Knicks' toughness will be tested once again
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) reacts in the fourth quarter against the Detroit Pistons in Game 5 of the first round of the NBA playoffs on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The miracles ran out for Jalen Brunson and the Knicks Tuesday night.
The Knicks had a chance to make history. They had a chance to do what no Knicks team has done this century. They had a chance to close out a playoff series in front of their home crowd for the first time since 1999. And they had Brunson, the Clutch Player of the Year, to lead them.
Instead of leading his team to victory and closing out the series, Brunson and the Knicks were defeated, 106-103, in a chaotic Game 5. The Knicks, now up 3-2, will fly back to Detroit for another chance to end this best-of-seven series.
It was a disorganized and dismal finish as Brunson found himself trapped at the scorer’s table along with teammate Josh Hart waiting for coach Tom Thibodeau to call a timeout or someone to commit a foul. No one did and as a result he wasn’t able to enter the game until there was 27 seconds left on the clock and the Knicks were down six.
Brunson and Hart both left the game with 2:57 left after Brunson tweaked his ankle and Hart suffered some undisclosed ailment. This didn’t seem like such a big deal at first considering that Brunson has left three of the first four games for the locker room and then returned like Superman to have a big night. Tuesday, he did not head to the locker room, and he did not get back into the game in time to pull off any heroics.
Instead, Brunson had by far his worst game of the postseason with 16 points on 4-for-16 shooting.
“Offensively, I didn’t make good decisions personally,” Brunson said. “The ball wasn’t going in the hoop for me. I just have to control what I can control and go from there.”
Entering the game, Brunson was playing better than any player in the league in the fourth quarter. His 53 points in the fourth quarter heading into Tuesday night are the most of any player in the playoffs. In fact, they are almost 20 points more than the second-leading scorer, the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard who has 35.
In fact, there were some saying that Detroit’s Cade Cunningham might even be the better point guard. No longer. Cunningham is a great young talent, but Brunson, however, has completely outplayed him late in games.
Along with scoring 53 points on 65% shooting in the final periods of the first four games, Brunson has eight assists, one turnover and is a plus-25. Cunningham? He has totaled 26 points on 35% shooting, made 10 assists, turned the ball over eight times and is a minus-15.
It was Cunningham who was the most productive point guard in Game 5, however. Cunningham led the Pistons with 24 points and eight assists. Cunningham made some huge buckets in the game, including 13 points in the final quarter.
“He’s the guy,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We've talked about it before a ton. He understands the moment, he understands when and how.”
Brunson scored just three of his 16 points in the fourth quarter.
“We have been very gritty this whole series, but we didn’t find a way tonight,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “What do I want to do differently in Game 6? Win the game.”
The Knicks won both Games 3 and 4 at Little Caesars, so there’s no question they are capable of closing it out there on Thursday.
“We are in the point of the season where it’s win or go home. We have no choice but to trust each other,” Brunson said of the playoffs. “I feel like once we are in a position where are backs are against the wall, we have to lean on each other for help and everything. We have that trust. We have that chemistry. I’m just happy we were able to go into a hostile environment and get two wins.”
Now, they need to go for three.
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.
