Jalen Brunson was happy with Friday night's results, but his own performance still fell short of his own admittedly high expectations.
The Knicks point guard said this after his team's dominant 116-94 victory over the Bucks at The Garden. “Personally I'm not happy with how I played, but we won. That's all I care about and we'll just go from there.”
Branson’s floor game was strong overall.
He had nine assists, zero turnovers and a plus-28 rating in 32 solid minutes.
He scored 15 points on 6 of 14 shots.
He gave an early feed to Karl-Anthony Towns as the rookie led the way in a much-needed victory with 32 points and four 3-pointers.
Brunson didn't force problems offensively and created open shots for his teammates.
“I thought he had a great game. He didn't have a great rhythm shooting the ball, but he did other things like nine assists, no turnovers, making easy baskets, leading and playing.” ,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Some nights he might not be shooting as well, but there are a lot of other things you can do to help your team win, and I felt like that's what he did.”
But it's clear that his offensive game is still not where he wants it to be.
He missed all five of his 3-point attempts and made just 6 of his past 20 from long range.
Over the past three games, he has shot just 41 percent from the field (23-of-56).
Brunson tends to be harshly critical of himself, especially after a loss.
He garnered immense expectations because of how well he performed in his first two years as a Knick.
So it's no surprise that he came into his own with this underwhelming 4-4 start.
A lot changed for the Knicks last year. Julius Randle, RJ Barrett, Donte Divinenzo and Immanuel Quickley, who were mainstays at this point last season, are gone.
Towns, Bridges, and OG Anunoby are here.
This is all fairly new to this group.
“It's going to take time to come together like we did at the end of last year,” Brunson said. “It's a little bit of a different team. So for us, we just have to keep applying the gel every day and keep learning.”
Friday night felt like a small step forward for the Knicks, even if Brunson wasn't thrilled with his performance.
As he said, it will take time.
