NEW YORK — With just over seven minutes left in the third quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals and the Knicks trailing the Cleveland Cavaliers by nine, Jalen Brunson gave an impassioned speech — a cry for help — to his teammates on the sidelines. The gist of the message? It had to be along the lines of lock-in defensively against a Cavaliers team surgically dismantling the Knicks defense through the three periods.

Four minutes later, a deafening silence fell about Madison Square Garden: The Knicks suddenly found themselves down by 14. The Cavaliers began intentionally fouling Mitchell Robinson — a poor free-throw shooter who’d been New York’s most impactful defender on the night. And as Robinson proceeded to miss six out of his eight ensuing free throws, the Cavaliers took an 83-69 lead into the fourth quarter. They went on to build a late-game lead as large as 22.

And just when it looked like the Cavaliers were set to make off with the heist of a century, with the same theft of home-court advantage the Indiana Pacers pulled in the conference finals last season, Brunson let his game do the rest of the talking for him.

He scored 15 points in the fourth quarter alone. Mikal Bridges hit the two biggest corner 3s of his Knicks career. And Landry Shamet’s corner 3 bounced around the rim several times before falling through the net, completing an epic Cavaliers meltdown — and yet another historic Knicks comeback.

“We don’t stop until the clock hits zero and shoutouts to our captain for holding it down for us,” Mikal Bridges said in his walk-off interview. “We learned from our mistakes and came out here and didn’t want the same things to happen [as last year].”

The Knicks, who came back from down 20 in Games 1 and 2 of their second-round series against the Boston Celtics last season, did it again on Tuesday. Only this time, the win moved them just three games shy of the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance since 1999.

And yet the Knicks needed this, a wake-up call, a gut-check for a team that hasn’t been adequately tested on its playoff run. The Atlanta Hawks tested the Knicks, yes, when they took a 2-1 series lead in the first round, but they were outclassed by the Knicks, who blew them out over the final three games of the opening round. The Philadelphia 76ers posed little-to-no resistance in a four-game sweep in Round 2, even with a roster littered with talent in Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and V.J. Edgecombe.

Yet here were the Cavaliers, after going seven games against the new-and-improved Toronto Raptors, then seven more against the Eastern Conference’s No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons. The Cavaliers, as Mike Brown noted, boast four All-Stars and a competitive roster deep at virtually every position. And they were a 61-win team last season that revamped its roster midseason in separate deals for James Harden and both Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis.

The Cavaliers tested the Knicks: They tested their newfound offense running primarily through Karl-Anthony Towns and forced the Knicks back to Brunson, who has the biggest mismatch of the series against a Cavs backcourt incapable of guarding him. Towns finished with 13 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field. They tested New York’s resilience, too. The Knicks, as they’ve done all year, passed on Tuesday night with flying colors — and this time, they passed because Brunson rose to the level champions are made of.

“He carried us offensively when we needed him,” Bridges said while walking off the court. “We wouldn’t be here without Cap.”

The Knicks pulled off the improbable with OG Anunoby limited by a right hamstring injury. Anunoby, who’d been out since Game 2 of the first round, wore a wrap around his right leg while seated on the bench and.shot two-of-nine from the field for 13 points, even shooting an airball with under a minute left in the extra period.

It’s all a distant memory for a Knicks team that averted a crisis on Tuesday. Championship dreams nearly turned into familiar nightmares, and the Knicks still have work to do — but Brunson bailed the Knicks out with an all-time performance. The Knicks took the Cavs’ best punch and responded with haymakers of their own,

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.