You’re going to want to take advantage of the fact that we live in 2023 this morning. You can find this game. And you’re going to want to find this game, and you’re going to want to watch the second half. Maybe you went to sleep early Friday night. Maybe you had other plans.
All good. Understood.
But do yourself a favor.
Watch this. Watch what Jalen Brunson did as Friday night bled into Saturday morning. Watch how he scorched the Suns for 35 second-half points on the way to 50, a career high. Watch how he made all nine of his 3s, and how he added nine assists and six rebounds and five steals. Watch how he all but single-handedly delivered the Knicks to an epic, essential 139-122 win over Phoenix.
You’ll want to see this. Believe me. Trust me. You’ll want to see it. Maybe twice.
“We have to continue to get better,” Brunson told MSG’s Mike Breen minutes after the final buzzer, because of course he did, because Brunson’s first instinct is always to talk team, even on a night when he hung half a hundred. “Everyone was on the same page and we have to continue to stay on that page.”
His teammates, of course, had no such compunction of trying to keep what their leader had done in perspective. As soon as the game ended, Julius Randle grabbed the ball — making damn sure there’d be no issue of whose ball it was, as happened in Indiana the other night after Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 64-point splurge against the Pacers He hoisted it over his head and handed it to Brunson. When Brunson smiled sheepishly RJ Barrett took it from him and cradled it as if to say: “I’ll keep this safe for you. You’re going want to have this ole forever.”
“I have great teammates,” Brunson said
“Quite a performance,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.
It was a staggering performance. Two nights earlier the Knicks had kicked off this wicked five-game road swing by staggering badly in Salt Lake City, losing to the Jazz 117-113. Friday, in front of TNT’s cameras as well as MSG’s, Brunson made damn sure they wouldn’t let that loss grow into a streak, or a skein, or a skid.
“I told his father, ‘He had your career in one night,” Thibodeau said, referring to his assistant, Rick, who had to be beside himself watching his son ascend against the Suns. “It’s great, you want your players to achieve all the things they want to achieve but you want them to do it in the context of winning.”
Brunson has been making a quiet pitch every night anyway to earn the All-Star Game bid he was denied a year ago; there can be little doubt that this one will respond. It certainly impressed one notable witness.
“That’s his franchise,” said Suns superstar Kevin Durant, who led Phoenix with 29 points before adding the money shot: “And he’s going to be a Hall of Fame player by the end of his career the way he’s playing out there.”
Heady stuff? You bet it was. But he was that good. He was that unstoppable. By the end, he wasn’t just exploring beat checks; he was as hot as the sun, in the Land of the Rising Sun.
“It’s cool,” Brunson would finally concede. “I’m just happy about the win. That’s all I care about.”
The remarkable thing was: Brunson came in shooting as poorly as he has in a year and half as a Knick. He was 0-for-6 against the Jazz. He’d missed 21 of his prior 24 3s across three games. And then couldn’t miss. Didn’t miss. He became the first player since Michael Jordan — that’s Michael Jordan — to have a game with at least 50 points, nine assists, five rebounds and five steals.
Only eight prior Knicks had ever scored as many as 50 and the list read as a who’s who of team history: Bernard King (five times), Richie Guerin (three), Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston and Carmelo Anthony (two each) and Willis Reed, Julius Randle and Jamal Crawford (one apiece).
Add Brunson to that list. But don’t rely on just admiring the box score. Find this game. His play. And be prepared to hit the rewind button a few times too. Trust me.
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