Jalen Brunson Wins Finals MVP With 45 Points as Knicks Seal 1st Title in 53 Years

Q: How much did De'Aaron Fox's hidden injury contribute to the Spurs' historic 29-point Finals collapse against the Knicks?

De’Aaron Fox’s injury appears to have been a contributing factor, but not the main explanation for San Antonio’s 29-point collapse. The strongest evidence is that Fox was playing through a high right ankle sprain, and reporting around Game 4 said it had reduced some of his usual burst. That matters because one of the defining late plays came when Fox tried to attack in transition instead of bleeding clock, saying afterward he thought he could outrun OG Anunoby. He could not, and the play became one of the game’s turning points. If the ankle cost him even a fraction of his speed, it likely affected that moment and some of his overall effectiveness. But the broader game points to a team-wide breakdown more than a single-injury explanation. Fox and Stephon Castle combined to shoot 4-of-25, the Spurs’ offense was widely described as disjointed and mistake-prone, and Fox also had costly turnovers and poor late-game decisions that were not clearly injury-related. Victor Wembanyama, while productive on the glass and defensively, also had an inefficient scoring night by his standards, and New York’s scheme—especially the way Karl-Anthony Towns pulled him away from the rim—helped wear San Antonio down. So the injury likely mattered in a narrow but real way, especially in Fox’s lost explosiveness and one crucial endgame sequence. Still, the collapse was driven more by collective offensive failure, bad execution under pressure, and Brunson’s takeover than by Fox’s ankle alone.

3 articles · Updated · ESPN · Jun 14

45 points from Jalen Brunson powered New York to a 94-90 Game 5 win over San Antonio, clinching the NBA title and the guard's Finals MVP award.
That outburst delivered nearly half the Knicks' scoring and capped their first championship run since 1973, ending a 53-year drought.
Brunson joined Michael Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bob Pettit as the only players to score at least 45 points in a title-clinching Finals game.
The Knicks closed the series 4-1, with Brunson saying the title fulfilled the dream that drove his move to New York.