Knicks take Game 1, Brunson 35

The Knicks didn’t just win Game 1 — they flattened Philadelphia 137-98 on Monday night, and Jalen Brunson was the reason the whole thing tilted so fast. He scored 35 points, including 27 in the first half, and New York walked into the second round looking like a team that never really came down from the end of the first series. The bigger story is the shape of the win. This wasn’t late-game execution or one hot quarter. It was a full demolition that had the Garden crowd coasting by halftime. ### Why did this feel over so early? Because New York grabbed control in the first quarter and never gave it back. The Knicks ripped off a 15-4 run late in the opening period, built a 23-point halftime lead, and then came out of the break with six straight scores to kill off any thought of a Sixers push. That’s the part that matters — Philadelphia didn’t lose a close one. Philadelphia got run off the floor before the game ever reached crunch time. ### What did Brunson actually do? He was brutally efficient. Brunson finished with 35 on 12-for-18 shooting and only needed 31 minutes to get there. That’s the scary version of him for opponents — not the 40-shot survival mode, but the version where he gets wherever he wants, bends the defense, and sits early because the score is already out of hand. The half-ending 3 only underlined it. He had 27 by intermission, and from there the game was basically being played on New York’s terms. ### Was this only Brunson? No — and that’s what makes the result more interesting than a simple star-goes-off night. OG Anunoby gave New York efficient secondary scoring, and the Knicks kept getting clean offense from multiple spots. When Brunson is cooking and the supporting pieces are finishing quickly instead of hesitating, New York gets hard to guard in a hurry. The Sixers couldn’t load up on one option because the ball kept finding the next guy in rhythm. ### Why does the margin matter so much? Because 39 points in the second round is not normal. ESPN noted that over the Knicks’ last three playoff games, their combined margin is 119 points — the biggest point-per-game differential over a three-game postseason span in NBA history. That doesn’t guarantee anything for the rest of the series, but it does tell you this isn’t just one random hot night. New York is carrying real force from round to round. ### What went wrong for Philadelphia? The simple version is that the Sixers never handled New York’s pace or physicality. They hung around for about seven minutes, then the game got away from them. Once the Knicks started turning stops into quick scores, Philadelphia spent the rest of the night reacting. And when a Brunson-led team is playing downhill instead of grinding, the math gets ugly fast. ### Does one blowout change the series? Not by itself. Game 1s can lie. But this one says something useful anyway — the Knicks look organized, fresh, and completely comfortable in this matchup right now. They had time off after closing out Atlanta, and instead of looking rusty, they looked sharper. That matters because playoff series usually tighten as they go. New York just started from a place of control. ### What comes next? Game 2 is set for Wednesday, May 6, with the NBA’s official playoff schedule carrying the series forward from New York. That’s now the pressure point for Philadelphia. Lose again, and the conversation shifts from “rough opener” to “series emergency.” Win, and Game 1 starts to look more like a punch than a pattern. The bottom line is simple — Brunson’s 35 points were the headline, but the real message was how easy New York made a second-round game look. That’s the part Philadelphia has to solve fast.