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Jalen Brunson gave the New York Knicks a scare early in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. He limped off the court in the first quarter, dealing with knee and ankle issues, but he wasn’t sidelined for long.
By the fourth quarter, Brunson’s injury was forgotten. The 2025 NBA clutch player of the year put on a dazzling display in the final seven and a half minutes, lifting the Knicks to a 105-95 victory in San Antonio.
Brunson scored 30 points overall, with 13 of those coming in that critical stretch. He outscored the Spurs on his own in the decisive moments.
“He’s a tremendous player that’s skilled, picks his spots, knows his angles, shoots contested shots without being sped up,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “He’s a phenomenal player. We just got to keep making him work. Again, he had a phenomenal game. He got going.”
Starting with the game tied at 86 and 7:37 remaining, Brunson’s impact was clear:
— He shot 5 of 9, while the Spurs managed just 2 of 11.
— Brunson outscored the Spurs 13-9 individually, with the Knicks outscoring them 19-9 as a team.
— He went on an 8-0 scoring run to put New York up 94-86.
— After the Spurs responded with a 9-0 run to lead 95-94, Brunson nailed a corner three that gave the Knicks the lead for good.
The Spurs never scored again after that shot.
“I think we know what we have to do,” Brunson said. “I think we are a pretty together group. Be able to trust each other and still have each other’s back and know that we just have to keep chipping away, chipping away. It’s just a credit to the mentality that we have as a team.”
The Knicks extended their winning streak to 12 games, becoming only the third team to do so in a single postseason. The other two are the 1999 Spurs, who won the NBA title against the Knicks, and the 2017 Golden State Warriors.
If the Knicks want to reach the summit, they’ll need Brunson firing on all cylinders. His return to the floor after the early injury gave Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns immediate relief.
“When we all saw him limp off, we were worried not only because he’s Jalen Brunson but more because he’s our brother and we are a family in our locker room,” Towns said. “But 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’s safe.”
Despite many blowout wins during their streak, the Knicks have also showcased resilience by overcoming big deficits. Wednesday’s game marked the third time this postseason that New York erased double-digit deficits to win. They trailed by 22 points in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against Cleveland, by 12 in Game 3 of the East semifinals against Philadelphia, and by 14 against the Spurs.
“It’s a position we obviously don’t want to be in but it’s always a next-play mentality,” Brunson said. “We 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.”
