Knicks captain Jalen Brunson is on his way to a legendary New York place

Atlantic76ersCelticsKnicksNetsRaptorsCentralBucksBullsCavaliersPacersPistonsSoutheastHawksHeatHornetsMagicWizardsSouthwestGrizzliesMavericksPelicansRocketsSpursNorthwestJazzNuggetsThunderTimberwolvesTrail BlazersPacificClippersKingsLakersSunsWarriorsScores & ScheduleStandingsThe Bounce NewsletterNBA DraftPodcastsFantasyNBA OddsNBA PicksWhat's Next For Lakers?Hollinger's Top ProspectsVecenie's Mock DraftNBA Playoffs Jalen Brunson beats the defense for a layup in the fourth quarter as the Knicks rolled past the Cavaliers 109-93 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. Sarah Stier / Getty images Share articleNEW YORK — Jalen Brunson was all set to have himself a night. He is the captain of the New York Knicks and, at the moment, the prince of a city that was so ready to celebrate a long holiday weekend with another Euro-step toward a championship 53 years in waiting. Oh, and James Harden was still on the other side of the ball. At 36, The Beard can still do a lot of things on a basketball court. Covering Jalen Brunson isn’t one of them. And sure enough, on the first possession of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, Brunson jogged into the right corner and waited for Josh Hart to screen his man, Cleveland’s Dean Wade, freeing Brunson to take a handoff from OG Anunoby and to square up with the switching Harden. The Madison Square Garden crowd made a noise that was hard to define, yet sure sounded like whatever anticipation sounds like. Brunson dribbled left, beat the man he destroyed in his 38-point performance in Game 1, and lofted a floater over Jarrett Allen for a 2-0 lead. During the afternoon, the NBA had tweeted out a reminder that Brunson had scored more fourth-quarter postseason points (416) over the last four years than any other player. But after this first trip down the floor Thursday night, it didn’t seem like the Knicks’ franchise player was going to wait until the final 12 minutes to turn loose on Harden and the Cavaliers. And then something strange happened over the balance of the first half. Brunson missed his next five field goal attempts and didn’t score another point. Not one. He would finish this 109-93 victory with 19 points on 7-for-16 shooting (1-for-7 from 3-point range) — a modest output for him, but fine in the grand scheme of things. As it turned out, the only number that mattered in his box score was 14. His assist total. A personal playoff high. Brunson felt the game, realized that Hart was feeling it on his way to 26 points, and let it all unfold in the Knicks’ favor for their ninth consecutive playoff victory. “That’s what great players do, right?” said the losing coach, Kenny Atkinson, whose Game 1 strategy was shredded by the opponent he was praising again on Thursday night. “They read the game, and the game dictated that. Obviously, we were loaded up more to him, and he found other guys. … Took away some of his scoring options, blitzed him, gave him different looks. He made the right reads, the right plays.” In the process, Brunson revealed that his is not a one-dimensional greatness. He doesn’t just beat you with his jump shot, with herky-jerky drives, and with footwork that matches up with all the footwork geniuses of the past. Brunson also beats you with the ability and willingness to share the ball. “He’s about winning,” Miles McBride said. “We knew that from the jump. Obviously, he’s one of the best scorers in the league, but the fact that he’s willing to just be selfless and give up the ball when guys are double-teaming him proves that he just wants to win.” Asked what kind of message a captain and all-world scorer coming off a 38-point night sends to his team by following it up with a 14-assist night, Mikal Bridges said, “A great message. “It just shows that he plays the right way. If you’re not going to send a double team, I think it’s an advantage for him. If you send a double team, he’s going to read and react and find the open guy and play the right way. Ever since I’ve known him, he’s played the right way. … If you’re going to keep helping off, he’s going to make you pay, and that’s what makes him great.” On arrival in the summer of 2022, a lot of smart New York basketball people weren’t sure if Brunson could be the second-best player on a championship team. Now it looks more and more like Brunson can be the best player on a title winner, or at least the best player on a team strong enough to push the Western Conference winner to six or seven games in the NBA Finals. It only took him four seasons to earn a place among the Knicks’ forever titans. I’d already put Brunson above franchise icons the likes of Dave DeBusschere, Bernard King and Earl Monroe. My top four goes like this: 1. Patrick Ewing 2. Walt Frazier 3. Willis Reed 4. Jalen Brunson At age 29, Brunson has time to climb that list and, perhaps, to finish his career at the very top. If he wins the Knicks’ first championship since 1973, Brunson will be right there with Mark Messier, the lion who ended a 54-year Rangers drought by winning the 1994 Stanley Cup. Not that his coach, Mike Brown, is surprised by the stunning ascension of this former second-round pick. “I’m Linus and Jalen’s my blanket,” Brown said earlier in the playoffs. “He helps me relax a lot of different times throughout the course of games. That’s what great players do. They keep you poised and make the game easier for everybody else.” The way Brown saw it, in this triumph over the Cavs, Brunson was just doing his job as an MVP-level player. He was making the game easier for his teammates (and coach) by not forcing the issue, and by getting the ball to the people who were seeing the rim better than Brunson was seeing it. “I mean, they’re presenting two to the ball,” Brunson said of Cleveland’s approach. “I was able to find my teammates. They were knocking shots down. Just trying to create an advantage by putting two on the ball, trusting them to have to make the play.” So the NBA’s most clutch postseason player in recent years put his franchise two victories away from its first trip to the NBA Finals since 1999 by being a good teammate and doing what a captain does. Jalen Brunson scored half the points in Game 2 that he scored in Game 1, and still came away the night’s big winner. He is closing hard on a special place in New York sports history. Good luck stopping him. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms