With the Knicks down 17 points early in the fourth quarter on Thursday afternoon against the Cleveland Cavaliers, it looked like fans were going to leave the Garden without a Christmas Day win.
That was until New York mounted their largest comeback of the season, finding a way to beat the Cavs, 126-124, and deliver the best present of the day.
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Leading the comeback as per usual was Jalen Brunson, who finished with a team-high 34 points in the win, but he didn’t do it alone. Jordan Clarkson scored a season-high 25 points off the bench, making five three-pointers, Mitchell Robinson grabbed what felt like every offensive rebound (eight of his 13 boards), and Tyler Kolek scored 11 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter to help pull off the victory.
When asked about his mindset coming off the bench and how he can make a difference, Kolek shared something that a former teammate taught him last season.
“Change the game,” Kolek said. “That’s what I always say. Cam Payne actually taught me that last year whenever we won a game. You got to change the game, you got to do something different to make the game flow differently.”
Kolek did exactly that in the fourth quarter, making three clutch three-pointers and getting a block on Donovan Mitchell to swing the momentum New York’s way. The play was initially called a foul, but the second-year guard was confident he blocked it and the call was eventually overturned.
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“We always talk about next play speed,” Kolek said. “I saw him running, and honestly if he ran and just did a regular layup, I wouldn’t have caught up to him. But he wanted to do some windmill s–t. He slowed down, he was trying to do something crazy.”
After the block, Kolek assisted Mikal Bridges to put the Knicks up 118-117 with 1:29 left in the game. Darius Garland put Cleveland back up briefly before Brunson scored to give New York the lead for good.
Kolek was rewarded for his stellar play by getting his name chanted by the MSG crowd, saying he’s “grateful” for the moments like that.
“It’s fun, man,” Kolek said. “Playing at The Garden on Christmas, it doesn’t get much better than that. I’m grateful for the fans that come out and support us every night.”
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