East Finals: Knicks overcome 22-point deficit in 4th quarter, beat Cavs in OT in Game 1

For a stretch dating nearly a month ago it has all seemed so easy for the Knicks, carrying a seven-game winning streak into Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals and having spent what seemed nearly as long on hiatus, waiting for an opponent and a chance to take the court again.

Maybe in the back of their minds they knew that it wouldn’t always look like that, the wins wouldn’t always come so easily and the talk wouldn’t seem so secure. But it’s hard to imagine that even in the darkest recesses of their minds that they believed the return to reality would look like this, trailing by 22 points with less than eight minutes to play.

But then, as has happened so many times over the last four years, Jalen Brunson happened.

With their captain scoring 15 of his 38 points in the fourth quarter, the Knicks fought back from a performance that had been lifeless to that point, forcing overtime and then taking control for a 115-104 win Tuesday night in front of 19,812 disbelieving fans at Madison Square Garden.

But until that comeback began, nothing seemed to be going right for the Knicks. Maybe it was the rust form the long time waiting for this night, or simply a belief that it just would happen for them, but they were struggling to mount any sort of attack on either end of the floor and the Garden crowd was starting to boo the home team — deservedly so.

After it was over, Karl-Anthony Towns gave a long, passionate description of the honor of getting a win like this at the Garden, to be part of what felt like a miracle. And Brunson was more blunt in his follow-up.

“Definitely thankful,” Brunson said. “Because they could have walked out if they wanted to.”

Walk out and miss a story that they’ll talk about for years to come? To witness just the second largest comeback in a playoff game in the play-by-play era? Somehow the crowd stuck around and the corridors and stairwells were filled with sweat-soaked, chanting fans still seeming to marvel at what they saw.

Once the Knicks got to overtime they never lost control, pulling away as the Cavs showed the effects of the quick turnaround from a pair of grueling seven-game series and the Knicks displayed the dominant play that had brought them to this night.

Consider this: the Knicks outscored the Cavs, 30-8 over the final 7:39 of regulation and then adding a 9-0 run to start the overtime session. Although it took them much of the night to get there, for a 10-minute stretch the Knicks looked exactly as they did in the seven straight wins, just dominating on both ends of the floor.

Leading a furious rally, scoring 11 consecutive points during an 18-1 run, Brunson lifted the Knicks back into the game and when Landry Shamet bounced in a corner three-pointer the Knicks had come all the way back, pulling even with 44.3 seconds remaining in regulation.

“To be honest, when I shot it and then I looked up, I was like, ‘Oh (expletive), we’re tied up,’” Shamet said. “I didn’t realize at the time that that one would have tied it up, which is kind of where you want to be. When you’re flowing, you don’t want to be thinking about things. They ball found me. I was open in transition. I let it fly and the ball went in.”

James Harden, who had been victimized repeatedly by Brunson on the other end, gave Cleveland back the lead momentarily, but Brunson delivered again with 19.3 seconds remaining and the Knicks survived a Sam Merrill three-point attempt that spun out in the final seconds, sending the game to overtime.

“To be real, there was definitely rust,” Towns said. “You could see we’re a team that hasn’t played in a playoff game in a while. It’s a testament to the grit and resiliency of this locker room and this team that as the game went along you could see the rust was coming off a little bit and we were able to find ourselves in the game. At the end of the day great offensive plays by JB, amazing clutch plays by Landry Shamet, clutch plays by the man next to me, Mikal Bridges, but it was our defense that has always been special in these playoffs and carried us in the playoffs that showed up in the fourth quarter and overtime and allowed us to be sitting here with a win against a really great team."

Down 93-71, the comeback began innocently enough with a Brunson six-footer with 7:39 to play. While it might have seemed like a time to pull the plug on this game, instead, it ignited an 18-1 run that cut the gap to five. Back to back threes by Bridges brought the Knicks within three and set the stage for Shamet’s game-tying shot. In the run, Brunson, time after time, attacked Harden, easily shedding him for basket after basket.

“Sometimes you gotta do what the game dictates,” Mike Brown said. “They were trying to do the same thing with Jalen. And so we said, OK, we feel like we can play that game. We try not to play that game much, but we feel like we have a guy that we can play that game with in Jalen. And just like we have to try to figure out different ways to guard Harden and (Donovan) Mitchell, they gotta figure out different ways to guard Jalen. But there’s no secret we were attacking Harden.”

The Knicks were not just outscored in the third quarter, a two-point halftime deficit turning into a 14-point hole entering the fourth quarter, but they were out hustled and outsmarted. On one possession, Mitchell (29 points) ripped the ball out of the hands of Bridges near midcourt and coasted in for a fast-break layup. But that was hardly the only play as the Knicks struggled on both ends of the floor, drawing boos from the home crowd and even the ire of Brunson, who stood up in a huddle with 7:08 left in the quarter and appeared to animatedly — angrily — address his teammates.

“Just keep fighting, keep chipping away,” Brunson said. “We’re not going to get it back in one possession. Most importantly, sticking together. No matter how that game finished habits translate. They can translate to the next game. So finishing that game strong regardless of whatever is going on, making sure we have the right habits, so when we go into the next game we’re doing what we’re doing. We’re not just giving up. We don’t want to give up ever. Just having faith in each other.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.