DETROIT – This was a few minutes after Jalen Brunson hit his series-ending three-pointer on Thursday night. He’d finished his on-court network interview and was making his way to the visiting locker room.
Brunson stopped at the scorer’s table to shake hands with Clyde Frazier and Mike Breen. He shared handshakes and hugs with Karl Towns Sr. and team president Leon Rose.
Rose had been waiting for Brunson near the visitors’ tunnel.
He put his arm tightly around his point guard as they made their way off the floor.
For the second straight spring, Brunson — the most important acquisition of the Rose Era — had willed the Knicks to a victory in an intense first-round series.
“He’s at his best when his best is needed,” Tom Thibodeau said late Thursday. “He’s done it all year. That’s what makes him special.”
What happened on Thursday was the latest in a growing list of unforgettable moments for Brunson.
He shook an all-world defender off of him and pulled up for a three with 5.4 seconds to play. If the shot was off, the Knicks may have been headed back to New York for a high-stakes Game 7 against a tough Pistons team.
A loss in that game would probably lead to major changes. But Brunson didn’t miss. His shot went through the net, shocking the crowd at Little Caesars Arena and sending the Knicks to the second round.
“He’s the Clutch Player of the Year in the NBA for a reason,” Karl-Anthony Towns said afterward.
It was yet another storybook Knicks moment for the Roses and the Brunsons.
Three years ago, Rose put his team presidency on the line when he cleared cap space to sign Brunson to a $104 million deal.
The ties between Rose and Brunson were deep. One of Rose’s first clients during his run as a powerhouse agent at CAA was Rick Brunson – Jalen’s dad. Rose has known Jalen for his entire life. Rose’s son, Sam Rose, is Jalen Brunson’s agent. Rick Brunson is a lead assistant on Thibodeau’s coaching staff. The Roses and Brunsons are practically family.
Because of those close connections, the Brunson signing was a make-or-break move for Rose. The Knicks were coming off a disappointing season.
If Brunson didn’t pay immediate dividends, it might have been CAA-ya later for Rose & Co.
Obviously, it hasn’t played out that way
Brunson, Rose, and Thibodeau have helped build the Knicks into a playoff contender.
They’ve also raised expectations in New York. Merely making the postseason is no longer acceptable. That’s why a loss to Detroit would have been a disaster.
Brunson helped them avoid that fate with several clutch plays in the series. The last one came late Thursday night, when he shook Ausar Thompson and knocked down a three to bury the Pistons. The shot put the Knicks in the second round for the third straight season. And it gave the Brunsons, the Roses – and Knicks fans everywhere – another unforgettable moment.
BATTLES ON AND OFF THE COURT
After watching this series, I think fans on both sides would sign up for another Knicks-Pistons matchup next spring. This series had tough shot-making, physical play, and late-game heroics. Both teams seemed to relish the physicality. There were skirmishes in all six games and there was gamesmanship off the court.
Pistons assistant coaches and Knicks assistant coaches didn’t speak to one another for most of the series. For a first-round series, it was high-stakes and intense. The Knicks entered the series with a “soft” label that had stuck to them for stretches of the regular season. They seemed to shed that label at Little Caesars Arena.
They won all three road games in a series for the first time in franchise history.
“We’re a tough group,” Josh Hart said afterward. “Everyone likes to paint us as not, but we’re a tough, physical group. This was a physical series. It was a grueling series. And I think we showed our physicality, our toughness, but also our mental toughness…. During those adverse situations, we banded together.”
THIRD QUARTER ADJUSTMENT
After blowing halftime leads in multiple games against Detroit, the Knicks decided to try something new on Thursday. They got into layup lines during halftime warmups. The move was spearheaded by Mikal Bridges.
“I guess today, he (was) trying to get the game over. He (was) trying to go ahead and close the series out,” Cam Payne said of Bridges. “Before we walked out (of the locker room), he was like, ‘I need everybody out there doing these layups.’ But I respect it, I respect it. It got us going. We came out in the third and played well. It was big time, everybody listened to him.”
The Knicks built a 13-point lead with four minutes to play in the third quarter. Maybe we’ll see layup lines before the third quarter in Boston on Monday. Speaking of the Celtics, Bridges and OG Anunoby seem to be trending in the right direction as they enter the second round.
Both players were key in the Knicks’ series win over Detroit. Anunoby and Bridges took turns defending Cade Cunningham. Anunoby had 22 points on 6-for-14 shooting in Game 6. Bridges had 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting, including a dunk in transition over Cunningham and a key put-back off of a Brunson miss to tie the game with 36 seconds remaining.
“It was big-time. It just shows how much he wants to win the game,” Payne said of Bridges, his former Suns teammate. “I know the fourth win is the hardest win, and you gotta do things you don’t normally do. Big-time dunk from him, big-time putback left hand.
“He don’t even crash (the boards),” Payne added, jokingly. “But when the game (was) on the line, the series on the line, you gotta play your hardest, and he came out and made big plays for us.”
Read the full article here
