Jalen Brunson’s flaws have been on display in the Eastern Conference finals. But his elite offense was the story as the Knicks stayed alive in Game 5.
Through four games, much of the discussion surrounding the New York Knicks’ series with the Indiana Pacers has been about what Jalen Brunson is not.
He’s not big. Or an elite athlete by NBA standards. Or a high-level defender.
Game 5 reminded us of what he is.
He’s a lethal isolation scorer who is one of the best in the league at getting opponents on their heels. A manipulator of the floor when he’s given any amount of space. A top 10 offensive player in the NBA according to offensive DRIP.
For one night, Brunson was the best player on the floor, scoring 32 points to lead the Knicks to a 111-94 win over the Pacers. New York staved off elimination, with Indiana now holding a 3-2 series lead as things move back to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday.
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The Pacers aren’t the best defensive team in the league, but they’ve posed a unique challenge for Brunson on both ends of the floor.
Brunson is at his best exposing weak points in the defense, but the Pacers’ greatest defensive strength has been their lack of weaknesses. There haven’t been as many pressure points for Brunson to expose. He’s still scored in bunches, but it’s been really difficult for him, often taking entire possessions to get off shots.
The Knicks ask a lot of him on offense and the Pacers haven’t allowed him to take any possessions off defensively. The Pacers are malleable enough offensively that they’ll involve him in action no matter who he’s guarding. And when he’s not in the on-ball action, the Pacers still put him through the ringer by making him manage his way through off-ball screens.
Game 5 was a different story.
The Knicks came out like a team that didn’t want its season to end, and the Pacers didn’t match their intensity. Indiana was a little off defensively compared to the level it had achieved in the series since Game 1. The help when Brunson turned a corner, the contest on him when he came around a screen, the controlled closeouts when he got the ball with a defender flying at him. Everything was a little bit later and gave Brunson a bit more daylight. When he gets daylight, he pounces.
The raw point total for the Knicks doesn’t indicate an offensive explosion, but that’s partially because the team didn’t shoot it well, going just 8 for 29 (27.6%) on 3-point attempts despite the fact that they had plenty of open looks.
Brunson’s point total also doesn’t jump off the page, at least not for him. He came into the game averaging 33.3 points in this series, so his average actually went down. But it was his most efficient game of the series. He shot 12 of 18 (67.0%) from the field after not shooting 50% or better from the field in the last three games. The Knicks made an effort to get Tyrese Haliburton switched on him more often early in the game and it paid off. Brunson got comfortable at every level of scoring and never slowed down.
It also helped that the Pacers didn’t target him nearly as much on defense. They didn’t have as much movement in general.
The team spent a lot of time isolating against Karl-Anthony Towns when he was on the floor, which isn’t a bad strategy. Towns can struggle in space against quicker forwards like Pascal Siakam and the focus on Towns directly led to foul trouble that kept him out of part of the third quarter.
But the Pacers are one win away from the Finals because of their constantly moving offense that Haliburton has orchestrated. The offense goes through him, but it can end with anybody. The Pacers are a their best when they’re in constant motion, a tornado of unselfishness and unpredictability.
That offense wasn’t there in Game 5. The Pacers didn’t make the Knicks’ poor defenders make decisions off the ball. They fell into the trap that the Boston Celtics fell into too often. The Knicks are fine with their worst defenders being targeted on-ball when there isn’t much movement off it. They can send enough help to compensate.
Haliburton was a non-factor for most of the game. He had single-digit points for the second time this postseason and he had six assists – his lowest total in Eastern Conference finals. The Knicks are perfectly happy letting someone like Benedict Mathurin (team-high 23 points off the bench) get his if it means Haliburton isn’t running the show.
Ultimately, Game 5 came really easily to Brunson and didn’t to Haliburton, which made it feel a lot different than the majority of this series.
Real or Mirage?
This victory doesn’t mean Knicks fans can start booking tickets to Oklahoma City for the start of the NBA Finals. It’s pretty common for the team trailing 3-1 to come out with more urgency in Game 5 than the team with the lead. No matter how hard the leading team might try, they can’t manufacture the same sense of desperation.
The Pacers showed a couple things that could come into play in Game 6. Karl-Anthony Towns has given them fits when he’s stayed out of foul trouble and the Pacers finally showed a hard double team from his blind spot in the third quarter. It’s something the Pacers should consider doing more often in Game 6. Make Towns a quick decision-maker and make other players on the floor score. Then, get back to attacking Towns along with Brunson on the other end.
Jarace Walker also played for the first time in the series and provided some defense while looking comfortable on offense. He was 2 of 4 from the field (all 3-point attempts). If he isn’t a negative on offense, the Pacers could use him for a defensive spark if the Knicks get comfortable again in Game 6.
The Knicks will have a much tougher challenge in Game 6. The Pacers will want to end the series at home, and it’ll be surprising if they have another letdown. The defensive rotations will get tighter, and things might get a lot harder for Brunson.
But he reminded everyone what he was capable of doing in Game 5. We’ll see if his strengths continue to matter more than his weaknesses in Game 6.
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Pacers vs. Knicks: Jalen Brunson Reminds the World He’s a Superstar in New York’s Game 5 Victory Opta Analyst.
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