Captain Clutch Brunson leads underdog pack of Knicks against Celtics
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson at Madison Square Garden. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
BOSTON
No one gives them a chance.
Some think the Knicks could be swept by the Celtics in their second-round series, which opens here Monday night. Most predict that the Knicks are capable of winning a game or two. A handful of contrarians believe the Knicks could take the defending champions to seven games.
No one is predicting the Knicks will win.
The Knicks are heavy, heavy underdogs, which in a way only seems right, given that their best player, Jalen Brunson, is the ultimate underdog.
If anyone knows something about beating the odds, it’s Brunson.
This is a series filled with superstars who were high lottery picks. Celtics wings Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were No. 3 overall picks by Boston in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and Boston center Kristaps Porzingis was the No. 4 overall pick by the Knicks in 2015. Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns was the No. 1 overall pick by the Timberwolves in 2015.
Brunson? The 33rd overall pick by the Mavericks in 2018 is the lone starter in the series who was not picked in the first round.
Still, Brunson has scored more points in this postseason than any other player on either team. In fact, his average of 31.5 points is the highest of any player whose team is still alive in the playoffs, now that Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Bucks have been eliminated. (Tatum is a close second with 31.3.)
Brunson takes great pride in his rise from second-rounder to All-Star. In fact, his charity is named the Second Round Foundation and part of its mission is to encourage others to overcome obstacles.
At practice Saturday, two days after hitting a three-pointer with 4.3 seconds left in Game 6 to eliminate the Pistons, Brunson was asked if he is comfortable with the Knicks’ underdog status, given that he’s been an underdog his entire career.
“It is what it is. It’s all about what you make of it and the opportunity that you are given,” he said with a shrug.
The Knicks’ opportunity to go up against the defending champions is something they’ve been gunning for since last summer, when they began to reconfigure their roster to deal with the Celtics’ biggest strengths. They re-signed OG Anunoby and traded for Mikal Bridges to be able to better guard Tatum and Brown. Then they traded for Karl-Anthony Towns, a big man with diverse offensive skills.
Despite the upgrades, it’s taken some time for this Knicks team to come together, even though it finished with 51 wins and the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Knicks were embarrassed in their much-anticipated season opener when the Celtics tied an NBA record by making 29 three-pointers. The Knicks were 0-4 against Boston, which outscored them by a total of 65 points in the four games and led by 35, 35 and 27 in the first three. This all goes a long way toward explaining why the Celtics are such prohibitive favorites.
Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said none of that matters now.
“To me, the series is at 0-0 and it comes down to executing details over and over again,” he told reporters in Boston. “Have no expectations. It’s two teams fighting for something. There’s no one way that a series is supposed to go, as you’ve seen over the course of history and you’ve seen in the playoffs right now.”
It’s true that few expected the sixth-seeded Timberwolves to knock out the Lakers in five games in the first round of the playoffs. And few thought the Pacers would make such quick work of the Bucks and beat them in five.
Historically, the Knicks were involved in one of the biggest upsets in NBA history when their eighth-seeded team beat the top-seeded Miami Heat in the first round of the 1999 playoffs before making it all the way to the NBA Finals.
With a leader like Brunson who has defied all expectations, the Knicks say they don’t really pay attention to what others are predicting.
“I don’t care,” Josh Hart said Sunday at the Knicks’ practice facility. “If we’re counted out already, then we should play with a great level of freedom. We don’t really care too much what the outside world says.
“You’re always going in with confidence. It’s idiotic to play the game if you don’t go in with confidence. If you don’t go in to win, you shouldn’t go out there.”
Make no mistake, the Knicks have wanted to be out there playing this team since the start of the season.
Underdogs or not.
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.
