In the first half on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, three of the Knicks‘ starters had five points between them. But New York entered the interval up by four. How did they do it?
Jalen Brunson poured in 27 points on an efficient 10-for-15 shooting en route to a 47-point outburst in the Knicks’ 132-125 win over the Heat.
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“Our guys, just, found a way,” head coach Mike Brown said after the win.
And while Mikal Bridges chipped in 18 of his 24 in the first half before OG Anunoby turned a scoreless first half into 18 points in the second, it all came down to Brunson.
“You’re struggling a little bit offensively, you want to have an MVP of the league on your side,” Brown said of Brunson. “For him to score 47, especially on 15-for-26, 6-for-13 from the three-point line, 11-for-11 from the free-throw line, while dishing out eight assists, again, I have to mention it, but that’s what he’s capable of, and that’s what MVPs are supposed to do on nights like tonight.”
And he did it all without turning the ball over once.
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“No turnovers is what I strive for,” Brunson said. “Obviously, sometimes when you’re aggressive, you make aggressive mistakes. The passive mistakes, I can’t live with. But, just trying to hold the ball as much as I can and not give it to the other team.”
It was Brunson’s 20th 40-point game since he joined the Knicks and the most points he’s scored with the team at MSG.
“He’s a special player, I think we all know that,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “It doesn’t surprise me when he has nights like that.”
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra called Brunson an “incredible competitor.”
“If you want to beat a great competitor, you have to do above and beyond,” Spoelstra said. “It is possible, but you can’t just play well, you can’t just compete well, you can’t just be there. You gotta put him away. You gotta put possessions away. And he’s gonna put his imprint on it. That’s what great players do.
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“He has a great knack for it. He’s relentless.”
Brunson did this while playing 38 minutes, which may seem low from his numbers last year, not something Brown is hoping to do regularly.
“You try to sit ’em as long as you can,” Brown said. “But if you feel the game slipping, it’s my job to help us win in the best way possible.
“… It’s just a matter of I know we’re in a little bit of that we got to keep fighting to get out of, get our feet back underneath us. And it’s me just throwing him out there, knowing we’ve got to get this game. I tried to sit him as long as I can. [But] ‘Let’s go get this game.’
