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Knicks Stun Cavaliers in Overtime Thriller to Steal Game 1 of Eastern Conference Finals
By Rachel Torres • May 21, 2026 • 3 min read
Down 22 points with under eight minutes to play. Facing a Cleveland Cavaliers team that had just authored the third-largest Game 7 road win in NBA history. Madison Square Garden had gone quiet. And then Jalen Brunson decided the moment was too big to waste.
The New York Knicks completed one of the most stunning comebacks in NBA playoff history on Tuesday night, erasing a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-104 in overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The win gives New York a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series — and sends the Cavs home reeling from a collapse that will haunt them for a long time.
Brunson finished with 38 points, five rebounds, six assists, and three steals. But the numbers don’t begin to capture what he did in the final 7:40 of the fourth quarter, when he scored 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting to single-handedly drag the Knicks back from the dead. New York outscored Cleveland 44-11 from that moment through the end of overtime — a 44-11 run that will be replayed in New York for years.
The Turning Point
The Cavaliers looked invincible through three quarters. Donovan Mitchell had 26 points on 17 shots, Evan Mobley was terrorising the paint with 15 points and 14 rebounds, and Cleveland took its largest lead of the game — 83-69 — into the fourth quarter. The Cavs had won three consecutive games to close out Detroit in the second round, including a historically dominant Game 7 road win by 30 points. They looked like a team running on pure momentum.
Then the fourth quarter started, and everything changed.
Cleveland went cold — ice cold. The Cavs shot just 22 percent from the field over the final 7:52 of regulation, and Brunson made them pay for every miss. The Knicks’ captain attacked James Harden in the half court, broke down the Cavs’ defence with relentless drives to the basket, and when defenders collapsed, he found open teammates. The Garden crowd, which had been subdued for most of the night, erupted. The decibel levels inside MSG reached playoff-intersection-clogger territory.
“Find a way,” Brunson said afterward, via the Knicks’ postgame presser. “We got some stops, kept fighting, kept believing. We just kept chipping away.”
The Final Act: Shamet, Harden, and the Tie
With 45 seconds left and the Knicks down three, Landry Shamet let fly a three-pointer that bounced — twice, three times, four times — on the rim before falling through. The Garden crowd went absolutely bersaker. Shamet, who had been quiet for most of the night, finished with nine points. It didn’t matter. That shot gave New York life at 99-99.
James Harden responded with a short jumper to give Cleveland a 101-99 lead with under three minutes to go in overtime. It was Harden’s 15th point of the night, and for a moment it looked like it might be enough. But Brunson answered immediately, driving to the lane and knotting it at 101. From that moment on, the Knicks dominated overtime completely — outscoring the Cavs 14-3 in the extra five minutes. Sam Merrill’s potential game-tying three for Cleveland rattled around the rim and off as the buzzer sounded.
“The fans dancing with joy. They have watched one of the greatest comebacks in NBA history.” — Mike Breen, NBA on ESPN
What This Means for the Series
The Knicks have now won 12 of their last 16 games and own a perfect 8-0 record at Madison Square Garden this postseason. They waited 10 days between the end of their second-round sweep of Philadelphia and Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals — the longest layoff of any remaining team. That rust showed early, as New York fell behind 93-71 with under eight minutes to play. But the Knicks showed why depth, defence, and a transcendent point guard matter most when the stakes are highest.
For Cleveland, this is a brutal loss in every sense. The Cavs played 14 games over the first two rounds — the most of any team in the playoffs — and the physical and emotional toll was evident in the fourth quarter collapse. Head coach Kenny Atkinson will have to find answers fast. The Cavs’ defence of Brunson in the fourth quarter was porous, and Atkinson’s decision to keep James Harden on the floor in crunch time is already being questioned by analysts. Harden finished with 15 points but was a liability in the clutch defensively.
Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds, though he was credited with only five assists — a significant drop-off from the 56 assists he had compiled over the Knicks’ previous seven games. If New York is to close out this series, Towns will need to rediscover his facilitating role while also staying aggressive as a scorer.
The Road Ahead
Game 2 is scheduled for Thursday at 8:00PM ET at Madison Square Garden, broadcast live on ESPN. The Knicks have not lost a home game this postseason. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, must regroup quickly — a team that blows a 22-point lead in a Game 1 loss is not the same team psychologically heading into Game 2.
The winner of this series will face either the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals. The Spurs, powered by Victor Wembanyama’s 41-point masterpiece in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, currently lead OKC 1-0 in that series. If the Knicks can protect home court again Thursday, they will travel to Cleveland for Game 3 with a 2-0 series lead — and a golden opportunity to reach the Finals for the second consecutive year.
For now, the story is Jalen Brunson. Again. As it always seems to be in New York.
