Jalen Brunson scored 38 points and New York erased a 22-point deficit to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-104 in overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, May 19, 2026.
With less than eight minutes remaining the Knicks trailed 93-71, then outscored Cleveland 30-8 to force a 101-101 tie and win in the extra period. Brunson delivered 17 of his 38 points in the final eight minutes of regulation and overtime, and New York closed regulation on an 18-1 run, Sky Sports said, before opening overtime with a 9-0 burst to seize control.
Mikal Bridges added 18 points and Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks. OG Anunoby returned after missing two games with a strained right hamstring and scored nine of his 13 points in overtime. For Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell led with 29 points but managed only three in the fourth quarter. Evan Mobley had 15 points and 14 rebounds, while James Harden scored 15 points and went one for eight on three-pointers with six turnovers and five field goals.
Coach Mike Brown, whose Cavaliers had been ahead by as many as 22, acknowledged the scale of the collapse. "I don't know if I've ever seen that in a play-off game," he said. He added: "To be down 18, 19, 20 - whatever we were down - to find a way to come back and win, I take my hat off to my group," speaking of his players' earlier rally to build the lead. Brown also explained his game plan on offense: "There is no secret: We were attacking Harden," and later, "Sometimes you've got to do what the game dictates, and they were trying to do the same thing with Jalen, 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."
Brunson kept the message simple after the win. "Just keep fighting," he said, adding, "Keep chipping away. We're not going to get it back in one possession." Miles McBride echoed the locker-room tone: "The team's relentless. You never know whose night it's going to be, but we're going to figure it out," a line that underlined how depth and momentum swung the night.
The game's context sharpened the storyline. The Cavaliers had played their 11th game in 21 days, while the Knicks had not played for nine days, a rest disparity that loomed large as the fourth quarter unfolded. That fact — and the way New York's bench and returning personnel surged late — sits against Kenny Atkinson's blunt assessment: "We played great basketball tonight for three quarters. Unfortunately, the fourth quarter - they dominated us," capturing the tension between a dominant stretch and an ultimately decisive collapse.
Donovan Mitchell said of the loss: "We should have won the game," and added bluntly, "We're up 22 with God knows how much time - got to win the game." He also placed the setback on the group, saying, "Ultimately, this isn't on him - it's on all of us," and, "It's not just on one person. He's been around the league long enough. He understands that." Those words signal Cleveland's recognition that the margin for error in a seven-game series is thin.
Game 2 is scheduled to return to Madison Square Garden on Thursday at 01:00 BST. The winner of this series will face either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals; the Spurs lead that series 1-0 and were due to play at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City on Wednesday at 01:30 BST. Live trackers and box-score services, including Sofascore, reflected the wild final line: 115-104 in overtime.
This was not a fluke comeback but a statement: a rested Knicks roster producing a late, sustained run and an overtime surge with contributions from Brunson, Bridges, Towns and a returning Anunoby. If New York can replicate that closure, the series — and the path to the Finals — will tilt toward the team that learned, in one electric night at Madison Square Garden, how quickly a comfortable lead can vanish.
