Jalen Brunson came into these playoffs with the most postseason experience among the regular rotation members of the Knicks, with only little-used veteran Derrick Rose appearing in more career postseason games.
Brunson, who reached the Western Conference finals with the Mavericks last year, also previously had won two NCAA Tournament championships at Villanova, in which every game was an elimination game.
The Knicks’ starting point guard certainly wasn’t sweating the first chance to keep the season alive or to attempt to climb out of a 3-1 hole in Game 5 of their second-round series against the Heat.
“Definitely. You can’t shy away from the moment,” Brunson said Wednesday morning at the team’s practice facility in Tarrytown before Game 5. “You have to go out there and attack it.
“It’s OK to be nervous, it’s OK to be anxious. But when you go out on the court you just gotta give it your all. There’s no such thing as pressure or things like that. We’ve worked all season, players in the league have worked their entire lives to get to moments like these. So it’s how we respond, how we stick together and just trust yourself, trust what you’ve worked on. And go out there and give it everything you got.”
The Heat had essentially beaten the Knicks at their own game in Game 4 in Miami, winning the battles for offensive rebounds and loose balls that had defined the Knicks’ first-round victory over the Cavaliers.
All-Star forward Julius Randle even acknowledged Monday night that perhaps the Heat “want it more,” a comment Brunson also was asked about before Game 5.
“They have been a team who’s dominated us the past couple of games on the defensive … the rebounding side of the ball,” Brunson replied. “For us, we just need to be better and I think we have a chance tonight to kind of get back on track, whether it starts with one quarter, one half and then one game at a time.
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“I mean, it’s an elimination game. So obviously you lose, we’re done. So I don’t think there’s any added, extra motivation that needs to be said. We each gotta go out there and we gotta do what we gotta do.”
When asked before the game about Randle’s quote about the Heat “wanting it more,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau replied, “Nah,” and then added, “Like I said, it’s a hard-fought series. It’s not gonna be easy to get buckets. We actually have offensively, I thought, played well. We shot 49 percent [in Game 4]. But the thing that hurt us was the rebounding. So we know … we got to do a much better job and that’s been one of our strengths all year.”
When talking earlier in the series about the Heat’s “culture” of success — with three NBA titles and six trips to the NBA Finals since 2006 — Brunson had said the only way for the Knicks to gain postseason experience was to go through the ups and downs of a series like this.
“It’s definitely different and obviously, the more you do it, the more you understand, the more you learn,” Brunson added Wednesday. “I just think for us, it’s all about how we compete, how we fight. Just gotta stay resilient and stay poised. Like I said, it’s a game of runs, things are gonna happen that aren’t gonna go your way. It’s how do you keep your composure and fight back?
“We have to keep our confidence and stick together and keep moving forward. That’s all we have to focus on.”
In addition to the rebounding, the Knicks also had struggled with their outside shooting through the first four games.
They connected on 40 percent (16-for-40) in their lone win — with Jimmy Butler sidelined — in Game 2, but only 23.5 percent (24-for-102) in their three losses.
“It’s a credit to Miami. You have to give them credit. It’s definitely a hole you have to dig yourself out of,” Brunson said when asked if the Knicks had played their “best game of the series” yet. “You can’t really focus on Game 6 and [Game] 7. You have to concentrate on the first quarter of Game 5 and move on from there and continue to get better, and continue to compete together.”