DETROIT – If you watched Game 3 of the Knicks-Pistons series with the sound off, you probably wouldn’t know that the home crowd was yelling profanities at Jalen Brunson.
For most of the game, Brunson looked like the player we’re all accustomed to: mostly stoic, animated when he thinks the refs have wronged his team.
But late in Game 3, after he hit a layup over Dennis Schröder to essentially seal the win for the Knicks, Brunson broke character.
Walking off the floor following a Pistons timeout, Brunson held his hand to his ear and looked directly into the stands at Little Caesars Arena. For 47 minutes, the sell-out crowd in Detroit had yelled obscenities at Brunson. But they were mostly silent in that moment.
What was left to say? The Knicks took everything the Pistons threw at them on Thursday and still left the floor with a win.
“We came to fight and we wanted to give ourselves the best chance to win,” Brunson said afterward. “… I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”
It started, as it usually does, with No. 11.
Coming off a poor shooting game on Monday, Brunson moved the ball well and scored when the Knicks needed it in Game 3.
He finished with 30 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, and just one turnover.
“I don’t think crowds understand, especially with pros and guys that are really good, they’re probably going to be really good when you’re chanting they’re name,” PJ Tucker said after the game. “When you’re saying what they said, it probably gives them a little incentive to play a little better, play a little harder.”
Brunson did all of that in Game 3. And the rest of the Knicks delivered as well.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 31 points on 18 shots. His teammates found him early and often as a trailer in transition and other actions; Towns was aggressive with his shot after totaling just three field goal attempts in the second half of Game 2.
“You want to get him the ball and work through him,” Josh Hartsaid afterward. “It’s something we have to continue to do. He was great for us today. He demanded the ball, and he shot the ball confidently.”
Mikal Bridges (20 points on 13 shots, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals, two blocks) and OG Anunoby (22 points, two steals) delivered on both ends. The Knick wings helped hold Cade Cunningham to 10 of 25 shooting and six turnovers.
Really, all of the Knicks’ big offseason acquisitions had key moments on Thursday.
The team probably looked and played the way team president Leon Rose envisioned when he re-signed Anunoby to a $212 million contract and spent so much trade capital to acquire Bridges and Towns.
And they did so in their biggest game to date. A loss on Thursday would have been devastating. The Knicks didn’t make those moves last summer to bow out in the first round of the playoffs.
Now, New York can take control of the series with a win on Sunday.
Maybe the Game 4 crowd tries to rattle Brunson with the same chants they used on Thursday night. But based on how he responded, Pistons fans may want to shout something else at the Knicks point guard.
“To Jalen, those are cheers,” Tom Thibodeau said with a smile after Game 3. “He lives for that stuff.”
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