One of the most common refrains used to describe the NBA playoffs is that the game slows down.
Not necessarily that basketball gets easier, but every minute is so tense, both teams are so focused and every possession is so close that the winner is often decided by which team – or player – can execute when the game stops.
In Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday, the New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson was that player, scoring 13 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Knicks to a 105-95 victory over the San Antonio Spurs and a 1-0 series lead. The Spurs, meanwhile, scored just 19 points in the final period as a team and looked disconcerted as they struggled to put the ball in the hoop.
What has made Brunson one of the best players in the NBA playoffs over the past few seasons is the way he operates when the Knicks desperately need a bucket.
Since the start of the 2023 playoffs, no other player has made or attempted as many game-winning field goals. that Brunson. (Clutch is defined as a game within five points with less than five minutes remaining.)
And just 14.8% of Brunson’s clutch attempts were assisted, the lowest percentage of any player with at least 100 clutch attempts. This means not only is Brunson not afraid to take and direct the biggest shots, but he often does so while creating entirely for himself.
“In the most important moments, he shows up, and that’s what MVPs are supposed to do,” New York head coach Mike Brown said. “We put the ball in his hands and told him we were going to live and die with him. And he did that for us, and it happened time and time again. He came to his spot and he played.”
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said: “He’s a great player, talented, picks his positions, knows his angles, takes contested shots without being rushed. He’s a phenomenal player.”
In the first match, Brunson managed to advance to fourth even after a rough start.
In the first quarter, he briefly left the game after appearing to injure his right knee. In the second quarter, he appeared to be in pain after his left ankle was stepped on. And by the end of the third quarter, Brunson had made just seven of his 22 field goal attempts. But he rose to the occasion in the fourth, finishing with 30 points.
“I think it starts with my confidence. It comes with my work ethic,” Brunson said of how he was able to rise late in the game. “More importantly, knowing that we’re on the road and knowing that my teammates have my back, I think that’s the most important thing in an environment like this: the trust that they have in me and the trust that I have in them, that’s gotten us to this point.”
While Brunson was able to dig into his well-worn bag of tricks, San Antonio was looking for answers. The Spurs only scored 40 points in the entire second half and struggled to generate good looks in the fourth quarter.
Although Victor Wembanyama had a brief eight-point spurt to close the game, he was still ineffective during his 11-point fourth quarter, shooting just 3 of 8 from the field and committing two costly turnovers. (The Knicks had no turnovers in the fourth.)
Wembanyama didn’t get much help from his teammates, as the Spurs, as a team, shot just 28.6 percent from the field in the fourth. De’Aaron Fox, the speedy guard who is the oldest player in San Antonio’s starting lineup, failed to calm the team down, missing his only two shots in the final third and coughing up the ball twice.
The nature of clutch basketball is that a single-game sample size is so small that random events can and do happen, which is a fancy way of saying that the first game doesn’t mean the Spurs will never be good in those big moments. But it’s been a sore spot for San Antonio thus far in its postseason, as the team now has a 96.8 offensive rating in clutch time after Wednesday’s loss.
New York, on the other hand, has an offensive rating of 107.7 in decisive moments in these playoffs, including an 18.5 net rating, meaning that when things get tight, the Knicks start to pull away from their opponents.
In the first game, Brunson was able to consistently create offense on his own, while the Spurs couldn’t answer on the other end.
Brown said: “[Brunson] was the MVP of the second half. … He did what MVP candidates are supposed to do. He took us home.