SAN ANTONIO — The New York Knicks’ winning streak lives on, and they struck first in the NBA Finals.
Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, and the Eastern Conference champions erased a 14-point second-half deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs 105-95 in Game 1 of the best-of-seven title series Wednesday night.
OG Anunoby had 17 points for New York, which has won 12 consecutive playoff games, the seventh team to have such a streak in NBA history, and is the third to do it in a single season. Brunson scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, only six fewer than Western Conference champ San Antonio managed as a team in that period, and sealed it with a spinning jumper while falling to the court with 38 seconds left.
“He’s a gamer, man,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “In the biggest moments, he shows up. That’s what MVPs are supposed to do.”
And the Knicks, who finished on an 11-0 run, made a little more history. They became the first team to beat San Antonio in Game 1 of any NBA Finals — the Spurs were 6-0 in those — and this is also the first time the Spurs have trailed in the title series before the finish.