Jalen Brunson Called All-NBA Snub by Fans After Keying Knicks' Win vs. Butler, Heat
With the New York Knicks' season on the line, Jalen Brunson gave everything—absolutely everything—to keep his team alive.
The veteran point guard was massive for the Knicks on Wednesday night, putting up 38 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to lead his team to a 112-103 Game 5 win over the Miami Heat.
"You've got to give the [Heat] credit, that's a hard team to play," Brunson said on TNT after the win. "We just came out to fight. We didn't get discouraged with a 10-point deficit in the first quarter, and we just kept fighting."
The fact that he was still standing, let alone giving the postgame interview, was impressive in its own right. Brunson played all 48 minutes in the victory, forever etching his name into the pantheon of great Knicks' performances.
Maybe it wasn't quite Willis Reed hobbling onto the court for Game 7 in the 1970 NBA Finals with a muscle tear in his right thigh or Patrick Ewing putting up 24 points, 22 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 1994 to lead his team to the Finals.
But it was still a wildly impressive performance, and NBA Twitter was not only loving it but a bit astonished that Brunson didn't find his way onto an All-NBA team this season:
He wasn't the only hero. Quentin Grimes also played the entire game and came up with one of the key moments in the game, getting a late steal on Jimmy Butler after the Knicks player had fallen to the floor earlier in the sequence and appeared to injure his leg.
And both R.J. Barrett (26 points, seven boards in 38 minutes) and Julius Randle (24 points, five rebounds, five assists in 36 minutes) had big games as well.
As for Jimmy Butler, arguably the best player thus far in these playoffs, he had a quieter game by his own lofty standards (19 points, nine assists, seven boards).
But the grit, determination, poise and skill exhibited by Brunson in the most important game of New York's season can't be understated. He was on a different level and provided Knicks fans with a showing they won't soon forget.
