Jalen Brunson won a pair of national championships at Villanova, so he knows how a star is supposed to shine during March Madness.
So much for the Knicks will depend on the return of Julius Randle and OG Anunoby but until they do come back, it will be on Brunson to steady the ship and navigate the Knicks through the maddening March seas that have made the fan base seasick of late.
Each and every game, beginning with Friday night’s 98-74 rout over the 37-27 Magic, matters for the 37-26 Knicks, who find themselves in a desperate five-team logjam with the Magic, Heat, Pacers and Sixers in the Eastern Conference to avoid the dreaded play-in tournament.
March Madness: a pair of crucial home games with the Sixers on Sunday night and Tuesday night are next.
“We know this is the time everything gets ramped up,” Tom Thibodeau said, “so just gotta keep fighting ‘til we get everyone back.”
The heavyweight champion of New York basketball came out smokin’ even with a left knee contusion that had him questionable prior to warm-ups.
“Seven o’clock is when I found out I was playing,” Brunson said.
Brunson was asked what he was thinking when he crumpled to the floor in Cleveland last Sunday.
“I thought of a thousand different situations what it could have been,” Brunson said, “and I’m just glad it wasn’t.”
Brunson scored 17 of his 26 points (11 for 19 from the field) in the decisive first half and the Knicks played Dee-Fense as if there was no tomorrow and were never threatened while making a statement following three losses to the Magic and moving into fourth place.
“We knew that they’ve had our number,” Brunson said.
Brunson is the one who now carries the hopes and dreams of an obsessed, championship-starved city on his shoulders. He is the All-Star the Garden serenades with choruses of “MVP, MVP, MVP.”
He is the one who makes everyone better. He is the one who recognizes Winning Time in the fourth quarter.
No one will feel sorry for the Knicks in the meantime. There is no crying in basketball. No one is postponing the games until Randle and Anunoby return.
“We have more than enough,” Thibodeau keeps saying.
Whether he believes that or not, it is what he has to say.
Brunson makes it easier for him to believe it. His instincts and court vision are elite and apparently rust-proof following one game missed. He almost always makes the right play.
This happened to be one night when the Knicks did indeed have more than enough.
“Every win’s a big win no matter who it is,” Brunson said. “Clearly in the standings we’re right there with ‘em, but doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we gotta step up every game with the same mentality and the same mindset.”
The first half: tenacious defense (eight blocks), 9 of 16 from 3 and relentless competitive fire from Josh Hart (19 points, seven rebounds, four assists) and Precious Achuwa (15 points, 14 rebounds).
And, of course, Jalen Brunson.
Brunson scored 10 of the Knicks’ first 21 points in the opening 6:30. Brunson, following an eight-minute rest, took a fast-break charge on Paolo Banchero and hit a floater and then a 3 falling backwards on his rear end. Please forgive the airball from downtown.
“UFO for Brunson,” Clyde Frazier said. Brunson stripped Banchero and the half ended Knicks 55, Magic 39.
There was one sequence in the third quarter that epitomized the night. Achuwa missed a chippie, grabbed the rebound, missed the follow, grabbed the rebound, whipped a pass falling out of bounds under the basket to Donte DiVincenzo, whose 3 made it 74-52. A corner 3 by Deuce McBride — and an and-one foul by Banchero — made it 78-52.
The “MVP” chants erupted late in the fourth quarter for Brunson following a corner 3 before he missed a 3 that Hart jammed home with his right hand and exulted, and the Garden exulted with him.
“Happy he was able to finally be athletic for once,” Brunson said with his vintage sarcasm.
March Madness at the Garden. Just what Jalen Brunson likes, and where he likes it.
