Jalen Brunson's playoff heroics make Knicks star look more like MVP
Knicks’ Jalen Brunson drives against the defense of the Indiana Pacers’ Myles Turner and TJ McConnell during the first quarter in Game 2 at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Imagine if members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted for the best actor after watching only the trailers.
Imagine if a restaurant critic gave five stars to an establishment before eating the chef’s entree.
Imagine if an NBA player in the middle of a historic postseason couldn’t finish in the top four in the Most Valuable Player voting because the ballots were due at the end of the regular season.
Oh wait, we don’t have to imagine that, because it happened Wednesday night, some 30 minutes before the Pacers and the Knicks tipped off Game 2 of their second-round series. Shortly before fans tuned in to see if Jalen Brunson could pass Michael Jordan and become just the second NBA player ever to score 40-plus points in five consecutive playoff games, it was announced that Nikola Jokic had won the league’s MVP award.
This, of course, was no big surprise. The Denver big man had once again dominated the regular season on the way to earning the MVP award for the third time in his nine-year career.
Still, would Jokic be a repeat winner if media members voted the day after the NBA Finals instead of the day after the last day of the regular season. Considering that Jokic’s Nuggets team is 0-2 against Minnesota in their second-round series, one has to wonder.
Jokic was a runaway winner with 926 votes. He was followed by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Brunson, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Domantas Sabonis and Kevin Durant.
In his pregame news conference Wednesday before the voting was announced, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said he thinks it makes sense to wait until after the postseason to take the vote.
“What is it? Is it the MVP for the entire season or regular season?” Thibodeau said. “There’s a number of deserving candidates and certainly we feel Jalen is very deserving as well . . . You hate to leave anyone off, that’s the reality of it. I prefer to wait until everything is done so you can look at everything.”
No player has been more important to his team this postseason than Brunson, who entered Wednesday night’s game at Madison Square Garden having scored 47, 40, 41 and 43 in his last four games. The only other players ever to have scored 40 or more points in four consecutive playoff games are Jerry West, who had a six-game streak, Jordan (four) and Bernard King (four).
That’s some pretty heady company, as Brunson’s closest friends are only too happy to needle him about. After Brunson scored 43 points Monday to give the Knicks a 1-0 lead in their series with the Pacers, he and fellow Villanova alum Donte DiVincenzo were next to one another at a news conference when a reporter rattled off the list of Hall of Famers who also had four consecutive 40-plus games.
Vincenzo, who at Villanova was once nicknamed “The Michael Jordan of Delaware” by coach Jay Wright, lit up at the mention of the Bulls great.
“Jordan?” he said with a smirk.
“Stop” Brunson fired back.
Brunson later explained that his close friends “are all sarcastic,” so he had to cut DiVincenzo off when he could.
All joking aside, it’s incredible what Brunson has been able to do so far in the playoffs, averaging a league-best 36.6 points in seven games against the 76ers and the Pacers heading into Wednesday night. Brunson is the first player in league history with at least 40 points and five assists in four consecutive playoff games.
Brunson has said he doesn’t want to think about it in the middle of a series, that he’s just trying to do what he has to do to get his team to win games.
“I understand what’s going on, so it’s definitely obviously pretty cool, and it makes it better to know that it comes off a win most importantly, but honestly no matter what the situation was, whether it was positive or negative, I have to come back and be better,” Brunson said.
“Last series [against Philadelphia], the first two games I was awful, and for me, I do have to be better, so I have to put that in the back of my mind. This is the same thing.”
One reason DiVincenzo and Josh Hart, the third Villanova Knick, like giving Brunson a hard time is that he has never been all that comfortable talking about individual honors.
“I’m so proud of him, just knowing what type of person he is,” DiVincenzo said of Brunson. “He doesn’t take praise and accolades and all that stuff. He doesn’t take it well. He’s always trying to get better. He always knows there’s going to be more doubters.”
After this postseason, the bet is there won’t be that many.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.