{"id":2665,"date":"2026-06-04T06:07:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2665"},"modified":"2026-06-04T06:07:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:07:47","slug":"captain-clutch-jalen-brunson-comes-up-with-late-game-heroics-knicks-top-spurs-in-game-1-of-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2665","title":{"rendered":"Captain Clutch: Jalen Brunson comes up with late-game heroics, Knicks top Spurs in Game 1 of finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson motion after a basket against the San Antonio Spurs during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Jalen Brunson gave the New York Knicks a huge scare in the first quarter, limping off and leaving the floor to deal with what appeared to be some sort of knee and ankle issues.<\/p>

Read more Josh Hart\u2019s efforts help Knicks turn around Game 1 of the NBA Finals and beat the Spurs<\/a><\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t gone for long.<\/p>\n

And by the fourth quarter, all that was forgotten.<\/p>\n

Brunson<\/a> won the NBA\u2019s clutch player award in 2025, and in case anyone forgot why, he provided a series of reminders in a scintillating final 7 1\/2 minutes that helped the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 105-95 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals<\/a> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

He scored 30 points in the game, 13 in that final stretch \u2014 outscoring the Spurs by himself in those game-deciding minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a tremendous player that\u2019s skilled, picks his spots, knows his angles, shoots contested shots without being sped up,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cHe\u2019s a phenomenal player. We just got to keep making him work. Again, he had a phenomenal game. He got going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers from that final burst, which started with 7:37 left and the game tied at 86:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Brunson shot 5 for 9, while the Spurs shot 2 for 11.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Brunson outscored the Spurs 13-9 by himself, the Knicks outscored them 19-9 as a team.<\/p>\n

\u2014 He went on a personal 8-0 run to give New York a 94-86 lead, and when the Spurs answered with a 9-0 run for a 95-94 edge, Brunson delivered a corner 3-pointer that put the Knicks on top for good.<\/p>

Read more Meckler, Madrigal each have 4 hits in the Angels\u2019 11-4 win over the Rockies<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Spurs never scored again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we know what we have to do,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cI think we are a pretty together group. Be able to trust each other and still have each other\u2019s back and know that we just have to keep chipping away, chipping away. It\u2019s just a credit to the mentality that we have as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks have won 12 straight games, just the third team to do that in a single postseason. The other two \u2014 San Antonio in 1999 (in a finals against New York) and Golden State in 2017 \u2014 became NBA champions.<\/p>\n

If the Knicks are going to get there, they likely need Brunson at his best. And when he came back from that locker room \u2014 well, it wasn\u2019t quite a Willis Reed moment for New York, but made Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns feel better about things right away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we all saw him limp off, we were worried not only because he\u2019s Jalen Brunson but more because he\u2019s our brother and we are a family in our locker room,\u201d Towns said. \u201cBut 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\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while many of those games have been glittery blowouts during this New York win streak, there\u2019s been some gritty comebacks as well. Wednesday\u2019s game was the third in these playoffs where the Knicks erased a double-digit deficit to win. They were down by 22 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against Cleveland, down 12 in Game 3 of the East semis against Philadelphia, and down 14 to the Spurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a position we obviously don\u2019t want to be in but it\u2019s always a next-play mentality,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Trump strips job protections from 8,000 senior federal workers<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jalen Brunson gave the New York Knicks a huge scare in the first quarter, limping off and leaving the floor to deal with what appeared to be some sort of knee and ankle issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nCaptain Clutch: Jalen Brunson comes up with late-game heroics, Knicks top Spurs in Game 1 of finals - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2665\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Captain Clutch: Jalen Brunson comes up with late-game heroics, Knicks top Spurs in Game 1 of finals - 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