If the NBA had screenwriters, not even they could come up with a start this good to the conference finals.
Victor Wembanyama has 41 points and 24 rebounds. San Antonio goes into Oklahoma City and beats the defending champion Thunder. New York trails by 22 points with about eight minutes left in regulation, then beats Cleveland. Both games go to overtime, a conference finals first. And the score at the end of regulation in both games — 101-101.
Well done, Spurs and Knicks.
If there was a common trend in both games, it was that the best player on the winning teams decided to become the best player on the floor at crunch time. On Monday night, it was Wembanyama for the Spurs. On Tuesday night, it was Jalen Brunson for the Knicks — who led a 44-11 run over the last 13 minutes.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen that in a playoff game,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “I take my hat off to my group.”
Game 2 of Spurs-Thunder is Wednesday. Game 2 of Knicks-Cavaliers is Thursday. The drama is only going to keep building.
“Found a way. … We got some stops,” Brunson said. “Kept fighting, kept believing, kept chipping away.”
The numbers — from both games — are of the video game variety.
Start with what happened at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. A 44-11 run doesn’t happen in the NBA, certainly not in the conference finals. Teams that led by 22 points or more in the fourth quarter were 452-1 this season, including playoffs. They’re 452-2 now. In the playoffs, teams had won 330 consecutive games when leading by 22 or more points in the fourth quarter since 2013. They’re 330-1 now.
“I don’t have an answer,” Brunson said.
Neither did the Cavaliers, either as it was happening or in the immediate aftermath.
“We got a little unlucky,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Brunson obviously took over at the end. … We played great basketball tonight for three quarters. Unfortunately, the fourth quarter, they dominated us in the fourth quarter.”
A 41-point, 24-rebound game doesn’t happen that often, either. Wembanyama was brilliant in his conference finals debut, as was Spurs rookie guard Dylan Harper. The Spurs, like the Cavs, wasted a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter of Game 1 and settled for overtime; San Antonio’s lead was 10, not 22, but still double digits.
Unlike the Cavs, they found a way to settle down — repeatedly, really — in the two extra periods Monday night.
“That game was in the balance multiple times for both teams,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said Tuesday. “You can’t get preoccupied with the outcome because there was so much in the balance that could have went either way.”
In short, stealing home-court advantage by winning Game 1 doesn’t mean the Spurs think the series is over. And the Thunder know that Game 1 is meaningful — but not a deciding game by any stretch.
“The cumulative experience just teaches you that it’s a series,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Tuesday. “Game 1’s a starting point, not an end point. We’ve lost playoff series that we’ve won Game 1 pretty convincingly. And we’ve also won series that we won Game 1. So, every series is different. It’s the first to four. They’re 25% of the way there and we’re at zero right now. But there’s a lot of basketball left to be played. I think this team kind of understands the length of the series, the length of the playoff run and the length of a playoff game.”
The defending champions are feeling some pressure. New York is rocking. Wembanyama’s star keeps rising. The Cavaliers — winners of two Game 7s in these playoffs — need to dig their way out of trouble, again.
The start to these conference-final stories was stellar. Chapter 2 awaits.
