Bruised and battered Jalen Brunson’s 40-point night propels Knicks past Pacers for ninth win in row
Jalen Brunson didn’t need the All-Star call to show why he’s an All-Star.
His eye swollen from getting hammered in the face and his frustration with the officiating on overload, Brunson willed the Knicks to victory Thursday night over the Pacers, 109-105, dragging a shorthanded roster to its ninth straight win.
It came just hours after Brunson received his first All-Star nod, garnering the coaches’ vote as an Eastern Conference reserve, joining injured teammate Julius Randle, who is unlikely to play in the All-Star Game.
The key sequence — which encapsulated the entire evening — was Brunson getting hit in the eye by Indiana’s Andrew Nembhard under the Knicks basket with a little over two minutes left.
The contact was inadvertent but obvious, and Brunson — who was in the middle of a crossover — immediately crumbled to the court and dropped the ball.
Indiana’s Jalen Smith picked it up for an easy dunk to give the Pacers a one-point lead. Brunson, who had been battling with the officials all night, took his frustration out on the Pacers’ defense, converting a drive on the ensuing possession for the final go-ahead bucket with 1:46 left.
It started a 7-0 run that buried Indiana, with Brunson’s emotional evening ending with 40 points and “MVP” chants from the enthralled Garden crowd.
“What do you want me to say? He did exactly what everybody expects him to do, what he’s done all season long,” teammate Donte DiVincenzo said. “1A, 1B, it doesn’t matter. Dude is an All-Star. He’s having an MVP-caliber season right now. He should be the Player the Month. What else can I say? The dude is doing all that he possibly can to win us games. It’s not easy right now with Julius going down, with OG [Anunoby] going down … Mitch [Robinson] not being here. Everything has been thrown against us and he’s still willing us to win games.”
the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ win. Robert Sabo for NY Post
Brunson’s game started with the All-Star news and ended with “MVP” chants at the Garden.
“It was really cool. The night, the experience, how we won,” Brunson said. “Obviously what happened before the game. … You always work for certain moments but you don’t know how you’ll react when it happens. It was special.”
The Knicks were missing four rotation players, all with injuries — Randle, Anunoby, Robinson and Quentin Grimes. It prompted Tom Thibodeau to roll with a shortened rotation, and the early sense that the Knicks didn’t have enough firepower to keep the winning streak alive.
They trailed by as many as 15 in the second quarter and the first half was shrouded in frustration from Brunson, in particular.
It first reached a critical point in the second quarter when Brunson felt hosed by a non-call on his drive. It sent the point guard into a tizzy. Soon, Thibodeau took up an animated battle with the officials.
They somehow avoided technicals. At the end of the half — with Brunson single-handedly keeping the Knicks afloat — the point guard slapped his own face and chest to show what the officials were missing.
“No comment,” Brunson said when asked how he can draw more fouls.
But the Knicks (32-17), sitting third in the East as the hottest team in the NBA, never let their deficit get out of reach.
They used a 12-4 run near the start of the fourth quarter to take their first lead since the opening two minutes of the game.
Then they coughed it up when Brunson was hit in the eye, turning over the ball because he was in pain and assuming a foul that was never called.
Brunson got up and won the game.
Again. Like an All-Star.
“When your All-Star and your leader does it, it sets the standard, but that’s something that each of us take pride in,” Josh Hart said. “We wanna get stops. We wanna rebound the ball. We take pride in doing those things. So obviously, him being our leader, our star, doing it obviously sets the standard, but all of us take pride in doing that.”
