Jalen Brunson Says Knicks' Season Wasn't a Success After NBA Playoff Loss to Pacers

Jalen Brunson knows there are no moral victories in the NBA.

The New York Knicks point guard simply told reporters "no" when asked if his team's season could be seen as a successful one considering the amount of injuries it had to fight through while advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

New York's latest adversity directly involved Brunson, as he suffered a fractured left hand in Sunday's Game 7 loss to the Indiana Pacers and was ruled out for part of the third quarter and the entirety of the fourth quarter.

The writing was largely on the wall at that point anyway, as the Pacers led by double digits for much of their 130-109 victory.

Indiana was dialed in from the start and ended up shooting a blistering 67.1 percent from the field and 54.2 percent from three-point range. Tyrese Haliburton led the way with 26 points, six assists and four rebounds on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and 6-of-12 shooting from deep.

But the Knicks also weren't fighting with a fully stacked roster.

They were already without Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanović prior to Brunson's setback. What's more, OG Anunoby played a grand total of five minutes in his comeback attempt after he missed Games 3 through 6 with a hamstring injury.

Throw in Josh Hart playing through an abdominal injury he suffered during Game 6, and New York was anything but full strength.

It is a testament to how well Brunson played throughout the playoffs that the Knicks still advanced as far as they did, as he put the team on his back for extended stretches throughout the postseason.

Ultimately, all the injuries were too much to overcome.

While the team deserves praise for fighting through so many setbacks, the end result was still a second-round loss. Brunson or any other NBA player with their eyes on a championship would never be satisfied with winning just one playoff series, and he dismissed the notion after Sunday's loss.