The New York Knicks did not play their best basketball in the opener of the NBA Finals. They did not need to. Behind a familiar fourth-quarter surge from Jalen Brunson, the Knicks erased a double-digit deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs 105-95 on the road and take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
It was an ugly, physical game for long stretches, and Brunson himself was a passenger for much of it. At one point he was 5-of-18 from the field, hobbled by an early lower-leg knock that briefly sent him to the locker room. Then the final seven and a half minutes arrived, and the Knicks captain went to work.
"In the biggest moments, he shows up, and that's what MVPs are supposed to do," Knicks coach Mike Brown said. "We put the ball in his hands. We said we were going to live and die with him. And he went and he got it done for us. And that's happened time after time after time after time."
Brunson, who finished as the game's decisive figure, downplayed the heroics and pointed to instinct on the late dagger over San Antonio's defenders. "I was more of just instinct, just being able to read how the defender's body was shifting," he said. "I just wasn't trying to predetermine what I was going to do. It's just something I read and I just went with it."
The comeback fit a pattern the Knicks have leaned on all postseason. They trailed by 20 twice against Boston a year ago, climbed out of a 22-point hole in Game 1 against Cleveland, and were down 14 in the third quarter on Tuesday before chipping away.
"I don't want to say calmness, but I think we know what we have to do," Brunson said. "We're a pretty together group, able to trust each other and still just continue to fight, have each other's back, and just know that we've got to keep chipping away. It's just a credit to the mentality we have as a team. But we can't just be satisfied. We have a long way to go."
If Brunson supplied the closing kick, Karl-Anthony Towns supplied the spine. He posted a double-double, repeatedly dragged Victor Wembanyama away from the rim, and helped New York win the second-chance battle 23-14. For Towns, the difference between this win and the team's nervy Game 1 against Cleveland was simple.
"The difference between this game and game one in Cleveland was our offense didn't show up and our defense didn't show up, and we just had to make a miraculous run to get back in the game," Towns said. "But today, our offense didn't show up till late, and our defense was there from the beginning. And that's what saved us."
Brown leaned heavily on his role players. Landry Shamet scored 13 off the bench, OG Anunoby found his range late with a dozen fourth-quarter points, and Josh Hart turned a 1-of-5 shooting night into 15 rebounds and four steals.
"You look at Josh Hart's line being one for five from the field, and the guy had 15 rebounds and four steals," Brown said. "He made some unbelievable defensive plays, and he helped us tremendously in transition."
The coach was candid that the win came with a long to-do list. San Antonio piled up 24 fast-break points in the first half before the Knicks tightened up after the break.
"We gave up way too many points in transition. We've got to set the tone better early in the game," Shamet said. "We were fouling way too much early, which you could say is due to emotions running high, game one of the finals. We'll look at the film and chop some stuff up and come back. We've got to quit fouling and get back in transition."
For all the warts, the Knicks left San Antonio with the only thing that mattered. Brunson, as ever, was already looking ahead to Thursday.
"There's a lot more basketball to be played," he said. "Every game has to be approached like it's 0-0. We've got 48 hours to rest up and do it all over again, even at a higher level."
