New York Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson has a lot of people eating crow these days. He has turned naysayers into believers with each incredible performance that he puts together in the 2024 NBA Playoffs.
After a disastrous start in Round 1 against the Philadelphia 76ers, Jalen Brunson finished with a historic stretch of games. He was accomplishing things only players such as LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had previously done.
In the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Indiana Pacers, the torrid production from Brunson continued. Now, he finds himself in a class all by himself, accomplishing things that have never been done in the history of the NBA Playoffs.
Game 1 at Madison Square Garden was another masterclass from Brunson. He was unstoppable, scoring 43 points on 14-of-26 from the field and a perfect 14-of-14 from the foul line. To round out his stat line, he grabbed six rebounds with six assists and one block.
That kind of high-scoring efficiency has never before been achieved. As shared by Tommy Beer on X, Jalen Brunson is the first player ever to score 39+ points while shooting at least 45 percent from the field in five straight playoff games.
In the NBA Playoffs, the lights are brightest and you are going against top-tier teams. That has not slowed the Knicks star, who has successfully countered whatever it is their opponents are throwing at him.
What he is doing is something we haven’t seen since Michael Jordan was in his prime. Monday night was the fourth straight game Brunson has scored at least 40 points in. The last player to do that was Jordan during the 1993 NBA Playoffs.
When including the final game to defeat the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals, Jordan scored 215 points, which includes a 55-point performance in a Game 3 victory. The 210 points that Jalen Brunson has scored in his previous five games is the most since that historic Jordan stretch.
After that, Jordan announced his first retirement. The New York Knicks are hoping that Jalen Brunson doesn’t follow that part of Jordan’s journey, but they certainly hope that he can bring a championship to New York for the first time since 1973 as Jordan did in 1993 with the Chicago Bulls.
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