The joint was broken. are you kidding? There was no sadder place in New York City than Madison Square Garden just before 9:20 on a Wednesday night.
Pushed down? That means 19,812 people waited in line to sit on Dr. Jennifer Melfi’s couch. The place was so inspiring and so full of hope. The Knicks have grown a lot. Life was good.
Then Jalen Brunson went limp and fell off the floor.
He didn’t come off the floor until the final 15:32 of the first half. The Knicks led by seven points when he left. By halftime they were trailing by 10 points.
Knicks fans are used to seeing their team play short. One of the appealing elements of this team is that they almost relish the challenge. This was different. It was Branson.
It was the season to start walking out of the garden floor.
And in an instant, the season was back on the floor.
The tunnel that Willis Reed trudged through exactly 54 years ago is long gone. But it didn’t take long for people in the stands to notice that Brunson was staggering backwards.
At first it was a few screams, then a roar, then a wave of hands. The commotion was no doubt due to the approximately 8,000 people who flooded the bars and beer lines, getting a head start on their Thursday morning hangovers and drinking to forget.
But the word spread. Believers threw away their Heinekens and 7&7s for healing. And suddenly it was as if someone attached a paddle to Garden’s chest, and someone else yelled, “Clear!” My heart rate returned to sinus rhythm. Night has returned. The season is back.
“I thought I’d give it a try,” Branson said.
“He’s a warrior,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “There was no question in our minds that he would come back.”
Maybe in a week or so we’ll look back on this epic 130-121 Knicks victory as some sort of last stand. Brunson is still injured and has problems with his right leg. OG Anunoby, the only reason there was a game left to save when Brunson returned to the floor, is currently dealing with a hamstring issue. The Knicks are halfway to the Eastern Conference Finals.
More on that later. That was Friday.
For now, please enjoy this. Brunson dropped 24 of his 29 points in the second half as he watched the garden turn upside down and savored the way players and buildings interacted with each other. Savor how the surviving Knicks held the pinball-machine Pacers offense to his 48 points in his final 24 minutes.
For now, let’s think like Branson.
“We found a way,” he said. “that’s it.”
that’s it. Earlier in the day, it was revealed that Brunson finished fifth in MVP voting. Nikola Jokic is a worthy winner. But no one, not Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Luka Doncic, is as valuable to his team as Brunson.
This is not an abstract concept either. The Knicks are plus-26 with Brunson. He was minus-15 in the locker room.
Branson also makes math easy.
“He’s a great leader,” Tom Thibodeau said of his star. He added of the rest of the team, “I like how they reacted in the third and finished in the fourth.”
Brunson’s teammates seemed like a different group once they laid eyes on No. 11. they knew it. No, it was Josh Hart, of course, who spoke for many Knicks fans much later when he passed Brunson in the dressing room.
“Okay, Willis,” Hart said. He is an elite needlesmith. But he was only half joking.
After all, customers aren’t the only ones who instinctively react to moments like these. Anunoby (28 points, 10-of-19 from the floor), Josh Hart (19/15/7), Donte DiVincenzo (28 points, 6 threes), and Isaiah Hartenstein (14/12) /8) was there. There was Precious Achiuwa, who scored eight big points in 28 minutes.
Don’t you think they were affected by seeing Brunson shake off the pain? And look, it may be blasphemous to point this out, but on May 8, 1970, the night Reed began his path to legend, he scored just four points and played just 27 minutes. Ta. Clyde Frazier relied on his captain’s inspiration to get him through the day and then lead the Knicks the rest of the way.
This time, Branson did both. Even he wasn’t sure if he could try.
“I’m glad I did it,” he said.
“We needed him,” Achiuwa said.
Unlike in ’70, there’s still plenty of ball to play. If he had to win 10 more games for the Knicks to win the title like the Knicks did… well, they didn’t. Just finding two more players to obliterate the Pacers will be a challenge.
For now, the Knicks can enjoy one of the greatest nights ever at the Garden. And so are you. I feel like I say that after every game. Just because it’s true.
