Jalen Brunson injured late in Knicks' win over Grizzlies
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson reacts after injuring his ankle in the fourth quarter against the Grizzlies in an NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Knicks had built leads of as many as 28 points against the shorthanded Memphis Grizzlies and just needed to hold close to that and they could have given some of their weary starters — and notably the star, Jalen Brunson — the fourth quarter off. An easy night. All good, until it wasn’t.
“You’re reading the game,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said afterward. “I take it as no lead is safe, so you’ve got to read the game.”
But the pieced-together Grizzlies mounted an unlikely 18-1 run, pulling within nine points, and with Brunson and the starters summoned back onto the floor the worst thing the Knicks could endure happened as Brunson rolled his right ankle badly, writhing in pain on the court with 5:31 to play.
The “MVP” chants that had permeated Madison Square Garden earlier were gone, replaced by silence as the 19,812 fans watched Brunson remain on the floor for a minute. Brunson tried to lace his shoe tighter and stay in the game, but after a timeout he limped to the locker room, his night over.
With Brunson joining the five other rotation players already sidelined the Knicks managed to hang on for a 123-113 win.
Memphis drew as close as four points with 2:04 to play before Donte DiVincenzo buried a three-pointer to allow the team to exhale. A Josh Hart steal and break led to a Precious Achiuwa follow dunk and a technical foul on Grizzlies rookie GG Jackson allowed the Knicks to push the lead back to 10 with 1:23 left.
The Knicks escaped with the win thanks to 32 points from DiVincenzo, but a loss of Brunson would be far more trouble than a loss in the standings. Brunson has missed only two games this season and with four games left before the All-Star break, the Knicks can hardly afford to be without their All-Star point guard.
“Playing with him for so long and knowing — I said, you good? And he said, ‘I’m good,’ and I didn’t ask anything after that,” DiVincenzo said. “I don’t worry about Jalen at all. He’s one of the toughest guys in the league. I’m not worried.”
After the Knicks had seen their nine-game winning streak come to an end Saturday, the team seemed to take no chances with the shorthanded Grizzlies. Brunson scored 17 of his 27 points in the first quarter, the Knicks built a 12-2 lead and it never really was close again until the Grizzlies’ fourth-quarter run.
Brunson entered the game with 8:08 left and the Knicks up 20, but it was down to 10 when Brunson went down and was forced out. They hung on from there, but Brunson — and Hart, who was checked for a knee issue afterward — left before the locker room was opened, Brunson walking gingerly without a boot or crutches.
The Knicks hadn’t reached the levels that the Grizzlies have, with 13 players listed on their injury report before the game. But they did enter Tuesday’s game against Memphis with five players sidelined — all rotation pieces — and testing once again Tom Thibodeau’s insistence to simply count on the next man up.
The Knicks were without Mitchell Robinson, who has been sidelined for two months already, Julius Randle, OG Anunoby, Quentin Grimes and Jericho Sims, who was a late scratch after feeling sick at the morning shootaround.
Thibodeau may have confidence, but he has still pushed his main pieces. Four players played at least 40 minutes Saturday against the Lakers, and Isaiah Hartenstein was limited to 39 just because he fouled out. The break has come at practice time with Thibodeau giving his team off Sunday and Monday to rehabilitate for this game
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
