Knicks say they'll have an update Monday on Jalen Brunson's injury
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson reacts to being fouled by 76ers forward P.J. Tucker during the first half of an NBA game Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
The Knicks lost their third game in a row on Sunday, falling to the 76ers, 119-112, at Madison Square Garden. But that loss would be minor compared to losing their most essential player, point guard Jalen Brunson, for an extended time.
Brunson’s status was uncertain after the game. The Knicks did not make him available to reporters and did not provide an update on his injury, saying they would do so on Monday.
Brunson held his right hip at times during the second half before leaving the game with 4:42 left and heading to the locker room. He later rejoined the team on the bench.
He had 23 points and 11 assists against the 76ers, leading a 30-assist game for the Knicks, who early on moved the ball effectively and took a 30-16 lead.
The 11 assists were the third-most for a Knick in a Christmas Day game.
Before the game, 76ers coach Doc Rivers said of Brunson, “I guess the best compliment you could say is that you hate [facing] him . . . He keeps coming. He’s tough. As I told Rick [Brunson's father and a Knicks assistant coach], he’s a much better version of Rick. He is. He’s tough.”
Brunson signed with the Knicks as a free agent after spending his first four seasons with the Mavericks, the Knicks’ opponent on Tuesday.
Notes & quotes: The 76ers got a boost going into halftime when Shake Milton banked in a three-pointer from beyond the midcourt line to get Philadelphia to within 63-60 . . . Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau called the 76ers’ Tobias Harris, who grew up in Dix Hills, “one of the most underrated players in the league.” Harris had eight points and six rebounds Sunday . . . Rivers said he still is close with his mid-1990s Knicks teammates. “The ‘Go, New York, Go’ days were unbelievable,” he said. “And that team, for me as a player, it was the closest team as far as just the guys. We still talk. I talk to [John] Starks, Oak [Charles Oakley], Patrick [Ewing], Greg [Anthony], Hubert Davis. I mean, we still talk all the time. And so that was a special group.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
