Jalen Brunson not concerned with breaking records, just winning games for Knicks

PHILADELPHIA

Someday Jalen Brunson will be able to enjoy this.

Someday he will soak in the magnitude of what he did at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday to push the Knicks to a 97-92 win in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Someday he will realize how special it was that his 47 points were more than any other Knick has scored in a playoff game. He’ll see the importance of breaking Bernard King’s 40-year-old record and doing so when the Knicks needed him most.

But first, Brunson said, he has some unfinished business.

“Yeah, it is pretty cool,” he said about being mentioned in the same sentence with King. “But unless he comes back and helps us win the next game, I’m not [thinking about it]. I promise you, I will later.”

The win put the 76ers on the brink of elimination as they trail the Knicks 3-1 heading into Tuesday night’s Game 5 at Madison Square Garden.

Brunson had 10 assists and only one turnover to go with his 47 points. His layup with 55 seconds left gave the Knicks a six-point lead from which the 76ers couldn’t recover.

“Jalen’s a great player,” OG Anunoby said. “You come to expect it. You expect him to make every shot. Even when he was cold the first couple of games, you knew he was going to turn it around.”

Brunson, the NBA’s fourth-leading scorer in the regular season, struggled in the Knicks’ first two playoff games. Though he scored 39 points in Game 3, it got lost in the headline of Joel Embiid’s 50-point performance.

Brunson had 38 points through three quarters Sunday, but on the final play of the third period, he banged knees with Kyle Lowry and was sent to the locker room. You could almost hear the huge contingent of Knicks fans at Wells Fargo panic as they saw him leave the game and walk into the tunnel.

“I didn’t want to [go to the locker room], but I went back there, walked around for a couple of seconds and came back out,” he said.

Brunson returned, was back in the game with 9:35 remaining and scored nine points in the final quarter as the Knicks locked up the win. His 47th point came on a free throw with 5.2 seconds left that gave the Knicks the final margin of victory.

“The way Brunson has responded to the challenge has been huge,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.

Brunson’s big night couldn’t have come at a more crucial time.

The Knicks, who had some help from the officials in winning Game 2, were humbled by Embiid in Game 3. He laid some hard fouls on the Knicks, including a takedown of Mitchell Robinson. It was crucial that the Knicks show that Embiid was not going to control the tenor of the series.

Defensively, they were able to do that despite the fact that Robinson couldn’t play in Game 4 because of an ankle injury. Although Isaiah Hartenstein picked up fouls early trying to contain the 76ers’ big man, Anunoby was able to take over in the second half. Embiid looked exhausted by the end of the game and the 76ers missed all 11 of their shots in the last five minutes.

Their hard-nosed defense on Embiid wouldn’t have been enough, however, if Brunson wasn’t knocking down shots. Josh Hart, who finished with 17 rebounds and seemed to be in the middle of every play, was 0-for-7 shooting. Donte DiVincenzo hit big shots but finished 3-for-11.

Brunson, however, didn’t want to reflect on his individual accomplishments. Right now, he is only looking forward.

“Somehow we just found a way, kept fighting, kept sticking together,” he said. “We found a way. When it’s ugly and we can find a way to win like that when we’re not playing perfect, it’s a plus for us, a plus for our confidence. We’re not done yet.

“We’ve got to continue to have that pump-up mentality and we’ve got to find a way to win another.”

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

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.