It's up to Jalen Brunson to get Karl-Anthony Towns more involved for Knicks
Jalen Brunson of the Knicks attempts a jump shot against the Indiana Pacers during the first quarter in Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Tuesday in Indianapolis. Credit: Getty Images/Dylan Buell
INDIANAPOLIS — There’s no question that Jalen Brunson is the most popular player on the Knicks and one of the most exciting clutch performers ever to wear a Knicks uniform.
As the Knicks entered Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals series against the Indiana Pacers, demand for Brunson’s jersey has skyrocketed as Fanatics reports that it is the top selling NBA jersey on its site, up from No. 5 a month ago. Fans in New York have gone ga-ga for the Knicks point guard with 15 of them competing in a Brunson look-a-like contest held across the street from Madison Square Garden on Monday.
Brunson, who scored 31 points but only two in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night's 130-121 loss, is the face of the franchise and the player most responsible for dispatching the Detroit Pistons and stunning the Boston Celtics. Yet, when the Knicks needed a win in Game 3 to save themselves from a possible sweep and Brunson was stuck on the bench in foul trouble, the Knicks' offense not only got by without him — but it was surprisingly multi-dimensional and balanced as the Knicks narrowed Indiana’s lead in the series to 2-1 with a 106-100 come-from-behind win.
Brunson’s absence for a big part of the fourth quarter in Game 3, made it necessary — and some might argue possible — for Karl-Anthony Towns to explode for 20 fourth-quarter points. This was the Towns fans were hoping to see when the Knicks reconfigured their team and traded Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota for the 7-footer right before the start of training camp.
The challenge is for the Knicks to get that dominating, take-charge Towns more often, not just in the fourth quarter when Brunson is on the bench. The Knicks offense moves differently when Brunson is not on the floor, when not everything moves through him in isolation. As much as Brunson has been the hero in this playoff run, he needs to find another way to get Towns involved.
On Monday, the day after Towns’ dominating performance, Brunson was asked if there was a way to get Towns to be that aggressive earlier in the game.
“I mean, I saw the same thing you guys saw. I saw a guy go out there who did not want to lose, and so the way he just went out there and basically got that game for us was remarkable,” Brunson said. “And there’s always gonna be a lot of things that’ll happen throughout a game, and so you can say yeah we can implement a plan to where he doesn’t have to wait until the fourth quarter.
“But everything happens throughout the game to where you have to respond, you have to react, you have to adjust. And so, I think as a team, we got punched in the mouth early and we found a way to respond and stuck together, and sometimes going through that stuff makes us better.”
Brunson played just a little more than three minutes in the final quarter after picking up his fifth foul with seven minutes left. It wasn’t the first time he’s got into early foul trouble in the series. And it wasn’t the first time the Knicks offense played pretty well without him. Brunson picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter of Game 1. His absence started a 14-0 Knicks run, which extended their lead to 16 before the team fell apart in the end.
Still, no one is better than hitting the big shot at the end of a game than Brunson, and the Knicks need to be able to keep him on the floor. Despite his sub-par performance in Game 3, Brunson hit a 12-footer to put the Knicks ahead for good with 1:17 left in the game and made two big free throws with eight seconds left.
And so, before Game 4, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau resorted to some gamesmanship in an attempt to keep Brunson on the floor. When asked if there was something the team could do differently so that Brunson didn’t get in foul trouble, Thibodeau made it clear exactly what he felt about the officiating. In particular, he took issue with the blocking call on Brunson in the fourth quarter. Thibodeau challenged the call, but it was not overturned.
“Some of the plays are — they’re 50-50, they can go either way,” Thibodeau said “He’s taking charges and he’s getting called for blocks. I don’t care what the officiating is saying. I’ve studied the league a long time, I know what a charge looks like. And then to — you challenge it and they still say — I’ll just leave it at that.”
Brunson and Towns are the Knicks' two best players, their two superstars. And while they don’t always seem to come up big at the same time, there’s little doubt that the Knicks want them both out there in crunch time.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
