Jalen Brunson’s scoring run is finally catching some eyes.
On Thursday’s “Inside the NBA”, following the Knicks’ 118-109 win over the league-leading Celtics, analyst Kenny Smith sang Brunson’s praise on the heels of his 39-point performance.
“The New York Knicks are the most surprise team to me in basketball right now,” he said. “They should be a No. 6 seed without Julius Randle. [Mitchell] Robinson missed games, OG [Anunoby] missed games. Brunson has been the best basketball player in the Eastern Conference by far.”
Brunson has been on a heater lately, leading the Knicks in scoring in each of the last five games and averaging a league-leading 39.4 points per game across that stretch.
The Knicks are 4-1 in those games and now sit one game behind Milwaukee for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Milwaukee owns the tiebreaker over the Knicks, so the Knicks need to win both of their remaining games and need the Bucks to lose both of their final two matchups to steal away the No. 2 seed.
Brunson’s red-hot stretch goes back further than the past five games. In his last 10, he’s averaging 34 points and over his last 15 games, he’s scoring at a 33.8 point-per-game clip — both league-leading numbers.
His 30.4 points per game since the All-Star break trail only Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic’s 33.1, with Brunson having played in six more games than Doncic since the break.
After the Knicks win Thursday night, which wasn’t as close as the score inidicated, OG Anunoby said Brunson should get some hardware to go with his standout season.
“He should win MVP,” Anunoby said.
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau might not have said Brunson should win MVP, but he jokingly demanded a recount when he was informed that Brunson finished sixth in a poll of MVP voters.
Brunson’s 28.6 points per game season average is tied with Patrick Ewing for fourth all-time in Knicks history, trailing Bernard King (32.9; 1984-85), Richie Guerin (29.5; 1961-62) and Carmelo Anthony (28.7; 2012-13).
Brunson needs 75 points over the next two games to move up to third on that list — which is certainly possible given his recent tear.
