By BRIAN MAHONEY AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK — Jalen Brunson against Donovan Mitchell was the matchup splashed across the screens to hype the Eastern Conference finals.
Unfortunately for the Cleveland Cavaliers, it turned into Brunson versus James Harden in the fourth quarter of Game 1.
Brunson continuously attacked the matchup to spark one of the largest postseason comebacks on record, as the New York Knicks rallied from a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a 115-104 victory. A day later, the Cavaliers shrugged off concerns that one of the most accomplished offensive players in league history might be too poor of a defender to give them NBA Finals hopes.
“I know everybody’s putting it on James, but I’d say a lot of, it’s on the team, our team defense,” Coach Kenny Atkinson said Wednesday after the Cavaliers practiced at Madison Square Garden. “And we were great for three quarters. Like, really, really great. So we can do it.”
The Cavs will try again Thursday night, hoping to even the series before it shifts to their home court over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Atkinson took as much, if not more, heat than Harden for waiting too long to use a timeout to stop New York’s momentum after Brunson kept driving right at Harden as the catalyst for an 18-1 run.
“Kenny’s a great coach and we know that they’re going to come out ready to play,” said Knicks coach Mike Brown, who worked with Atkinson when both were assistants to Steve Kerr in Golden State. “They came to New York to get one game and it’s still within reach.”
The Cavs know they should have it already. They controlled the middle two quarters against a Knicks team that showed plenty of rust in its first game since May 10. Looking nothing like the team that won by 19.4 points per game in the previous two rounds, the Knicks finally went to an offensive scheme that forced Harden to switch onto Brunson, and the All-Star guard had four straight New York baskets during the run.
Cleveland reserve guard Dennis Schroder credited Brunson more than blaming Harden.
“Jalen Brunson is one of the most clutch players in the NBA. Social media for that is just in a bad place,” Schroder said. “I think that we lost the game. Basketball is a team game. It’s everybody on the bench, coaches, the guys who were on the court. At the end of the day, he made some tough shots and good credit.”
The Cavaliers surged late in the season after acquiring Harden from the Clippers. Harden is ninth in NBA history with nearly 30,000 career points and also sits 12th in assists. The 2018 NBA MVP was playing on an MSG court on Tuesday where he shares the record with Kobe Bryant for points by an opponent with 61.
But he’s had some sloppy performances in the postseason and Game 1 was another. Harden shot 5 for 16 from the field overall and 1 for 8 from 3-point range, and had twice as many turnovers (six) as assists. He has bounced back before and Atkinson believes he will again.
“I said, ‘Without you, we’re knocked out in the first round.’ That’s my first (opinion). My personal opinion,” Atkinson said. “So, let’s just stop that. We’re in a great position. ‘You’ve played great.’ You know, sometimes micro experiences get exaggerated. ‘So, you know, keep being yourself.’”
The Knicks, who have won eight straight games, understand how the Cavs must be feeling, after a loss that was every bit as gut-wrenching in Game 1 of the 2025 East finals.
New York led Indiana by 14 points with under three minutes remaining in regulation. The Pacers rallied to tie when Tyrese Haliburton’s long jumper bounced high off the rim and fell through as time expired, then won 138-135 in overtime.
“Obviously they’re looking at it like that was our game that we gave away,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said of the Cavaliers. “And they’re looking at film of, ‘If we fix this here or fix this here, we would have won the game.’ And that’s what they’re going to try to do tomorrow.”
COMEBACK OR COLLAPSE?
Call it a comeback. Or chalk it up as a choke.
Game 1 was both. The Knicks wouldn’t have been able to charge all the way back without Cleveland collapsing.
The Cavaliers led 93-71 with under eight minutes to play before the Knicks outscored them 44-11 the rest of the way to win in overtime. The only bigger fourth-quarter playoff comeback in the last 30 years was when the Clippers rallied from 24 down to beat Memphis in Game 1 of a Western Conference first-round series in 2012, and it matched the biggest in any NBA game this season.
“We should’ve won the game,” Cavaliers All-Star Donovan Mitchell said. “We didn’t.”
A look at some of the reasons they didn’t.
THE TURNING POINT?
Impossible as it became to imagine a few minutes later, Harden made a good defensive play on a then still-struggling Brunson with the Cavs leading by 20 with 7:04 to play. Harden blocked Brunson’s shot on a drive, but Karl-Anthony Towns came up with the ball to extend the possession and kicked it out to Landry Shamet, who made a 3-pointer. After a Cavaliers turnover, New York took a timeout with 6:41 to play. The lead was still 93-76, but as players walked off the court with Shamet pumping his fist to urge on his teammates, the Knicks suddenly looked like they had life for the first time in a while.
“If you’re going to make a run, that’s when you’ve got to do it. So might as well throw your best punch at that point and try to do what you can,” Shamet said.
“You’ve got to leave it all out there especially at this time of the year and that’s what we did. We had a group that didn’t flinch at that deficit and made some effort.”
HUNTING HARDEN
The Knicks’ game plan over the next few minutes was basic basketball. Whoever Harden was guarding when Brunson brought the ball up the court – usually either Mikal Bridges or OG Anunoby – would come set a pick on Brunson’s defender, so Harden would then have to switch onto Brunson. Brunson then attacked Harden off the dribble, creating angles for a series of floaters and bank shots that he has mastered to become an All-Star.
Brunson made four straight Knicks baskets that way, before eventually making a 3-pointer that cut it to 94-89 with 3½ minutes to go.
TAKE A TIMEOUT?
Moments before Brunson lined up that 3-pointer, ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson noted that the Cavaliers might want a timeout if the Knicks scored.
But was it perhaps too late by then? Cleveland had multiple possessions to see the Knicks were running one thing at them and could have halted play before then to set up a defensive scheme that might’ve changed things.
The Cavaliers still had four timeouts they could have used at that point. Yet they never called one until after Brunson’s shot.
“I like to hold my timeouts,” Atkinson explained afterward, when his answer became an internet meme. “I didn’t want to get one timeout at the end of the game, a one- or two-point game. I try to hold them.”
BAD BOUNCES
The game perhaps never would’ve gotten to overtime if the Cavaliers had gotten a little luckier on a pair of 3-point attempts.
Mitchell had one with 3:47 to play that was inside the rim and then spun out. That would have extended Cleveland’s lead to 11. Instead, Brunson hit his 3-pointer 17 seconds later that cut it to 94-89.
Then, not long after Shamet hit a tying 3-pointer that bounced off the rim first before falling in, the Cavaliers had the ball on the final possession of regulation and got it to Sam Merrill from straightaway. His shot looked so perfect that play-by-play man Mike Breen appeared to be beginning his signature “BANG!” exclamation with the ball inside the rim. But he got out only the “BA!” before having to switch to “In and out! That one halfway down!”
“We got a little unlucky,” Atkinson said.
THE NUMBERS
Counting the last 12:49 of the game – the end of regulation and then all of overtime – Brunson outscored the Cavaliers himself, 17-11. Anunoby nearly did; he had 10 points in that span.
A look at some of the other notable numbers:
• Field goals: New York 75% (15 for 20), Cleveland 22.2% (4 for 18).
• 3-pointers: New York 75% (6 for 8), Cleveland 18.2% (2 for 11).
• Free throws: New York 80% (8 for 10, all of that from Anunoby), Cleveland 25% (1 for 4).
• Rebounds: New York 13, Cleveland 2.
• Brunson shot 8 for 10 in those minutes, while Shamet and Bridges were a combined 5 for 5 (all from 3-point range).
• Harden (1 for 5) and Mitchell (0 for 5) were a combined 1 for 10 in the collapse.
AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds and freelance writer Adry Torres in New York contributed to this report.