Jalen Brunson did not have one of his cleaner shooting nights in the biggest game of his career. It did not matter. The New York Knicks point guard delivered another fourth-quarter takeover, dragged his team back from a double-digit hole and walked off the floor in San Antonio with a 105-95 win and a 1-0 lead in the NBA Finals — the franchise's first Finals appearance in 27 years.
Afterward, Brunson refused to dress up an uneven performance or hang the comeback on his own heroics. Asked what changed in the closing minutes of a tie game, he pointed to the group rather than himself.
"I think just sticking together. It wasn't really our night. It wasn't really my night most of the night, but we kept finding ways, kept chipping away," Brunson said. "I just like how resilient we were tonight."
The Knicks trailed by 14 in the third quarter and later coughed up an eight-point fourth-quarter lead before steadying themselves down the stretch. For Brunson, the thread that held it all together was familiar.
"Honestly, I just think our chemistry is knowing that we have each other's back," he said. "There's a lot of things I think that we could have done better, but most importantly, our togetherness was really the biggest difference."
It was an answer that doubled as a description of New York's entire postseason. The Knicks have now erased double-digit deficits in series-opening wins repeatedly this spring, and Brunson said the calm in those moments comes from trust rather than comfort.
"I don't want to say calmness, but I think we know what we have to do," he said. "We're a pretty together group, able to trust each other and still just continue to fight, have each other's back. It's just a credit to the mentality we have as a team."
Brunson was a passenger for long stretches, sitting at 5-of-18 from the field at one point and briefly heading to the locker room after getting banged up early. He returned to close the game and brushed off any concern about his health afterward.
"I'll be all right," he said.
He also made a point of crediting Josh Hart, who finished with a quiet stat-stuffing line built on rebounds, steals and defense rather than scoring.
"Whatever you needed of him, he's going to execute. That's just who he is," Brunson said. "He's going to find a way."
For all the satisfaction of stealing Game 1 on the road, Brunson was quick to tap the brakes. The Knicks, he stressed, left plenty on the floor — and a long series against a hungry San Antonio side is only beginning.
"We've got to go back and just watch the things we can do better," he said. "It's a long journey, but I think there's a lot of things that we can do better. We can't just be satisfied with that. We have a long way to go."
