SAN ANTONIO (AP) 鈥� Jalen Brunson gave the New York Knicks a huge scare in the first quarter, limping off and leaving the floor to deal with what appeared to be some sort of knee and ankle issues.
He wasn’t gone for long.
And by the fourth quarter, all that was forgotten.
won the NBA’s clutch player award in 2025, and in case anyone forgot why, he provided a series of reminders in a scintillating final 7 1/2 minutes that helped the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 105-95 in Game 1 of the on Wednesday night.
He scored 30 points in the game, 13 in that final stretch 鈥� outscoring the Spurs by himself in those game-deciding minutes.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a tremendous player that鈥檚 skilled, picks his spots, knows his angles, shoots contested shots without being sped up,鈥� Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a phenomenal player. We just got to keep making him work. Again, he had a phenomenal game. He got going.鈥�
The numbers from that final burst, which started with 7:37 left and the game tied at 86:
鈥� Brunson shot 5 for 9, while the Spurs shot 2 for 11.
鈥� Brunson outscored the Spurs 13-9 by himself, the Knicks outscored them 19-9 as a team.
鈥� He went on a personal 8-0 run to give New York a 94-86 lead, and when the Spurs answered with a 9-0 run for a 95-94 edge, Brunson delivered a corner 3-pointer that put the Knicks on top for good.
鈥� The Spurs never scored again.
鈥淚 think we know what we have to do,鈥� Brunson said. 鈥淚 think we are a pretty together group. Be able to trust each other and still have each other鈥檚 back and know that we just have to keep chipping away, chipping away. It鈥檚 just a credit to the mentality that we have as a team.鈥�
The Knicks have won 12 straight games, just the third team to do that in a single postseason. The other two 鈥� San Antonio in 1999 (in a finals against New York) and Golden State in 2017 鈥� became NBA champions.
If the Knicks are going to get there, they likely need Brunson at his best. And when he came back from that locker room 鈥� well, it wasn’t quite a Willis Reed moment for New York, but made Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns feel better about things right away.
鈥淲hen we all saw him limp off, we were worried not only because he鈥檚 Jalen Brunson but more because he鈥檚 our brother and we are a family in our locker room,鈥� Towns said. 鈥淏ut when we were on the court and I saw him walking back out to the bench, it was a relief feeling just to know he鈥檚 safe.鈥�
And while many of those games have been glittery blowouts during this New York win streak, there’s been some gritty comebacks as well. Wednesday’s game was the third in these playoffs where the Knicks erased a double-digit deficit to win. They were down by 22 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against Cleveland, down 12 in Game 3 of the East semis against Philadelphia, and down 14 to the Spurs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a position we obviously don鈥檛 want to be in but it鈥檚 always a next-play mentality,鈥� Brunson said. 鈥淲e have to control the things that we can control and our team is going to go on runs. Things are going to happen and somehow we bounce back. We continue to find a way and just kind of keep chipping away. We knew one play was not going to bring us all the way back but we just kept chipping away.鈥�
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