(Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images)
As the New York Knicks look to win their first NBA championship since Phil Jackson‘s playing days (1973), all eyes are on their 6’2″, 190 pound floor general Jalen Brunson, who is averaging 26.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game on 46.7% shooting from the field, 36.9% shooting from 3-point range, and 84.1% shooting from the foul line. Brunson has guided the Knicks to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 in which they fell to the Spurs in five games. In case you were wondering, yes, that was the 50 game lockout season. The season after Michael Jordan‘s final season in Chicago.
Brunson has been amazing all season long and proven himself to be among the best guards in the NBA. He is incredibly shifty with the basketball and crafty around the rim, capable of scoring in a wide variety of ways with floaters, mid-range jumpers, 3-pointers, etc. There’s really no way he can’t score, which is why he’s so difficult to contain.
In their four-game sweep of the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, Brunson averaged 25.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 7.8 assists per game. He had two 30+ point performances, his best performance coming in Game 1 in which he had 38 points, five rebounds, six assists, and three steals. The Knicks rallied from 22 points down to win 115-104 in overtime. That comeback sucked the soul out of the Cavaliers, who pretty much curled up into a ball the rest of the series and lost the will to fight.
Brunson has shown he can play at an elite level on the biggest of stages and none are bigger than the NBA Finals. Basketball is a team sport and so Brunson won’t be able to do this on his own. He’s going to need help from his teammates, most notably Karl-Anthony Towns, who is averaging 20.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 0.5 blocks per game. Towns is going to have to do his part to take the pressure off Brunson and deliver the goods. If he has a big series, the Knicks could make this interesting.
Ultimately, I do see the Spurs winning the championship in six games, but at the same time I’m not totally counting the Knicks out. When you have a guard as good as Jalen Brunson, you have to feel like any night can be your night and when you find yourself playing in the NBA Finals, you have to believe. It’ll be fun to see how Brunson does and what kind of impact he has on this series.
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