Knicks Star Excelled With Big Minutes in Preseason Closer

"This is the best type of experience you can get," Brunson said in video from SNY. "You can do all the stuff in practice you want or whatever but as much as you try to simulate, it's not game reps. Games reps are always important."

Though the Knicks (4-1) more or less marketed the Charlotte game as a dress rehearsal for regular season play, Brunson was a little lonely in the starting five: New York rested regular men OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, Mitchell Robinson, and Karl-Anthony Towns due to minor ailments, leaving Brunson and Mikal Bridges as the only regular starters on the Madison Square Garden hardwood.

Brunson set the tone early, scoring 15 points in the opening period, most of it earned through a quartet of three-pointers. His ultimate highlight of the night perhaps came in the second when he found Trey Jemison III on a behind-the-back pass on a drive that the two-way man placed in for two.

Brunson's night and preseason appeared to be over when he checked out toward the end of the third, but he wound up playing the final 7:41 when Charlotte ate away at a New York led that summitted at 17. It allowed Brunson to get a head start on defending his Clutch Player of the Year title, kickstarting a 12-2 run with a driving double and assists on threes for Miles McBride and Landry Shamet.

Having sat him out of the prior preseason posting, Knicks head coach Mike Brown was pleased to see what he got out of Brunson in an extended opportunity.

"It's going to take some time for us to really, really click," said Brown, per Ben Krimmel of SNY. "But you could see there are signs of it when we play with pace, not just in the full court, but naturally in the half court when the floor is spaced in the right way and we can get some easy shots, based on the talent that we have on this team if we keep the game simple and it starts with Jalen having a good feel, which he does, and just playing basketball from there."