Jalen Brunson set a club record for scoring in the NBA Finals with 45 points and almost single-handedly ended the team’s 53-year post without an NBA championship as the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 on Saturday night.
Brunson spent his first four NBA seasons with the Dallas Mavericks as a secondary player in a team led by the outstanding Luka Doncic.
He left as a free agent and grew into a Knicks star.
Four seasons later, he established himself as an all-time player and is on top of the basketball world as the creator of the playoffs that brought the Knicks their first title since 1973.
It’s everything I dreamed ofsaid Brunson, who was named NBA Finals MVP.
That’s why I came to New York.
JALEN BRUNSON SOAKING IT ALL IN 💯
45 POINTS TO CLINCH THE KNICKS FIRST NBA CHAMPIONSHIP IN 53 YEARS. pic.twitter.com/Ji8NP6s5G8
— NBA (@NBA) June 14, 2026
Brunson is in the second half of Game 5 scored 29 pointsand New York rallied from a 15-point third-quarter deficit to win four of five games in a four-game winning streak.
The Knicks trailed by as many as 16 points in the second quarter, just one game after coming back from a 29-point deficit to beat the Spurs in Game 4 on Wednesday in New York.
The Knicks went 16-3 in the playoffs and at one point went on a 13-game winning streak, the second-longest winning streak in NBA playoff history.
Delighted aloneBrunson said.
Whenever someone wrote us off, we had to go back and do something about it.
Brunson hit four 3-pointers and recorded the fourth game in the series with 30 or more points.
He broke the club record of 38 points set by Hall of Famer Willis Reed in Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 53 YEARS, THE KNICKS ARE NBA CHAMPIONS 🏆
New York defeats San Antonio 4-1 in the NBA Finals, capturing their third championship in franchise history! pic.twitter.com/i1gmntBe06
— NBA (@NBA) June 14, 2026
Mikal Bridges he scored 14 points, a Josh Hart he recorded 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Knicks. OG Anunoby scored 11 points and Karl-Anthony Towns grabbed 10 rebounds before being fouled. Mitchell Robinson also had 10 rebounds.
Dylan Harper scored 25 points and Victor Wembanyama added 19 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks for San Antonio. Julian Champagnie scored 14 points and Devin Vassell had 12.
For the Spurs, the story of the series was relinquishing the lead.
I was surprised that every match had the same scriptsaid Wembanyama.
All five games in the series had the same scenario, how persistent we were in our mistakes and how persistent they were in punishing those mistakes.
Hart: Expectations are high, today the jersey is lighter than ever
New York trailed by 10 points with less than eight minutes left when Brunson took over and scored 10 straight points to tie the game at 83-83 with 4:48 left. Brunson shredded San Antonio’s defense with three layups during that streak.
Vassell hit a shot from about five meters and put San Antonio back in the lead 85-83 with 4:14 to go. Thirty-four seconds later, Brunson made three free throws on a three-point attempt and hit all three to give the Knicks a one-point lead.
Not long after, Harper’s basket tied the game at 88-88 with 1:16 left. But Brunson got through the defense again and hit a racket shot with 1:05 left.
Hart and Anunoby each hit one of two free throws to give New York a four-point lead with 21.6 seconds left.
Wembanyama missed the three-pointer on San Antonio’s next drive, but Stephon Castle nailed a rebound to cut the deficit to 92-90 with 16.3 seconds left.
Bridges hit one of two free throws with 8.8 seconds left to give New York a three-point lead, then Harper missed both free throws with 8.5 seconds left.
Anunoby hit one of two free throws with 7.7 seconds left to seal the game as New York neighborhoods like Manhattan and Queens began to celebrate and Knicks players could feel the pressure literally lift off their foreheads.
People don’t understand, we don’t really talk about it, but the weight of that jersey, the expectations, the pressure that that jersey carries, Hart said.
And as I say, today, right now, that’s it makes the jersey easier than ever.
“AFTER 53 YEARS, THE KNICKS ARE FINALLY NBA CHAMPIONS ONCE AGAIN!”
THE NEW YORK KNICKS WIN THEIR FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP SINCE 1973 🏆 pic.twitter.com/7JqXe4cU9e
— NBA (@NBA) June 14, 2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on social media after the game that there will be a confetti parade in Manhattan on Thursday in honor of the Knicks.
This will be followed by a celebration in the town hall, where the team will receive the keys to the city.
Although it is the end was bitter for San Antoniofew people predicted that the club would play in the NBA Finals. The Spurs came back from a 3-2 deficit to defeat the 2025 defending champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, in the Western Conference Finals for their first playoff appearance since 2019.
On the surface level, I don’t think anyone but the people in that locker room expected us to be hereSan Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said.
There is a lot of good in that. But there is also it hurts a lot in what just happened.
Vassell said the lessons of this series are that “every possession counts and every little detail counts.”
I think we are had a great seasonVassell said.
We proved many people wrong. Our goal was to win, of course. We don’t want a consolation prize.
(Hina | Photo: New York Knicks)
