Jose Alvarado is the unsung hero from Knicks’ miraculous Game 1 comeback

How did the Knicks come back from down 22 to stun the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1?

To the naked eye, it looked like Jalen Brunson’s fiery third-quarter speech — caught, of course, by Daily News cameras — lit the spark. Brunson barked at his teammates with roughly seven minutes left in the third quarter and the clip quickly spread across social media after the Knicks completed one of the wildest playoff comebacks in franchise history.

But Brunson’s speech came when the Knicks trailed by nine. They still fell behind by 14 entering the fourth quarter and by as many as 22 early in the final frame.

That’s when Jose Alvarado stepped in.

Several players inside the Knicks locker room credited Alvarado’s fourth-quarter speech — not Brunson’s viral moment — as the turning point in the comeback, an extension of the veteran guard’s growing role as an emotional leader and de facto assistant coach off the bench.

Brunson finished with 38 points and authored the kind of takeover performance superstars are remembered for. But teammates said Alvarado changed the energy in the huddle before the rally ever began.

“Honestly I’ve gotta shoutout Jose,” Miles McBride said after the Game 1 victory. “Jose was just on us the whole game, talking to everybody, keeping us engaged, giving it up for everybody out there, but [when we were down big], he mainly talked to most of the starters and got them going.”

Teams entered Tuesday night 594-1 when leading by 22 points in the fourth quarter of a playoff game and 643-0 when leading by at least 20 in the final period.

Until the Knicks pulled off the impossible. Or at least the improbable.

And they can thank Alvarado — the Brooklyn native who played high school basketball in Queens — for helping breathe life into a team staring down an eerily familiar disastrous start to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Knicks acquired Alvarado ahead of the Feb. 5 trade deadline as part of the multi-team sequence that sent Guerschon Yabusele to Chicago and rerouted Dalen Terry to New Orleans. His minutes have fluctuated on a loaded Knicks roster ever since. Alvarado averaged 17 minutes per game under Mike Brown after the trade, but his playoff role has been cut nearly in half.

The reduced role hasn’t shrunk his voice.

“Jose was big-time for us even when he wasn’t in, even for guys that weren’t in and might not get in, just [keeping them] engaged the whole time. That helps,” McBride continued. “Talking to a guy that might get back cut. Talking to starters, keeping them positive, keeping them engaged when things aren’t going their way. He was huge for us.”

Brown didn’t fully realize the extent of Alvarado’s impact until rewatching the film Wednesday morning. During games, Brown’s attention stays glued to the court. But assistant coaches pointed it out immediately, and the tape backed it up.

“I hear it from my coaches how good Jose is, and when I go back and watch the game, he’s into it. He’s cheering. He’s trying to help coach,” Brown said after practice Wednesday. “He’s doing whatever he can to uplift whoever’s on the floor or transmit that energy that he has inside of him to get our guys going and because of that our bench has followed suit.

“We have some young guys on the bench that have seen Jose and they’ve kind of followed his lead. He’s been tremendous over the course of this playoff run.”

Brunson’s speech became the viral clip. His fourth-quarter explosion rightfully dominated headlines, giving Knicks fans the fearless leader, the captain they’ve been clamoring for throughout this playoff run.

The Knicks needed Brunson’s brilliance to finish the comeback. They needed Alvarado’s voice to believe it was still possible in the first place.

“That guy, he’s as competitive as they come. Jose was, throughout the whole game, very engaged, coaching us, talking to coaches, talking to players, everything, getting guys going when we had a little lull,” said Landry Shamet. “He does a lot for us and that’s my point: you need [everybody] 1 through 15, and even though his minutes were low and all of us want to compete and be out there, he’s still giving himself up to us to help the group. That’s what we need.”