'We were attacking Harden': Knicks, Brunson go after Cavs veteran to key their improbable comeback

NEW YORK (AP) — James Harden could not stop Jalen Brunson down the stretch and did not have enough offensively to make up for it.

The Cleveland Cavaliers blew a 22-point lead to lose Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals to the New York Knicks in overtime on Tuesday night, and Harden's struggles at each end of the court played a big part in the collapse.

Brunson scored on several possessions in a row off the dribble with Harden guarding him. Brunson had 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the fourth quarter alone.

“He made some tough ones, but we obviously all know he’s a great 1-on-1 player,” Harden said. “Anybody on an island, it’s going to be difficult, so we’ve got to do a better job of making sure he sees bodies. On the other hand, they do a good job at supporting him and helping him when he’s on an island. He made some tough ones, but we’ve got to do a better job as a team.”

Knicks coach Mike Brown put the ball in Brunson’s hands and trusted his point guard to exploit the matchup against Harden.

“There is no secret: We were attacking Harden,” Brown said. “Sometimes you’ve got to do what the game dictates, and they were trying to do the same thing with Jalen, so we said, ‘OK, we feel like we can play that game.’ We try not to play that game much, but we feel like we have a guy that we can play that game with in Jalen.”

Brunson only had 14 points at halftime, and Cleveland's defense switching defenders on him paid dividends until he got 1-on-1 with Harden to spark the comeback.

“Jalen was a little bit more aggressive,” Harden said. “We just allowed him to be aggressive, and he made shots and he continued to make shots.”

Coach Kenny Atkinson said he and his staff made adjustments, but nothing worked.

“We started sending two at him, getting the ball out of his hands, full rotating,” Atkinson said. “James was good most of the game. Listen, we weren’t great defensively in the fourth quarter.”

Playing 48 hours after blowing out Detroit in Game 7 of the second round, Atkinson said he never considered taking Harden off the court defensively.

“Listen, he’s been one of our best defenders and a big player in the playoffs,” Atkinson said. “I trust him. He’s smart, great hands.”

Trading for Harden, an 11-time All-Star, in February helped propel the Cavaliers to this point. But the 36-year-old struggled Tuesday night with the ball in his hands, too.

Harden shot 5 of 16 from the floor, including 1 of 8 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over six times.

Donovan Mitchell, who led Cleveland with 29 points, said he and his teammates could have done a lot more collectively to slow down Brunson and did not put the blame for the improbable defeat on Harden’s shoulders.

“Ultimately, this isn’t on him — it’s on all of us,” Mitchell said. “It’s not just on one person. He’s been around the league long enough. He understands that.”

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New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) shoots past Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden (1) during the first half of Game 1 in the Eastern Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Cleveland Cavaliers' James Harden, bottom left, fouls New York Knicks' Og Anunoby during the overtime period of Game 1 in the Eastern Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Knicks' Mikal Bridges, left, covers Cleveland Cavaliers' James Harden during the overtime period of Game 1 in the Eastern Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Knicks' Jalen Brunson, bottom, drives past Cleveland Cavaliers' James Harden during the second half of Game 1 in the Eastern Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden (1) reacts after giving a foul to New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges (25) during the second half of Game 1 in the Eastern Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

NAMISINDWA, Uganda (AP) — The farmers who paid David Nabutsilili money to summon rain were angry when they received so much of it that their vegetable gardens were left flooded. They chased him up and down the hills, stopping when he fell upon a rock and broke a femur. That was his punishment.

Sixteen years later, the rainmaker still feels pain in his leg. Many of those who pursued him regularly seek his spiritual help when they need rain, especially during the planting season, but also when they seek to block it. If he fails to meet their expectations, he must temporarily flee his home for his own safety, Nabutsilili told The Associated Press during an interview in his village in eastern Uganda.

“People beat us because sometimes the rain is too much, or there is no rain,” he said.

African rainmakers have long served as spiritual leaders in their communities, performing rituals to ask deities to bring rain. But their perceived successes can create enormous expectations among farming communities in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Now they are increasingly targeted for their presumed failure to perform amid the vexations of climate change. In the most extreme cases, they are killed by mobs.

“We have been with these people, and indeed sometimes they have done (rituals) and we have had rain,” said Joseph Weyusya, an elder with Inzu ya Masaaba, a traditional institution of the Bagisu people of eastern Uganda.

But sometimes the weather is uncooperative.

“When the rains refuse, people gather around the village and then start looking for them — ‘Why are we not having rain?’" Weyusya said. ”And most times they have beaten such people to almost near death.”

In South Sudan, which neighbors Uganda to the north, at least two rainmakers have been killed in the past two years. In 2024, Solomon Oture was buried alive in the remote mountain village of Lohobohobo during a dry spell. In June, in a southeastern area facing a prolonged dry spell, men abducted a rainmaker named Albino Lobillia and buried him alive, according to witnesses.

“There was no food, and animals began dying in large numbers because of the drought,” said Madelina Tito, a relative of Lobillia and a local chief. “They held meetings and decided he should be killed because, according to them, he had refused to command the rain.”

A study last year in the International Journal of Environment and Climate Change found that the average annual number of rainy days in the Kapoeta region, which borders Lobillia’s home area, had fallen from 90 in the 1980s to 46 by the mid-2010s, the most recent period for which figures were available. When rain does come, it is often sudden and intense.

“Communities in the most flood-prone areas have spent the last few years alternating between losing crops to floods and losing them to drought,” said Joris Gasper, a researcher for REACH Initiative, a humanitarian group active in South Sudan.

Unsurprisingly, many farmers blame rainmakers for their misfortune. In Uganda, as in South Sudan, millions depend on subsistence agriculture to feed their families. Erratic weather can destroy livelihoods, putting rainmakers on the spot over their perceived inability to do their work.

“It’s becoming worse and worse,” said Matthew Oromo, a government official in Lobillia’s home area, speaking of violence against rainmakers. “People are not aware of what is happening. They don’t understand this issue of climate change.”

Although no Ugandan rainmakers have been killed, some have been assaulted and even reported to authorities for allegedly obtaining money under false pretenses.

Nabutsilili, 45, said he was possessed by the rainmaking spirit as a 14-year-old boy when his legs mysteriously developed wounds. His first task came from cabbage transporters who put him atop their truck and asked him to keep the rain away. It did not rain on them, and he went on to become his village’s most reliable rainmaker even as erratic weather patterns occasionally confounded him and those he serves.

If things don’t work out, he said, that is what God wishes. “In life there are always things that fail,” he said of rainmaking. “It doesn’t stop (us) from trying again.”

Rainmakers in Uganda can be consulted in their homes, or in the bars where they go to drink. Those who need their services are required to pay a fee, which can range from a token as small as $13 to an amount as high as $260, which is what Nabutsilili was paid to block the rain the day President Yoweri Museveni came to the region last year to campaign for reelection. It didn’t rain that day.

The quid pro quo is said to contribute to violence targeting rainmakers when they refuse to refund the money after perceived failures. Unlike Christian priests and medicine men, who generally command respect, rainmakers are sometimes seen as malicious people who retaliate against whole communities for quarrels with their neighbors.

“Sometimes when you have grown your crops, like this season, and there is no rain and you give them money to bring rain, they bring rain that destroys our crops,” said farmer Paul Boyi.

Some in Namatsokha, Nabutsilili’s village, recalled a recent incident when work at a construction site was frustrated by persistent rain only at the scene. The rain reportedly stopped after several rainmakers were paid, fueling suspicions that they had caused it deliberately.

Nabutsilili, who walks barefoot wherever he goes, is widely seen as spiritually strong enough to summon the rain without even going to the waterfall where others perform rituals. Many said his authority was not in doubt.

Yet he was accused of failing to do his work as recently as November, detained in a neighboring village over rainfall that disrupted an important ceremony. “They said bring back the money, because you have failed to deliver,” said witness Isaac Watenga. Other punishments include forcing a rainmaker to drink the muddy runoff after it rains.

There are at least four rainmakers in Namatsokha, sometimes leading to rivalries that can only be contained when they unite in associations. As this is not always possible, there can be competition among rainmakers trying to discredit each other, said 30-year-old Kilindon Simiyu, another of the village's rainmakers.

“You can give me money to stop the rain. Then my colleague finds out that they have given me money to stop the rain and the colleague brings rain,” he said.

One recent morning, Simiyu and Nabutsilili descended into the depths of a waterfall and appeared to pray as they chewed on some herbs. Namatsokha had not received rain for many weeks, and many locals described the spell as one of the driest they had known. Some seemed skeptical as the men performed the rainmaking ritual.

“We are having difficulties because, sometimes when it is supposed to rain, it doesn’t rain,” Simiyu said afterward. “So we use our powers to try and bring it, but it doesn’t come as it used to come in those days.”

Falzetta reported from Nairobi, Kenya.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

A view of the village of Lohobohobo, in South Sudan, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Joseph Falzetta)

A rainmaker from a village in the Lopit Mountains shows sacred stones used in rainmaking rituals, South Sudan, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Joseph Falzetta)

Young men and boys who fled drought in South Sudan sit alongside a chief in Torit, the capital of Eastern Equatoria state, South Sudan, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Juma Peter)

A view of the village of Lohobohobo, in South Sudan, Friday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Joseph Falzetta)

In this photo taken with a smartphone, David Nabutsilili, a rainmaker, poses for a photo in Namisindwa, Uganda, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodney Muhumuza)