Following a furious comeback against the San Antonio Spurs, the New York Knicks are just one win away from their first championship in 53 years. While the whole world is talking about OG Anunoby’s heroics in the final seconds, it was an otherwise unsung hero who set the stage for the comeback in the first place.
Jose Alvarado averaged less than nine minutes on the court in the first 16 playoff games with the New York Knicks—often during garbage time, i.e., those minutes when the games were effectively already decided. Little changed in the first half of Game 4 of the Finals series. The Puerto Rican had logged three minutes of playing time when his team headed into the locker room with a disastrous halftime score of 49-76.
In the first two quarters, however, something had happened that would play into Alvarado’s hands. The Knicks struggled to find an answer against Spurs star Victor Wembanyama for a long time. He drew two quick fouls on opposing center Karl-Anthony Towns. His replacement, Mitchell Robinson, was completely overwhelmed on both ends of the court. The same likely applied to Knicks coach Mike Brown, who eventually gave Ariel Hukporti his first minutes in the Finals. But: That didn’t work either!
In the locker room, Brown then made a momentous change: Instead of Mikal Bridges, who once again delivered a no-show, he put his trust in Alvarado. The idea: Defensively, the guard could cause trouble for Wembanyama despite the massive 41-centimeter height difference. On offense, he would also take some pressure off point guard Jalen Brunson, who had already kept the Knicks’ otherwise nonexistent offense alive in the second quarter.
Knicks coach Brown: “He punishes you if you leave him open”
The plan worked. Alvarado constantly hounded Wembanyama, thereby at least preventing him from getting open. However, he provided particular value on offense. “Jose was incredible today,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said euphorically afterward: “He changed the game with his pace and his ability to get into the paint.”
In fact, Alvarado, who was signed last summer for a mere $4.5 million, was the major catalyst for the Knicks’ possessions. “He’s worked hard on his shot and punishes you if you leave him open. But if you defend him too closely, he’s quick enough to get past you and find his teammates.”
Teammate Towns, who joined the press conference alongside his point guard, also had—almost—nothing but warm words for him: “As a Dominican, it’s hard for me to speak so highly of a Puerto Rican,” he joked, before adding in all seriousness: “Players who let their emotions get the better of them often lose themselves in them. Jose, on the other hand, is driven by those emotions; they lift him to the next level.“
Alvarado: ”I can hardly put it into words”
So it was no wonder that Alvarado played nearly the entire final quarter and was on the court the whole time during crunch time. “I don’t want to sugarcoat anything: I almost cried,” Alvarado replied when asked what it meant to him to make a decisive contribution to the success of his hometown team (as a native New Yorker). “I’m at Madison Square Garden, at the end of the fourth quarter, and I have the chance to achieve something special with these guys,” he said, visibly composed. “I was just overwhelmed. It’s really something I can hardly put into words.”
Alvarado’s impact was ultimately evident not only in his teammates’ kind words or his invitation to the press conference, but also in the statistics. With him on the court, the Knicks outscored the Spurs by 17 points in the final twelve minutes. Alvarado made all three of his shots, including a crucial three-pointer with about three minutes left in the game, which not only countered two earlier points by Wembanyama but also brought his Knicks within four points.
Alvarado thus emerged as the unsung hero of a victory that brings New York’s first championship in more than half a century within reach. But he didn’t want to rest on his laurels just yet: “We can be really happy now and enjoy it. But we still have one more win ahead of us.”
