Jalen Brunson's 4Q points vs. DET in Round 1:
Game 1: 12 points
Game 2: 14 points
Game 3: 12 points
Game 4: 15 points
He is the FIRST player since '97-98 to score 12+ points in the 4Q of four straight playoff games.
Officials admit error on final shot in Knicks' win over Pistons.
DETROIT -- In a highly physical Game 4 between the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistons, in which seemingly so many contact-filled plays weren't resulting in fouls, officials acknowledged after the fact that one huge one was missed on the final play.With the Knicks leading by one, Detroit's Tim Hardaway Jr. drew contact from New York's Josh Hart as Hardaway went up for the potential winning shot with 0.3 seconds remaining. The 3-point attempt misfired, and the sold-out crowd awaited a foul call.
It never came, incensing the Pistons bench and fans. The Knicks, meanwhile, escaped with a 94-93 victory and a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven first-round series.
After the contest, crew chief David Guthrie told pool reporters that officials should have called a foul on Hart.
"During live play, it was judged that Josh Hart made a legal defensive play," Guthrie said. "After postgame review, we observed that Hart makes body contact that is more than marginal to Hardaway Jr., and a foul should have been called."
Had the foul been called, Hardaway would have gone to the foul line for three free throws that could have given Detroit the lead. Instead, the Knicks held on to win after rallying from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter and can close out the series at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday evening.
Guthrie's admission affirmed what Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff and the rest of the Pistons said after the game.
"There was contact on Tim Hardaway's jump shot. [Hart] left his feet," said Bickerstaff, who chased down officials on the court to plead his case as the Knicks celebrated the no-call.
Said Hardaway: "You all saw it. It was blatant."
Hart acknowledged bumping Hardaway on the play in question.
"Did I make contact with him? Yeah, I made contact with him," Hart said. "Was it legal? I don't know. We'll see in the Last Two Minute Report."
The NBA releases a review of all calls in the final two minutes of games decided by three points or fewer, with those reports issued the day after the game. But in this case, with a pool report requested, the NBA had Guthrie explain what happened.
The vast majority of Pistons fans stayed in their seats for minutes after the game ended. The outcome, however, was sealed, and the Knicks -- who rallied late on the strength of their two best players -- had won Game 4.
The way they got there, that final play aside, was an adventure.
After a fast start and a solid first half, New York looked in danger of losing early in the fourth. After a furious run by Cade Cunningham and the Pistons, who finally started connecting from deep, the Knicks trailed 84-74, and Jalen Brunson had just left the game because of an apparent ankle injury.
He initially crawled toward the Knicks bench before getting helped up by Karl-Anthony Towns. Almost immediately after, Brunson crumpled to the floor again. Once he was back up, he left the court to get checked out.
When he came back, Brunson, the NBA's Clutch Player of the Year, was excellent, scoring 15 points in 10 fourth-quarter minutes. He made four straight baskets for New York, keeping the Knicks afloat before Towns, a 7-foot center, got the team's final two scores -- a tough, high-arching shot from the right corner and a huge 3-pointer from 27 feet over Jalen Duren to give the Knicks the lead with 46.6 seconds remaining.
Home Is Where The Hurt Is
The New York Knicks, who can clinch their first-round series against the Detroit Pistons at home on Tuesday, have lost all four of their series-clinching opportunities at home since 2000.
| Year | Scenario | Res. | Opp. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1st Round G5 | ? | DET |
| 2024 | EC Semis G7 | L | IND |
| 2024 | 1st Round G5 | L | PHI |
| 2013 | 1st Round G5 | L | BOS |
| 2001 | 1st Round G5 | L | TOR |
Their efforts were just enough to outshine the brilliance of Cunningham, who logged 25 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. However, he missed two shots and turned the ball over in the final 1:07.
He's been playing great," Brunson said of Cunningham, who is playing in the first playoff series of his career. "Just the effect he has on his teammates. They follow their leader. He's been an incredible leader all year, and I respect him for that."
Cunningham had a chance to potentially win it for the Pistons. He fired a free throw line jumper over OG Anunoby with about eight seconds left that was slightly long, prompting a mad dash for the ball that eventually ended up in Hardaway's hands seconds later.
"What do you want me to say?" a smiling Towns said when asked about the officials' conclusion that a foul should have been called on Hardaway's final attempt. "We're going back to Madison Square Garden. We got a win."
Bucks' Damian Lillard has torn left Achilles tendon
Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard has been diagnosed with a torn left Achilles tendon, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania on Monday.He suffered the injury during the first quarter of Sunday night's 129-103 Game 4 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
Lillard was injured while trying to help secure an offensive rebound midway through the first quarter. After tapping the ball away from a Pacers player, Lillard fell to the ground and grabbed his left leg, remaining down for the next defensive possession.
He was helped to his feet during the next dead ball and needed assistance leaving the court while putting no weight on his left leg. He was escorted to the locker room, and the team ruled him out for the rest of the game.
Sources: Warriors expecting Jimmy Butler to play Game 4.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Golden State Warriors are expecting Jimmy Butler to make his return Monday night in Game 4 against the Houston Rockets, league sources told ESPN's Shams Charania.Butler participated in a light walkthrough at the team shootaround on Monday morning. The star forward is listed as questionable with a pelvic and deep gluteal muscle contusion injury. But he has been doing everything he can to return, including receiving treatment and working out on the court in the past 24 hours, sources told Charania.
Butler suffered the injury late in the first quarter of Game 2. With Butler limited to only eight minutes, the Warriors lost that game in Houston, 109-94. Without him on Saturday, Stephen Curry had 36 points, nine assists and seven rebounds to lead Golden State to a 104-93 Game 3 win.
"Hopefully he's back next game," Curry said of what he learned from his team without Butler on Saturday. "If he's not, we can still play at a high level and we can win a tough physical playoff game. I think we all know, we're trying to win 14 more of these. We need Jimmy to do that.
But if there's a situation where somebody is not available, next-man-up mentality, it's got to be a belief and a confidence. Two months ago [before trading for Butler], I don't know if we had that."
Golden State is up 2-1 in this best-of-7 series.
The Heat have quit. I don't think I've ever seen a team roll over like the 2025 Heat
They want to make their 10:00 dinner reservations, won't even have to shower
They have tee times Tuesday morning
They told their family not to watch
All their friends have bet on the Cavs
They want to make their 10:00 dinner reservations, won't even have to shower
They have tee times Tuesday morning
They told their family not to watch
All their friends have bet on the Cavs
Cavaliers cap off historic sweep with 55-point win over Heat.
MIAMI -- Up 39 points at halftime in a closeout playoff game, Donovan Mitchell had a message in the locker room for his teammates."We had to finish our breakfast," the Cleveland Cavaliers star guard said.
The Cavs also stole the Miami Heat's lunch money and whatever other bullying metaphors one could conjure.
Cleveland set a slew of records in its 138-83 Game 4 victory Monday night to finish off a 4-0 sweep in the Eastern Conference first-round series. The Cavs led by as many as 60 points before settling for a 55-point win, the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history. The combined 92 points Cleveland won by in Games 3 and 4 is the largest point differential in a two-game span in playoff history and, wait for it, the 122-point differential for the series also set a playoff record.
"I hope that players became better from it, but damn, it was humbling," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the worst loss in his 17 seasons. "This series was humbling."
The top-seeded Cavs were without All-Star point guard Darius Garland for a second consecutive game because of a sprained toe, but they also had six players score in double figures for the second straight contest. Ten Cavs made at least one 3-pointer and seven tallied at least two.
The Cavs registered 22 more 3-pointers than the Heat over the four games.
Cavaliers Cruise
The Cavaliers outscored the Heat by 122 points in the series, the largest point differential in a four-game sweep in NBA postseason history.
| Opponent | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| '25 1st round | Cavaliers | +122 | Heat |
| '10 conf. semis | Magic | +101 | Hawks |
| '19 1st round | Bucks | +95 | Pistons |
| '01 conf. finals | Lakers | +89 | Spurs |
It was the end of a brutal week for Heat All-Star guard Tyler Herro. The Cavs made attacking him on defense a primary part of their game plan, and in the two games in Miami, they relentlessly denied him the ball on offense.
Garland announced to reporters after Game 2 that the Cavs' focus was to "pick on Herro," which led to a minor war of words with Herro snapping back: "Somebody who doesn't play defense shouldn't be talking. ... He don't play any defense." Before Game 3, Herro told The Athletic he was missing former Miami star Jimmy Butler III, who derailed the Heat season when he demanded a trade in December.
By the time Butler left in a trade to the Golden State Warriors, he was not popular in many parts of the Miami locker room.
"Obviously, I know I need Jimmy to win," Herro said. "If we had Jimmy right now, I feel like it'd be a completely different situation."
In Monday's Game 4, Herro was 1-of-10 shooting and a team-worst minus-44 before Spoelstra pulled him from the game in the third quarter.
"Really no excuses for it," Herro said. "It's embarrassing."
The Cavs were motivated to end the series to earn extra rest with potential second-round opponent Indiana ahead 3-1 in its series with the Milwaukee Bucks. Last season, the Cavs jumped to a 2-0 series lead against the Orlando Magic before dropping Games 3 and 4 in Florida, leading to a tiring seven-game series that affected Cleveland in a second-round loss to the Boston Celtics.
"Last year, we only won one road [playoff] game. We've only won one road playoff game since I've been here until this year," said Mitchell, who led the Cavs with 22 points on Monday. "And for us just never being satisfied, it's really a test on ourselves. Understanding that, yeah, we were up 3-0, but this was our test against ourselves."
In the night's most poignant moment, Cavs center Tristan Thompson had a long embrace with former teammate Kevin Love before the game. Over the weekend, Love's father, Stan, a former NBA player, died at age 76 after a long illness. Love has been away from the team for most of the past month to be with his father.
Thompson and Love were teammates for six years in Cleveland and members of the 2016 NBA championship team. Thompson's mother, Andrea, died suddenly two years ago.
"I told him that he's got a guardian angel looking over him now," Thompson said. "He will always be my brother, and I just wanted to be there for him.
I was at the game on my dad in heavens 93rd birthday
scored handicap ticket alone in a vip area in 1st row. For only $90. That's God, did not bet game, just watched & enjoyed. Told bunch of Miami fans Herro would have 40+ pts & win game outright in Miami, boy was I wrong. Had a blast though, lots of hot women at games.thanks dad in heaven and thanks God!!!
