Jalen Brunson scores 45, and Knicks top Spurs for NBA title

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Jalen Brunson and the Knicks have done it again. And now they are the champion Knicks.

For the first time in 53 years, New York rules the NBA. Brunson scored 45 points, including 13 in a row for New York in the fourth quarter, to lead the Knicks to victory over the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Saturday night.

The Knicks won the series 4-1, building double-digit deficits in all four of those wins. The deficit was 16 on Saturday night. Brunson and the Knicks were never bothered.

“I don’t have any words,” Bronson said during the on-court celebration. “It’s everything I dreamed of.”

Bronson concluded his speech cheerfully. He set a Knicks record for points in a Finals game. It was 38 by Willis Reed against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 of the 1970 Series. It now belongs to the left-handed point guard who changed the franchise’s fortunes when he arrived four years ago.

Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart — the other two parts of a “Nova Knicks” trio that also includes Brunson, three players who were NCAA champions at Villanova and teamed up in New York to try to do the same — combined to score 27 points. Bridges had 14 and Hart 13.

“I don’t know what I feel,” Bronson said. “I’m in awe. Whenever someone counts us down, we find a way to go back and do something about it.”

Dylan Harper scored 25 points for the Spurs, who got 19 points, 14 rebounds and five shots from Victor Wimpanyama.

The Knicks improved to 4-0 in close chances this season, winning them all on the road. However, it didn’t seem like the way to go — not with thousands of New York faithful making the trip to Texas to see a moment that took 53 years.

New York got to the brink of that title by rallying from a 29-point lead in Game 4 to win 107-106 on an OG Anunoby tip with 1.2 seconds left on Wednesday night. It was the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history and the biggest comeback in any game this season, regular season or playoffs.

By comparison, a 16-point rise in this rally looked easy.

The game followed the same script in the opening minutes as all the other games in the series, with the Spurs leading by double digits in the first quarter and then wasting most of it in the second quarter.

The Spurs became the first team in the play-by-play era, which began in the 1996-97 season, to lead five finals games by 10 or more points in the first quarters.

The Knicks simply couldn’t make shots, missing 16 of their first 18 attempts and all of their first 11 two-point attempts. There was even a point in the second quarter when Wimpanyama took more shots (five) than the Knicks did (four). San Antonio’s lead was as high as 10 in the first quarter, and as much as 16 in the second.

Of course, none of it mattered much. As always, the Knicks are back.

New York led 22-9 in the second quarter, before Devin Vassell scored just before halftime to give San Antonio a 42-37 halftime lead.

This capped off a first 24 minutes of offensive ineptitude or defensive prowess, depending on perspective. The combined 79 points in the first half was the lowest in a Finals game since the Lakers-Celtics Game 7 in 2010, and the Knicks and Spurs’ combined 31.8% field goal percentage was the lowest in the first half of a Finals game in the play-by-play era.

Brunson won two NCAA titles with Villanova — both at Texas, one in 2016 in Houston and one in 2018 in San Antonio, just a few miles from the stadium the Spurs call home.

Three-step titles in Texas, and this is definitely the most beautiful of all.