Getting Brunson Going

A look back at the legendary win through the lens of the one Knick who has struggled the most. Plus, a full game recap of Monday night.

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Let’s go back and relive a night I still can’t fully believe happened…

Game 2: Knicks 104, Sixers 101

In a New York minute…

While it would be inaccurate to say the Sixers controlled this game throughout the first half (because their lead never rose above 10 points), there was definitely a sense that their game plan was working out. But despite Brunson’s continued struggles and Maxey & Embiid going off, New York managed to close to gap to four at the break. They finally took the lead midway through the third, and thanks to some big bench minutes at the start of the fourth, held an eight-point advantage nearly halfway through the fourth. That’s when Philly started to surge, outscoring the Knicks 19-6 over the next seven minutes, eventually gaining a seemingly insurmountable five-point lead with 45 seconds to go.

As for those last 45 seconds, please feel free to preorder my upcoming book, I’m Pretty Sure I Died and am Still Dead.

One Thing: Getting Brunson Going

Aside from any one of a dozen still frames from the final 30 seconds of Monday’s improbable victory, if there is a single snapshot that defines this series, it is this one:

If the moment doesn’t seem particularly memorable, that’s because it isn’t. It’s a random Brunson shot attempt from the end of the first quarter yesterday, but this picture in particular speaks a thousand words.

Jalen is rising up over two Sixers defenders: his own (Hield) and Josh Hart’s (Lowry), who had completely abandoned his man in the corner. It’s a shot Brunson has made before, but it also isn’t the type of shot that got him into the MVP discussion this season, for a few reasons. For one, in a perfect world, he’d put Hield through the spin cycle and unleash a bevy of moves until Buddy bit on a fake and allowed Jalen to rise and fire from somewhere closer to the paint. More importantly, Brunson has ascended to new heights not because he always makes the best basketball play as much as he makes the correct basketball play.

Here, when Lowry doubled and closed off the carwash before New York’s star guard even had a chance to enter it, Jalen didn’t do the thing he’s been doing all season.

This wasn’t a great shot. It wasn’t a good shot. And it wasn’t the correct basketball play.

But was it a bad shot? Well, that depends on your perspective.

“Trust the pass” remains one of the most tried and true of all the Thibs-isms. “Take what the defense gives you” is another one. “Read the game” is a third.

All of these are different versions of the same idea. It is an idea Brunson not only abandoned here, but has largely abandoned throughout the first two games of this series. So the question becomes, why has he?