The New York Knicks took a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals by defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-104 in overtime last night.
Knicks’ eighth straight win in the playoffs it was theirs the most impressive until now because they managed to make up for a deficit of as many as 22 baskets in the last quarter.
Jalen Brunson scored 17 of his game-high 38 points over the final eight minutes of regulation and overtime.
The result was New York’s greatest playoff comeback ever.
The Knicks, who trailed 93-71 with just under eight minutes remaining, finished regulation with a 30-8 run before scoring the first nine points of overtime. New York never trailed in overtime after that.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that in the playoffsKnicks coach Mike Brown said.
New York performed the second biggest turnaround in the final quarter of the NBA playoffs and the most since April 29, 2012, when the Los Angeles Clippers trailed the Memphis Grizzlies by 24 points before posting a 99-98 win in Game 1 of a Western Conference first-round series.
Karl-Anthony Towns added 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks, who haven’t played since beating the Philadelphia 76ers on May 10. New York’s previous seven wins were s with an average difference of 26.4 points.
Mikal Bridges had 18 points for New York on Tuesday, while OG Anunoby and Josh Hart each finished with 13 points.
The second game of the seven-game series is scheduled for Thursday night in New York.
Donovan Mitchell led Cleveland with 29 points and felt that fatigue was not a factor in the loss of the Cavaliers, who advanced to the conference finals by beating the Detroit Pistons in Game 7 of the second round on Sunday night.
We lead by 22 points, and who knows how much time there is, eight minutes? We have to winMitchell said.
We didn’t.
James Harden and Evan Mobley each scored 15 points for the Cavaliers, while Sam Merrill collected 12 points off the bench.
Mitchell’s 3-pointer with three seconds left in the second quarter gave the Cavaliers a 48-46 halftime lead and sparked a 48-25 run for Cleveland in just over 16 minutes in which the Knicks shot just 28 percent from the field (7-of-25).
But the Cavaliers hit just four shots and six turnovers after taking the lead on their biggest free throw by James Harden.
We played great basketball for three quarters tonightCavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said.
Unfortunately, they dominated us in the last quarter.
Brunson scored 15 of New York’s final 30 points in regulation, but the Knicks didn’t tie the game until Landry Shamet hit a 3-pointer from the right corner to tie the game at 99-99 with 45 seconds left.
Harden and Brunson traded baskets before Merrill hit a 3-pointer with three seconds left and Bridges missed a shot at the buzzer well beyond midcourt.
Anunoby opened overtime with two free throws for the Knicks, who pulled away as the Cavaliers missed all four of their opening shots.
Shamet’s 3-pointer with 1:49 left extended the lead to 110-101. Max Strus hit a 3-pointer after a timeout for Cleveland, but New York scored the final five points of the game, outscoring the Cavaliers 14-3 in overtime.
(Hina | Photo: New York Knicks)
