Jalen Brunson, Knicks deal for full house at Garden in Game 3
Knicks’ Jalen Brunson reacts after scoring against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden on Friday, April 21, 2023. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Oh my. He can dunk, too.
Jalen Brunson, the player most responsible for making the Knicks relevant again, once again seized the moment late in the second quarter of one of the most important Knicks games to be played at Madison Square Garden in a decade.
The 6-2 Brunson swiped the ball from a stunned-looking Donovan Mitchell as he crossed midcourt, made a fast break to the basket and finished with a lefthanded dunk with two defenders in his wake.
As the sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden went crazy, you could almost physically feel the moment swoosh through the building.
Brunson had done it again. He had put the Knicks on his back and showed them what to do. It didn’t matter that the dunk came in the second quarter. After watching that, it almost seemed like a fait accompli. And some 90 minutes later, the Knicks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-79, on Friday in Game 3 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.
The win gives the Knicks a 2-1 lead over the Cavaliers. It also gave the 19,813 fans at Madison Square Garden the feeling that their team has an honest chance of advancing beyond the first round of a playoffs for the first time since 2013.
“I think he was in attack mode,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Brunson. “He didn’t force things. He made the right plays and trusted his teammates.”
Said Brunson with a laugh: “Don’t expect too many more dunks.”
Brunson finished the game with 21 points and shooting 10-for-18, despite getting off to a slow start. He also got some support from teammate RJ Barrett, who scored 10 of his 19 points in the first quarter when Brunson was still getting his sea legs.
Brunson was a high school senior in suburban Chicago the last time the Knicks got out of the first round of the playoffs. In the decade since the Knicks beat the Boston Celtics in the first round in 2013, the Knicks have been to the playoffs just once — a 4-1 first-round loss to Atlanta in 2021 that was played before COVID-restricted crowds of around 15,000.
This win, following a blowout Game 2 loss in Cleveland, has to give the Knicks some confidence that they can win this series. The Cavaliers just looked lost for almost the entire second half as they ended up suffering their first 20-point loss of the season.
Brunson, whom the Knocks signed as a free agent this summer, was looking forward to his first playoff game in the Garden.
“MSG is going to be rocking,” Brunson told reporters after practice on Thursday. “I’m pretty sure it’s going to be hard to talk. The floors are going to be shaking. It will definitely be a cool atmosphere to play in.”
Cool and pressure-filled, the way Brunson likes it.
No one got bigger cheers from the home crowd than Brunson. Former Knicks and current ESPN/ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy told me earlier this year that Brunson is “one of the greatest signings in Knicks history." That’s some pretty heady praise considering that Van Gundy was on the Knicks' coaching staff when they signed John Starks, Anthony Mason and Allan Houston.
Brunson proved himself to be a big-time player in pressure situations last season when he scored 41 points for Dallas against Donovan Mitchell and Utah in Game 2 of their first-round series. He did it again against Mitchell, now with the Cavaliers, in Game 1 of this series, scoring 27 points to lead the Knicks to a 101-97 win in Cleveland.
The pressure had never been greater on Brunson heading into Friday’s game. The Cavaliers used a two-prong approach to contain Brunson in Game 2, throwing a kitchen sink defense on him while making him work hard on the other end of the floor by having him guard the versatile Caris LeVert.
Brunson has been the Knicks' floor leader all season long and it was clear heading into Game 3 that he was going to have to tweak his game if he didn’t want a repeat of his Game 2 performance when he shot 5-for-17 and had 20 points and six assists.
“We all have to make shots,” Barrett said at Friday’s shoot around. “That obviously helps ... When we’re making shots, we relieve pressure of off of him and relieve pressure of [Julius Randle]. Just try to play team basketball and get a win.”
Now, the Knicks just need two more.
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.
