.\u201d<\/p>\n Also, this: The Cavs called only one timeout during the Knicks\u2019 30-8 run. Wouldn\u2019t another allow the Cavs to catch their breath, stop their heads from spinning?<\/p>\n Also, this: One of the critiques of Brunson is his unwillingness to pass the ball in the moment of truth. This is something Brown wanted to change upon accepting the job last summer. Brown felt the Knicks had gotten too predictable with the ball in Brunson\u2019s hands and the green light in his eyesight. Perhaps, Brown thought, Brunson could trust a teammate or two.<\/p>\n Well, actually, here in late May and the Knicks so close to taking an elusive next step in this journey, Brunson fell back into old habits and his teammates were good with that. They knew he was clutch and cold-blooded.<\/p>\n Yes, Landry Shamet had a clutch 3-pointer. And Mikal Bridges, much maligned in a city that can be tough on its own, also dropped a crucial pair of those shots. But this comeback was Brunson-made and flavored, make no mistake, and necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a little comfortable,\u201d conceded Mitchell.<\/p>\n So that was a wrap. This game had his signature. The Knicks followed their leader and the Cavs ruined a great chance, maybe their only one, to capture a conference final game on the road.<\/p>\n Now the topic will shift and it is this: Can a player the size of Brunson tugboat a team to the finish line and give this city a reason to litter Broadway with blue and orange confetti next month?<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t necessary a premature question because, absolutely, the series is hardly over. Still, it\u2019s a fair examination of basketball logic, which says \u2014 bringing receipts \u2014 that a team whose best player is normal-sized will seldom if ever win a championship.<\/p>\n This may ultimately be proven to be true, especially since this hasn\u2019t happened but once this generation, by Stephen Curry (not counting the two years when Kevin Durant was Golden State\u2019s best player). And it comes an interesting time, here in the Age Of Wemby.<\/p>\n But Brunson has big plans, emphasis on big.<\/p>\n If nothing else, he has transformed this franchise since arriving, in ways no one else has done since Patrick Ewing. There was similar hope once upon a time about the celebrated addition of Carmelo Anthony \u2014 again, this franchise hasn\u2019t sipped champagne in over 50 years \u2014 yet Melo never made it out of the second round.<\/p>\n Four years now with Brunson, the Knicks have reached a pair of semifinals and are now on their second conference final.<\/p>\n What a time for the NBA, these conference finals in the East and West.\u00a0 Twenty-four hours after 7-foot-5 Victor Wembanyama \u2014 or maybe 7-foot-6 \u2014 went historic against the Oklahoma City Thunder, along came a player on the other end of the height stick who had a different degree of awe.<\/p>\n The Knicks are up 1-0, in a series that\u2019s just beginning, yet New York can sense it.<\/p>\n \u201cAll we want to do is make this city proud \u2026 to accomplish that on a night where it didn\u2019t seem like it was going to happen is an honor, truly something special,\u201d said Towns.<\/p>\n What\u2019s special is what the Knicks have in Brunson. He averaged 26 points in the first round, 29 in the semifinals, now starts the conference finals with a monster drop. When the Knicks absolutely searched for someone to raise their level Tuesday, no one was more qualified.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re never surprised,\u201d said Anunoby. \u201cThat\u2019s what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can e-mail him at\u00a0spowell@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on\u00a0X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Behind Jalen Brunson, New York closes on a 44-11 run for a 115-104 win over the Cavaliers in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[282080,355,99],"class_list":["post-653958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-jalen-brunson-game-1","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}