Jalen Brunson or OG Anunoby: Who Has the Stronger Case for NBA Finals MVP Among Knicks Stars?

If you needed more than 24 hours to come down from the high of that Game 4 finish on Wednesday, you're not alone. That was all-time stuff: a 29-point second-half comeback  by the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden that was close to registering on Richter scales to move within one win of the franchise's first NBA title since 1973.

There were heroes. Goats. It was a Shakespearean tragedy unfolding in real time. If you went to bed, shame on you. If you stayed for the end, you know that OG Anunoby made two of the biggest plays of his life  with a block on De'Aaron Fox on one end and the game-winning tip on the other to stun the San Antonio Spurs , 107-106, in the largest comeback in NBA Finals history.

That wasn't all Anunoby did in Game 4, or in this series overall. Does he have a case for Finals MVP? Absolutely. Will he win it? That's a matter of debate, and it's a tight one.

OG Anunoby becomes Knicks legend as iconic game-winner pushes New York to brink of first NBA title in 53 years Adam Silverstein

If the Spurs find a way to extend this series with a win in Game 5 on Saturday, we'll talk about Victor Wembanyama or maybe even Dylan Harper (who's been superb). But until then, with all due respect to Karl-Anthony Towns and his series-best plus-48 point differential, it's currently a two-man MVP race between Anunoby and Jalen Brunson .

Let's make the best case for each of them based on the evidence we've seen so far, and then reach a verdict.

The MVP case for OG Anunoby

Anunoby started this series as a +3500 underdog for Finals MVP. After Game 4, he's down to +230 at FanDuel , second in line only to Brunson's -115, and he's constructing his case straight off the 2015 Andre Iguodala blueprint.

Full disclosure: I do not think Iguodala should have won that 2015 Finals MVP. That was Stephen Curry's award. The reason Iguodala won was that he played above his expected level and Curry, at least from an efficiency standpoint, played below his. But as a general rule, I would always err on the side of the player that is getting the most defensive attention and that was clearly Curry.

By that logic, Brunson should probably be the leader in this series, his inefficiency notwithstanding. And if that's how you see it, I won't argue with you. To me, it's a coin toss. But Anunoby's case is not a matter of romance for the unsung hero. This dude has been an actual walkin', talkin' hero -- not just for his signature block and tip-in to win Game 4, but over the entire series.

> OG'S TWO-WAY IMPACT 🔥 ▪ Clutch block on one end trailing by 1 ▪ Game-winning putback on the other end What a night for OG Anunoby in New York's historic Game 4 comeback win! https://t.co/IcOqBvwmnP pic.twitter.com/7GUQxAuy9P — NBA (@NBA) June 12, 2026

Keep in mind, Iguodala won MVP in that 2015 series after averaging 16.3 points per game on 52% shooting. He shot 40% from 3 and 35% (yikes!) from the free-throw line. Anunoby, a very comparable defender to Iguodala, is blowing those scoring numbers out of the water.

Through four games, he's averaging 23.8 points on 58% shooting, including a scorching 56% form 3 and 92% from the free-throw line. And for all the talk about Brunson's clutch play, Anunoby has had, by far, the greater clutch impact according to Inpredictable's CWPA metric, which factors not just clutch scoring but rebounding, steals, blocks, turnovers and assists.

> Clutch Win Probability Added leaderboard for the 1st four games of the 2026 NBA Finals. This counts all potential clutch plays - field goals, free throws, rebounds, turnovers, steals, blocks, and assists. pic.twitter.com/TZtnAXR7fE — Mike Beuoy (@inpredict) June 11, 2026

That metric makes a lot of sense when you consider this breakdown  from CBS Sports' Adam Silverstein , who was at Madison Square Garden for Game 4:

> On Wednesday night, when the Knicks needed [Anunoby] the most, he was nearly flawless, draining 7 of 9 treys and the game-winning field goal. Over the final 23:04, he was flawless, going 8 of 8 from the field and 5 of 5 from downtown with the block of Fox and game-winning tip both occurring in a span of 9.9 seconds to close out the game. Anunoby is the first player with a block or steal and a game-winning shot in the final 24 seconds of an NBA Finals game since Michael Jordan did it for the Bulls in 1998. He became just the second player in the last 30 NBA Finals to hit five or more triples without a miss in the second half; the other, Jae Crowder , did it in a 20-point loss for the Suns in 2021.

While it's true that Anunoby is being defended as more of a secondary scorer while Brunson and Towns get the primary attention, he's not putting up anything close to secondary-scorer numbers. So far, the Knicks are scoring 1.4 points per Anunoby shot attempt in this series,  per the All NBA podcast , which is off the charts. He put up 17 points in each of the first two games and is averaging 30.5 points over the last two. He's made 10 of his last 16 3-pointers and 19 of his last 29 shots overall.

You can go as deep into the numbers or the film as your analytical or purist basketball heart desires, and you will only find more evidence of Anunoby's brilliance. Throw in the signature moments of this series with the block on Fox and the tip-in winner, and how much stronger can a case be? This is meant as no disrespect to Iguodala's 2015 Finals, but if his performance was worthy of MVP, this is an entirely different level of production from Anunoby under relatively similar offensive conditions and against a vastly superior defensive team.

The MVP case for Jalen Brunson

FanDuel odds have Brunson as the -115 favorite. To me, that's factoring in some projection. If he has a huge game to carry the Knicks to a closeout victory, his already strong case on pure production will get the added boost of sentiment. Brunson is basically a New York superhero at this point.

But let's remove emotion from the equation and look solely at the evidence. Brunson has been largely inefficient in this series. We all saw the numbers going around heading into Game 4: the 82 points on 81 shots (37%), the minus-13 point differential, the dismal 1-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio (13 of each).

The 16 moments that defined the Knicks' historic Game 4 comeback, one of the best in sports history Sam Quinn

We also saw Brunson take over Game 1 with 13 of his 30 points on 5-for-9 shooting in the fourth quarter. In Game 2, he hit the tying shot with under 40 seconds to play and the winning free-throw after collecting his fifth steal of the night.

After missing his first four shots to start Game 4, Brunson made six of eight shots from the 8:23 mark of the third quarter to the 1:22 mark of the fourth quarter. Over that span, New York turned a 23-point deficit into a one-point lead.

> Jalen Brunson 36 PTS, 5 REB, 7 AST, 3 STL, 12/25 FG, 3/7 3FG, 9/11 FT, 60.3% TS vs. Spurs https://t.co/Z0xwG2NKaV pic.twitter.com/nJ3CoKBRpx — Basketball Performances (@NBAPerformances) June 11, 2026

This is the case for Brunson, who has played his best in the biggest stretches of this series. And listen, the guy is averaging just under 30 points per game with five assists and five rebounds, so even on pure counting stats, he has been huge, even if you account for the lack of efficiency.

While Anonoby has gotten spot-up shots and opportunities to attack closeouts, Brunson has had to work like a rented mule to put these numbers up, fighting through incessant full-court pressure from some of the best and most physical perimeter defenders in the world with a human skyscraper, the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama, standing guard behind them.

One of the big talking points before the Game 4 comeback was how the Knicks were falling back into their bad habits , which meant Brunson was dribbling the air out of the ball while the ball and player movement decreased significantly. It's sort of true. Through three games, he took 44 shots after at least six seconds of possession time -- an eternity in the NBA.

But who else on the Knicks is going to successfully get the ball up the court under this kind of pressure? Who else is going to create primary leverage off the dribble to get the Spurs into rotation in the first place? Anunoby wouldn't have had a free run to the rim for that game-winning tip if Wembanyama were down there, but he wasn't because he was 30 feet from the basket trying to defend Brunson.

Wembanyama was successful in that regard. Brunson front-rimmed a 30-footer that he had to shoot over an eight-foot wingspan. But he had two guys on him, Wembanyama and Fox, leaving one of his teammates free. Anunoby . That's what superstars do, and it's why, when determining an MVP, you have to take into account the relative difficulty of everyone's job. On offense, nobody's job has been harder than Brunson's in this series, and he's still been huge in huge moments while averaging almost 30.

The verdict

Right now, I would go with Anunoby. One, he's having to be great on both ends of the floor while Brunson, who has been brought into more actions over the last two games, is simply trying to limit his liabilities. But more than that, it's the offense. The efficiency. If Anunoby were averaging the same 16 points that Iguodala did in 2015, I'd be saying Brunson in a landslide. But averaging 24 points with Curry levels of efficiency with the defining moment of the series in his pocket, it's Anunoby for me.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-finals-mvp-jalen-brunson-og-anunoby-knicks-spurs/)._