SAN ANTONIO — Jalen Brunson set a franchise NBA Finals record with 45 points and nearly single-handedly ended the team’s 53-year NBA title drought as the New York Knicks recorded a 94-90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night.
Brunson spent his first four NBA seasons with the Dallas Mavericks as an afterthought on a team featuring standout Luka Doncic.
He departed as a free agent and emerged as a star for the Knicks. Four seasons later, he has stamped himself as a player for the ages and sits atop the basketball world as the engineer of a playoff run that saw the Knicks win their first title since 1973.
“It’s everything I’ve dreamed of,” said Brunson, who was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. “This is why I came to New York.”
Brunson scored 29 points in the second half of Game 5 as New York overcame a 15-point third-quarter deficit, winning four of the five games in the best-of-seven series.
The Knicks also trailed by 16 points in the second quarter, one game after they rallied from 29 down to beat the Spurs in Game 4 on Wednesday in New York.
The Knicks went 16-3 in the postseason and won 13 straight games at one stretch, the second-longest winning streak in NBA playoff history.
“I’m in awe,” Brunson said. “Whenever someone counted us out, we had to come back and do something about it.”
Brunson made four 3-pointers while posting his fourth outing of 30 or more points in the series.
Brunson broke the team record of 38 points set by Hall of Famer Willis Reed in Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Mikal Bridges scored 14 points and Josh Hart registered 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Knicks. OG Anunoby had 11 points and Karl-Anthony Towns collected 10 rebounds before fouling out. Mitchell Robinson also grabbed 10 boards.
Dylan Harper scored 25 points and Victor Wembanyama added 19 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots for San Antonio. Julian Champagnie had 14 points and Devin Vassell added 12.
For the Spurs, the story of the series was repeatedly letting leads evaporate.
“It surprised me that every game has the same scenario,” Wembanyama said. “(All) five games in the series had the same scenario, how relentless we were in our mistakes and (how relentless) they were in punishing them.”
New York trailed by 10 with under eight minutes to play before Brunson took over with 10 straight points to tie the score at 83 with 4:48 left. Brunson shredded the San Antonio defense by driving for three layups during the spurt.
Vassell knocked down a 17-foot jumper to put San Antonio back ahead at 85-83 with 4:14 left. Brunson then was fouled shooting a 3-pointer 34 seconds later and made all three free throws to give the Knicks a one-point edge.
A short time later, Harper’s basket tied the score at 88 with 1:16 left. But Brunson once again navigated through the defense and made a floater with 1:05 left.
Hart and Anunoby each split two free throws as New York led by four with 21.6 seconds remaining.
Wembanyana missed a 3-pointer on San Antonio’s next possession, but Stephon Castle’s putback dunk brought the Spurs within 92-90 with 16.3 seconds left.
Bridges split two free throws with 8.8 seconds left to give New York a three-point lead before Harper missed two free throws with 8.5 seconds to go.
Anunoby split two free throws with 7.7 seconds left to close it out as neighborhoods in boroughs such as Manhattan and Queens broke into celebration and the Knicks’ players could feel the pressure literally melting off their foreheads.
“People don’t understand, we don’t really talk about it, but the weight of that jersey, the expectations, the pressure of that jersey,” Hart said. “And like I say, today, right now, it’s the lightest it’s ever felt.”
Though the end was bitter for San Antonio, few people were predicting the club to be in the NBA Finals. The Spurs rallied from a 3-2 deficit to defeat the 2025 champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals while making their first postseason appearance since 2019.
“On the surface level, I don’t think anybody other than the people in that room expected us to be here,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said. “So there’s a lot of good in that. There’s a lot of pain in what just happened.”
Vassell said the lessons of the series include “every possession matters and every little detail matters.”
“I think we had a great season,” Vassell said. “We proved a lot of people wrong. Our goal was to win, obviously. We don’t want a participation trophy.”
The Knicks made just 35.6% of their shots (31 of 87), including 12 of 37 from 3-point range.
San Antonio connected on 38.4% of its attempts (33 of 86) and also was 12 of 37 from behind the arc.
Vassell and Harper connected on back-to-back 3-pointers and Harper followed with three more points during a 9-0 run to give San Antonio a 68-53 lead with 3:11 left in the third quarter.
A short time later, Hart buried a 3-pointer and Brunson knocked down three free throws after being fouled shooting a trey to start a quarter-ending 10-2 burst. Robinson’s late tip-in brought the Knicks within 72-65 entering the fourth quarter
Both teams were shaky offensively during a first half that concluded with San Antonio holding a 42-37 lead at the break. New York trailed 31-15 with 8:29 remaining in the half.
–Field Level Media
