As it had for so many instances of their first-round series against the Detroit Pistons, things looked bleak for the New York Knicks with three minutes left in the third quarter of Game 4.
Star guard Jalen Brunson had tangled with Detroit’s Dennis Schroder and fell to the floor holding his lower right leg before crawling to the scorer’s table. He could not put weight on the area, which cost him 15 games during the regular season, when he tried to stand.
By the time he got back on the floor with 10:14 left in the fourth quarter, his team was down 10 points.
Nothing the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year could not overcome. Brunson scored 15 points down the stretch to lift the Knicks to a 94-93 victory to take a commanding 3-1 series lead with things shifting back to Madison Square Garden for Game 5 on Tuesday.
“I know if he can walk, he’s going to go out there and play and compete,” Josh Hart said.
Brunson scored 32 points and added 11 assists on the night, but was particularly unstoppable in his first six minutes back on the floor in the fourth quarter. He scored or assisted on 16 of 20 Knicks points, including a stepback three-pointer with 4:07 remaining to tie things up at 84 apiece to cap off a 20-10 New York run.
“Moments like that, you’ve got to take a breath, you’ve got to relax and think about what’s going on,” Brunson said. “I realized that I just needed to re-adjust and make sure I was mentally ready to go back into the game, because I was going back into the game. There really wasn’t a doubt, regardless of if I was stumbling or not.”
The duo has combined for 33 of the Knicks’ 37 clutch-time points this series, shooting 11-for-16 when the score is within five points in the final five minutes.
