Jalen Brunson didn’t need an All-Star call to show why he’s an All-Star.
Brunson, with a swollen eye from a punch in the face and frustrated by overloaded refereeing, led the Knicks to a 109-105 victory over the Pacers on Thursday night, leading a short-handed roster to its ninth straight win.
It comes just hours after Brunson received his first All-Star nomination after garnering the coaching staff’s vote as a reserve in the Eastern Conference, joining teammate Julius Randle, who is unlikely to play in the All-Star Game due to injury. It was about.
The key moment that symbolized the entire night was Brunson getting punched in the eye by Indiana’s Andrew Nembhard under the Knicks’ basket with just over two minutes remaining.
The contact was inadvertent but clear, and Brunson, mid-crossover, immediately collapsed to the court and dropped the ball.
Indiana’s Jalen Smith made an easy dunk to give the Pacers a one-point lead. Brunson, who had struggled with officials all night, took out his frustrations on the Pacers’ defense and converted a drive on the ensuing possession for the final go-ahead bucket with 1:46 remaining.
A 7-0 romp over Indiana began, and Brunson’s emotional night ended with 40 points and an ecstatic Garden crowd calling him “MVP.”
“What do you want me to say? He did exactly what everyone expected him to do and what he’s been doing all season,” teammate Donte DiVincenzo said. “1A, 1B, it doesn’t matter. The guy’s an All-Star. He’s having an MVP-caliber season right now. He should be named Player of the Month. What else can I say? The guy is doing everything he can to win our games. It’s not easy now with Julius down and OG too. [Anunoby] Going down…Mitch [Robinson] Not being here. Even though everything was thrown against us, he still wants us to win the game. ”
4th quarter of Knicks victory. Robert Szabo of the New York Post
The Brunson game began with the All-Star news and ended with chants of “MVP” in the Garden.
“It was really cool. That night, the experience and how we won,” Brunson said. “It’s obvious what happened before the game. … You always work in a certain moment, but you don’t know how you’re going to react when it happens. It was special.”
The Knicks were without four rotation players due to injuries: Randle, Anunoby, Robinson and Quentin Grimes. This caused Tom Thibodeau to shorten his rotation and early feel that the Knicks didn’t have enough firepower to sustain the winning streak.
The lead was up to 15 points in the second quarter, and the first half was particularly frustrating for Brunson.
The first crisis came in the second quarter when Brunson got excited about not being called on a drive. It made the point guard dizzy. Immediately, Thibodeau began a fierce battle with officials.
They somehow avoided technicality. At the end of the first half, when Brunson was single-handedly keeping the Knicks afloat, his point guard showed the officials what they were missing by slapping himself in the face and chest.
When asked how he could get more fouls, Brunson said, “No comment.”
However, the Knicks (32 wins, 17 losses), the hottest team in the NBA and ranked third in the East, never fell behind.
They went on a 12-4 run near the start of the fourth quarter to take their first lead since two minutes into the game.
They then coughed it up when Brunson was hit in the eye, turned the ball over in pain, and assumed a foul that wasn’t called.
Brunson stood up and won the match.
Also. Like an all-star.
“When an All-Star or a leader does that, that sets the standard, but it’s something that each of us is proud of,” Josh Hart said. “We want to get stops. We want to rebound the ball. We take pride in doing those things. So he’s our leader and we want to rebound the ball. Being a star and doing that obviously sets the standard, but we all take pride in doing it.”
