NEW YORK — The legend of Jalen Brunson grows.
The ‘Nova Knicks, all heart and grit and chilling composure, completed the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history, erasing a 29-point second-quarter deficit to take a one-point lead on a floater by — who else — indomitable point guard Brunson with 1 minute, 22 seconds left to play. With 1.2 seconds remaining, trailing by one, OG Anunoby tipped in Brunson’s missed three-pointer.
It was Brunson’s 36th point. It was Anunoby’s 33rd.
It was a 107-106 win over the Spurs, forever enshrined as the NBA’s biggest chokers. The Knicks know all about that.
However, they now stand 48 minutes away from ending a 53-year drought. Only one NBA team has blown a 3-1 lead in the Finals, and those 2016 Golden State Warriors faced prime Kyrie Irving and LeBron James in his prodigal return to Cleveland.
This was a momentum win. A historic win. A fairy tale win that carved the hearts out of a team with far better players but with far less backbone.
It was a last-second, never-say-die win in the Mecca of basketball, Madison Square Garden, accomplished in front of stars ranging from Jerry Seinfeld to Jay-Z to Taylor Swift to Timothée Chalamet.
A win delivered by divine intervention, perhaps; after all, a nun blessed the Garden with holy water after the Game 3 loss, and Villanova is a Catholic university, after all.
OK, it might not have been miraculous, or even sacral, but it’s probably the best win in the history of the franchise. The kind of win that 19,812 attended but 1.9 million will claim to have witnessed in the flesh.
It was that epic.
It was the sort of statement game that gets a number retired, hung from the rafters in the Garden alongside Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley and Patrick Ewing and Willis Reed. A number like the No. 11 that Brunson wears. He carried the Knicks all season, all playoffs, and all night.
He was drafted 33rd in 2018 having won two NCAA titles at Villanova, both with Knicks teammate Mikal Bridges, one with Knicks teammate Josh Hart. Asked recently what the NBA teams missed that draft, Brunson replied:
“Everything.” He looked down. “Humph.”
Bridges was largely absent Wednesday, and Hart actually missed a dunk and failed to box out on a play that gave the Spurs their last lead, but that’s hoop. They just hoop.
All three have overachieved, but no one has overachieved in the NBA like Brunson in decades.
Maybe ever.
He’s 6-foot-1-ish. He can’t jump. He’s not super fast.
But he is everything that New York loves about itself, and everything Villanova was in the Jay Wright era.
The Coach was there, by the way. Brunson, towel over his shoulders, found him on the court after the game. They hugged.
As they were in Finneran Pavilion and what’s now called Xfinity Mobile Arena and all those NCAA tourney sites, the ‘Nova Knicks were indefatigable. Relentless. Resilient.
The opposite of San Antonio.
The Spurs were probably the most talented team in the NBA this season, and for 24 minutes, the played like it. They also are the second-youngest team in NBA Finals history, and, for the final 24 minutes of Game 4, they played like it.
What was the game like? It was like the Patriots, nine years ago, in Super Bowl LI, when Tom Brady erased a 25-point deficit. That’s the only thing that comes close.
Jalen Brunson.
Tom Brady.
Seriously.
If Brady had done it in Foxborough, Mass., in front of a home crowd that hadn’t won a title since Richard Nixon was president.
Just before his game-winning putback, Anunoby blocked a layup that, with 11 seconds to play and a one-point lead, De’Aaron Fox inexplicably and inexcusably took, so he will get more shone today. Fine. Let him have his moment.
This is Brunson’s team. These are the ‘Nova Knicks.
The ‘Nova Knicks lead the best-of-seven series, 3-1.
It feels like 5-1.
“One word that captures that all is just ‘believe,’” Brunson told ESPN afterward. “Just believing in each other. Believing in the process.”
It felt impossible early, especially considering the officiating in the series, and the signature play so far, which, of course, involved Brunson.
The play happened in the first quarter of Game 3 on Monday, which the Knicks lost by four points, and it was seismic at the time and it is seismic today. It was a no-call on Victor Wembanyama that the NBA reviewed to determine if it was flagrant. It was not.
Had the foul been deemed a Flagrant 2, it would have been Wembanyama’s second of the playoffs. Flagrant 2 fouls carry two flagrant points. Four total flagrant points carry an automatic one-game suspension.
The NBA simply could not have that. Wemby’s just too important.
Why does that matter now, several days later?
Because in Game 4 on Wednesday, Wembanyama was assessed a Flagrant 1 when he cracked Karl-Anthony Towns in the jaw with an elbow.
That gave him three flagrant points. Which means had the foul Monday been deemed a Flagrant 1, Wembanyama would have been disqualified for Game 5 on Saturday.
Again: He’s too important.
Towns? Not so much.
Within the first 62 seconds on Wednesday, KAT, who carried the Knicks in Games 1 and 2, was on the bench with two questionable fouls. Less than two minutes later, the Knicks trailed, 12-2.
It changed the complexion of the game, the series … everything.
The series is pulling crazy ratings thanks in part to the Big Apple’s Big Three, but Brunson, Hart, and Bridges operate on a thin margin for error. To beat a team like the Spurs, who won nine more regular-season games than the Knicks, they need Towns on the court and on his game.
He picked up his third foul less than five minutes into the second quarter, another phantom infraction considering the physicality of these Finals.
The Wemby Show, the NBA’s most wholesome narrative since Steph Curry, continues, even though he missed two late throws.
Wembanyama finished third in MVP voting in his just his third season. An elegant Frenchman of Congolese descent with the comportment and habits of a Renaissance man — he plays competitive chess and sketches in the park — Wembanyama is the NBA’s best vehicle for basketball globalization since Joel Embiid. That one hasn’t really worked out.
At the time of Wemby-Gate, the Knicks led the series, 2-0. A bit later, at halftime of Game 3, the Knicks led the game by seven.
And then … the Spurs were awarded 16 more free throws than were the Knicks in the second half of Game 3. Afterward, when asked about the altercation, Brunson replied, “Whatever you saw is what you saw.”
The refs saw nothing in real time. The NBA saw a catastrophe if Wembanyama missed Game 4. He’d scored 32 in Game 3, and even with all that free-throw help, the Spurs still barely won.
He missed two free throws late Wednesday. Karma.
Then, that horrid first half for the home team. If it seemed like everything was going against the Knicks, well, it was.
And, then, it wasn’t.
