Jalen Brunson did everything he could to lead the Knicks to victory against the Pistons on a night when his team looked lethargic at times.
The Knicks star scored 31 points (a season-high) in 44 minutes on the court in a 120-111 loss at Madison Square Garden.
The effort comes after Brunson was listed as questionable to even play in the game early Saturday.
Brunson made a surprise appearance on the Knicks' injury report due to a lower back contusion, raising some concerns about his status for the game against the Pistons.
He was ejected from Thursday's win over Charlotte after a violent collision in the third quarter caused him to miss more than 14 minutes of the game.
Brunson was revealed to be available an hour before tipoff.
“If the decision was made to start the game, we were strong enough to play,” Brunson said.
Brunson made 11 of 21 from the field as the Knicks struggled to make shots as a team.
The Knicks star made 3 of 7 3-point shots in the loss.
“He gave everything he had,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said after the loss. “You're disappointed in the loss, but I'm not disappointed in the team. We want us to learn and get better and we have to respond to this the right way. No need.”
The Knicks didn't get off to the best start against the Pistons. Brunson scored the Knicks' only basket for nearly the first four minutes as the Pistons scored 13 points in that span.
Trailing by 11 points early, Brunson scored four of the Knicks' next five points in the first quarter to pull his team back within single digits.
“The game starts at 7:30. We have to be ready by 7:30,” Brunson said of the slow start.
In the second quarter, he knocked down a deep three, drew a foul, and completed a four-point play. He made the free throw to pull the Knicks within six points with 6:34 left in the first half.
“I think what probably got us going was once we got more ball pressure and caused some turnovers and got open the floor and made some easy baskets,” Thibodeau said of Brunson's influence. spoke.
“After that, we got into a pretty good rhythm. We still had 27 assists. We shot at a good percentage and if we had rebounded the ball we probably could have won the game. That's what we did. That's something you have to learn. We were down by four points going into the fourth, and we had to stop there a few times.”
