The 53-Year Drought is Over! Jalen Brunson’s Historic 45-Point Masterpiece Crowns New York Knicks as NBA Champions
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
New York NY, The New York Knicks are officially back on top of the basketball world. For the first time since 1973, the Knicks are NBA Champions. New York clinched the historic title with a thrilling 94-90 comeback victory over Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals.
At the center of this legendary run was Jalen Brunson, who put together a career-defining closeout performance to silence the critics, secure the Larry O’Brien trophy, and rightfully claim the Finals MVP award.
Inside Jalen Brunson’s Historic Game 5 Masterpiece
After facing a suffocating, physical perimeter defense from San Antonio early in the series, Brunson completely flipped the script when it mattered most. Carrying a struggling offense on his back, Brunson exploded for a Knicks Finals-record 45 points.
The sheer gravity of his performance is underscored by how much he outpaced his own team and matched the legendary greats of NBA history:
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The Jordan Threshold: Brunson’s 45 points tie him with Michael Jordan (1998) for the third-most points scored in an NBA Finals closeout game. Only Giannis Antetokounmpo (50) and Bob Pettit (50) have scored more.
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Putting New York on His Back: While Brunson shot a blistering 14-for-27 (51.9%) from the floor, the rest of the Knicks roster struggled, shooting a combined 17-for-60 (28.3%).
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The Ice-Cold Clutch Bucket: With just 65 seconds remaining on the clock, Brunson floated in the go-ahead bucket to seal the win. He scored 15 of his 45 points entirely in the 4th quarter, nearly outscoring the entire Spurs team (18 points) by himself.
“I got no words,” an emotional Brunson told the ABC broadcast after the final buzzer. “Whenever someone counted us out, we found a way to come back and do something about it.”
Statistically the Greatest Playoff Run in Modern NBA History?
While the ending was cinematic, the metrics prove that the 2026 New York Knicks just put together one of the most dominant postseason campaigns ever witnessed.
After dropping two early games to the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, New York went on an unbelievable 15-1 tear to close out the postseason. Their 16-3 overall playoff record is tied for the second-fewest losses by a champion since the league expanded to a best-of-seven format across all rounds in 2003.
How the 2026 Knicks Dominated Advanced Analytics:
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Historical Net Rating: The Knicks finished the playoffs with a staggering +15.4 net rating (119.9 offensive / 104.5 defensive). Since the NBA began tracking play-by-play data in 1997, no champion has ever recorded a higher postseason net rating, beating out the 2001 Lakers (+13.4) and the 2017 Warriors (+12.9).
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Road Warriors: New York went 9-1 on the road, tying the 1995 Houston Rockets for the most away wins by a champion in a single postseason.
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Blowout Dominance: The run featured one 51-point win, four 30-point wins, and 12 double-digit victories. Their three losses all postseason were by a combined total of just six points.
Erasing Five Decades of Heartbreak
This victory officially ends the longest active championship drought gap in NBA history. For 53 years, generations of New York fans suffered through playoff absences, heartbreak in the 1994 and 1999 Finals, and decades of rebuilding.
By winning his first title in New York, Jalen Brunson joins Hall of Famer Willis Reed (1970, 1973) as the only players in franchise history to win Finals MVP honors.
The city that never sleeps finally has a reason to throw the ultimate parade.
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The last time I watched an NBA game Patrick Ewing was on the Knicks.