Jose Alvarado made sure Knicks' Game 4 rally wouldn't fizzle out
Knicks' Jose Alvarado reacts after his three-point basket against the San Antonio Spurs during the fourth quarter in Game 4 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Getty Images/Al Bello
Down by a shocking 27 points at halftime and with coach Mike Brown choosing not to bother showing any film, deciding to leave his team to talk things over among themselves, a few Knicks players said a few words at intermission. One of those was backup point guard Jose Alvarado.
“Basically, I went in there at halftime and said, regardless of the outcome, these next 24 minutes, we better bring it and show them how we really play basketball. And that’s what we did,’’ Alvarado recalled after OG Anunoby’s crazy tip-in delivered a stunning 107-106 comeback victory late Wednesday night to put the Knicks one win away from their first NBA championship in 53 years.
This was the most insane of all the improbable comeback wins the Knicks have had in these playoffs, coming after they fell behind by as many as 29 points in the second and third quarters against the Spurs and their “Alien,’’ Victor Wembanyama. And Alvarado played a major part in it.
Brown, searching for something — anything — to turn things around when the Knicks trailed by 15 to start the fourth quarter, decided to put Alvarado in with 9:46 remaining. The 28-year-old from Brooklyn came through, hitting all three shots he took in the quarter, scoring eight points and dishing out three assists.
“I know a lot of you guys can’t because you’re in the media, and you’ve got to be neutral, but I’m going to [expletive] clap for Jose. Sorry, Mom,’’ Brown said, clapping his hands to emphasize his point, in his opening postgame remarks.
“Jose was unbelievable tonight. He changed the game. His speed, his ability to touch the paint . . . If you don’t close out on Jose, as hard as he works on his shot, he’s going to make you pay. If you close out to him, he’s quick enough to go by you, and he made some great basketball plays offensively tonight, and then he was great defensively.’’
Karl-Anthony Towns joked, “It’s tough for me to be a Dominican talking about a Puerto Rican like this, but man, when you talk about somebody who not only lives up to the moment but plays with his emotion and utilizes that to his advantage, that’s a rare quality.
“You know, a lot of times, you play with a lot of people and they play with emotion, but it gets the better of them. For Jose, that emotion is what drives him and makes him take it to another level. He’s a special player . . . He has so much to his basketball game that people don’t give credit to, and I’m glad, on this stage, on a night like this, he was able to show the world what he can do when he’s given a chance.’’
Before the fourth quarter, the most conspicuous thing Alvarado did happened in the first quarter, when he fell down while trying to box out Wembanyama on a rebound, turned around and wrapped his arms around the 7-4 Frenchman, dropping him to the court like a wrestler executing a single-leg takedown.
But in the fourth quarter, with the Knicks down 93-75, Brown sent Alvarado in “just to mix it up.’’
“Jose has been good in the pick-and-roll,’’ Brown said. “And if Jalen [Brunson] wanted to get off the ball for a few possessions, Jose could handle it, and he could touch the paint and make the game easier for others. If Jalen was on the ball and the ball got sprayed and it found Jose, Jose can then touch the paint with his speed.
“So that’s all I was trying to do, see if we can touch the paint a little bit more with the two guards out there while the floor was spaced the right way. See if we can get some easy looks, especially from the three-point line, while trying to play faster.’’
When Alvarado came in, Wembanyama immediately scored on a tip-in to push San Antonio’s lead back up to 20, but Alvarado hit a three-pointer with 9:16 left to cut the deficit to 17. That started a 20-4 run that got the Knicks within 99-95. After De’Aaron Fox hit a three-pointer to put San Antonio up 102-95 with 4:11 left, Alvarado answered with a driving layup. Wembanyama’s jumper put the Spurs up seven, but Alvarado hit another three to cut the gap to four again with 3:07 left.
With Alvarado in, the Knicks wouldn’t go away. Not until they finished the comeback.
“Just to be part of the journey is amazing,’’ he said. “I appreciate Coach and everybody giving me my flowers, but this is what I worked hard for, to be in moments like this and shine with it. So I’m glad it went our way today, and I’ll definitely remember this for the rest of my life.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
