Knicks game one comeback was historic in every sense of the word

The Knicks were dead.

Seemingly buried under a thick layer of rust stemming from a nine-day break, New York looked like a shell of itself through 41 minutes in Tuesday's Eastern Conference Final opener against the Cavaliers. Down 22 points with 7:40 to go in the game, fresh off of a Dean Wade 4-point play that silenced an already fed-up MSG crowd, the Knicks look destined to drop game one of the conference final at home for the second year in a row.

Then, Jalen Brunson happened, Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson kept his timeouts in his pocket, and the Knicks pulled off an overtime victory for the ages, completing the greatest playoff comeback in franchise history.

Initially displaying the unintended side effects of a long layover, the Knicks went from fighting rust to showing off their fresh legs in a furious fourth-quarter rally spearheaded by Brunson, who took the game over with 15 fourth-quarter points, nearly all of them coming while being guarded by James Harden. New York hunted the matchup the entire fourth quarter, using a relentless dose of OG Anunoby screens to get the switch it wanted that led to Harden facing off against Brunson. The Knicks star penned another chapter in his franchise legend, scoring or assisting on 23 of the team's final 32 points in a game that instantly became one of the greatest in Knicks history.

Brunson's floater in the closing seconds of regulation sent the game to overtime, where the Knicks continued their dominant run by holding the Cavs to just three points the entire period. All told, New York closed the game on a 44-11 run.

The comeback was the second-biggest playoff rally in the play-by-play era (dating back to 2012). Just how improbable was the comeback? According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, teams facing an identical deficit that the Knicks faced late in game one were 594-1 all time.

Thanks to Jalen Brunson, Landry Shamet, and Mikal Bridges, that record now stands at 594-2.