Knicks erase 22-point deficit in 4th, stun Cavaliers in overtime to take Game 1

NEW YORK — Madison Square Garden has seen Eastern Conference finals heartbreak before. Tuesday night, the Knicks answered it with something far more satisfying.

A year after blowing a 17-point fourth-quarter lead against the Indiana Pacers in Game 1, the Knicks authored their own late-game stunner, rallying from 22 points down to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-104, in overtime in Tuesday’s Eastern Conference finals opener at the Garden.

It was the largest fourth-quarter comeback in the NBA playoffs in 13 years. Game 2 will be played in Manhattan on Thursday.

Jalen Brunson led the charge, finishing with a game-high 38 points on 15-for-29 shooting after catching fire late and dragging the Knicks back from the edge. And Donovan Mitchell dazzled for Cleveland with 29 points, five rebounds and three assists. Evan Mobley added 15 points and 14 rebounds.

The Knicks trailed by 22 in the fourth quarter. They looked buried. Then Brunson changed the entire night.

The Knicks outscored Cleveland 32-18 in the period, with Brunson pouring in 15 points on 7-for-9 shooting to fuel a furious comeback. He drove an 18-1 run that pulled the Knicks within eight with 4:08 remaining, pushing his total to 34 points and breathing life back into a building that had spent much of the second half in stunned silence.

Cleveland needed a response, and Mobley delivered one, burying a massive 3-pointer with 3:09 left to cool off Brunson, silence the Garden crowd and restore an eight-point Cavaliers lead.

Brunson answered anyway. He drilled a 3-pointer with 2:38 remaining to cut Cleveland’s advantage to four and keep the Knicks’ comeback alive. Then Landry Shamet finished the climb, burying yet another 3-pointer with 45 seconds left to tie the game at 99 and send the Garden into a frenzy.

The teams were tied again at 101 with 19 seconds remaining, leaving Cleveland with one last chance to steal it in regulation. Sam Merrill found a clean look as the clock wound down. He missed, sending Game 1 to overtime and giving the Knicks a second life they’d spent the entire fourth quarter fighting to create.

And they didn’t waste it. The Knicks opened overtime on a 9-0 run, seizing the extra period before Cleveland could regain its footing and finishing a comeback that had seemed far beyond reach only minutes earlier.

Game 1 needed time to become appointment television, but once it did, it stood shoulder to shoulder with Monday night’s Western Conference finals opener between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. The early possessions were ragged. The Knicks looked like a team shaking off a long layoff. Cleveland looked like a team still carrying two seven-game series. For a while, the flaws canceled each other out. By the fourth quarter, the Garden had a classic on its hands.

OG Anunoby returned to the starting lineup after missing the final two games of the second round with a left hamstring strain, but the Knicks’ offense didn’t resemble the version that cut through the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers. Passing seams closed quickly. Possessions crawled toward the end of the shot clock. The jump shooting didn’t settle.

The Cavaliers jumped ahead 10-4 midway through the first quarter and controlled the boards early, prompting Mike Brown to replace Josh Hart with Mitchell Robinson. The move drew a rousing ovation and immediately jolted the Knicks. Robinson checked in, stripped Jarrett Allen and helped the Knicks stiffen defensively. Brunson attacked at the other end.

By the end of the first quarter, the Knicks led 23-16. Brunson had 10 points. Cleveland had five turnovers, several of them careless. Brown had said before the game that the Knicks needed to “hit first” after their long break, and for a stretch, they did. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson had also warned that the first five or six minutes could shape Cleveland’s night. The Knicks owned those early minutes. They just couldn’t build enough from them.

The Knicks tried to feature Karl-Anthony Towns early, but those actions didn’t give the offense much force. Towns went into halftime with two points, four assists and a 1-for-4 mark from the field. Brunson, Hart and Mikal Bridges combined for 32 first-half points. The rest of the Knicks totaled 14.

That imbalance helped Cleveland recover from its sloppy start. James Harden created back-to-back open 3-pointers in the second quarter, forcing Brown to call timeout after an 11-point Knicks lead had shrunk to three. The Cavaliers kept generating cleaner looks from deep. Mitchell closed the half with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting, and Cleveland carried a 48-46 lead into the locker room.

The Cavaliers seemed to seize the night in the third quarter. Mitchell dictated terms. Mobley pushed deeper into the game. Midway through the period, Cleveland had opened a 63-54 lead. Mitchell had 22 points. Mobley had 10 points and seven rebounds. Every Knicks starter was minus-11 or worse.

The Garden went quiet. Soon, boos came down.

The Knicks’ defensive problems became more damaging than their missed shots. Cleveland found easy baskets. The Knicks blitzed Harden hard, and the pressure opened the floor instead of shrinking it. Harden had only seven points at one stage in the third quarter, but scoring wasn’t the point. He passed over the traps and let the Cavaliers attack space.

Atkinson had flagged that challenge before the game, saying Cleveland needed good decisions once it got into the paint against a Knicks defense that packs driving lanes. The Cavaliers found those decisions for long stretches. Cleveland also turned to a Hack-a-Mitch approach against Robinson in the third quarter, another way to disrupt the Knicks’ rhythm. By the end of the period, the Knicks trailed by 14. The deficit eventually reached 22.

Then Brunson detonated. Shamet followed. Merrill missed. The Knicks survived regulation, then stormed through overtime to complete one of the wildest playoff comebacks the Garden has seen.

Last year, the building watched a conference finals opener slip away.

This time, the Knicks ripped one back.