Jalen Brunson making biggest impact in the clutch as Knicks’ closer

For decades, the Knicks lacked a point guard, a fact often exposed and exploited late in games.

During his first four NBA seasons, Jalen Brunson often lacked an opportunity late in games playing alongside Luka Doncic, a superstar whom the Mavericks would feed in crunch time.

Both the Knicks and Brunson have come together in a fit that seems to have been perfect.

The Knicks have found the ball-handler they wanted with the ball in the game’s biggest moments, and Brunson has found a team he can run.

Brunson was the closer again on Friday when the Knicks needed one. A 16-point lead with four-and-half-minutes left shrank to a two-point edge in the final moments in Toronto. As the game hung in the balance, Brunson blew by Fred VanVleet, got into the lane, spun his way to a layup and drew a foul with 22.8 seconds left to seal his team’s fourth-straight victory.

“These are the moments that you dream of as a kid, and then you get to the point where you’re older now, you get less opportunities, you gotta take full advantage,” Brunson said at practice in Tarrytown on Sunday. “I think for me; I just got to stay focused and poised and stay confident. Not worry about, ‘Oh, it’s a clutch shot,’ or, ‘Oh, it’s a big moment.’ It’s just a possession where we want to make the most of it.”

Brunson has made the most of the largest moments this season. Friday, he scored 10 of his 26 points in the last period. In the Knicks’ previous win, a nail-biter over the Spurs on Wednesday, Brunson poured in 11 of his 38 points in the final quarter.

In the clutch — defined as the last five minutes of a game in which the point differential is five points or fewer — Brunson is shooting 48.9 percent from the field (up from 46.8 percent on the season) and 42.9 percent from deep (up from 38 percent).
If his clutch numbers were extrapolated for 36 minutes, the 26-year-old would be averaging 32.3 points.

“No matter who has the ball at the end of the game or anything like that, we all have confidence and trust in each other,” said Brunson, whose Knicks will face the Bucks at the Garden on Monday. “So I think that’s the biggest key for us being successful going forward. Recently, I was put in those positions, but I think a lot of people have that mentality, have that ability.”

But with no RJ Barrett (lacerated finger) recently, it has been Brunson trusted late after the Knicks have trusted Julius Randle early. Randle, who scored 19 points in the opening quarter against the Raptors, entered NBA action Sunday as the fifth-highest first-quarter scorer in basketball, averaging 9.1 points on 49.6 percent shooting in the opening period.
Tom Thibodeau shrugged at the idea that one passes the scoring torch to the other.

“The intensity is different in the fourth and certainly different in the last five minutes of a game as well,” the Knicks head coach said. “So, just read the game.”

With Dallas, Brunson established himself as an NBA player, then NBA starter, then a borderline NBA star, all in Doncic’s shadow. In his first season with the Knicks since signing a four-year, $104 million pact, Brunson has become The Guy while averaging 20.9 points and 6.6 assists.

This might be the first team at this level with whom he has become a closer, but he did win two national championships at Villanova with the ball in his hands at pivotal moments.
“I always had the mindset of wanting to be able to impact the game any way I can. I always had that approach, that mentality and I’ve had that ability,” Brunson said “I think for me, just staying confident in what I do and not trying to do something that I can’t. Just stay within myself and try to help my team win.”

With Randle at the beginning, Brunson at the end and Barrett (when healthy) in the middle, the Knicks have emerged as a team that can fight for a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference.

Brunson looked back at the beginning of the season and where the Knicks stand today and called the difference in chemistry “night and day.”

“We’ve grown as a team,” Brunson said. “We trust each other. It’s getting better every single day.”