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Jalen Brunson is playing the highest-stakes basketball of his life in the NBA Finals between the Knicks and Spurs, and answered the call with his biggest performance yet in a pivotal Game 4.
He scored 36 points on 12-for-25 shooting from the field, grabbing five rebounds, dishing seven assists, and coming away with three steals in a narrow victory in which he hit two of the most clutch shots.
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Brunson’s night should be a relief to Knicks fans who watched him struggle through the first three games.
In Game 1, it took him 31 shots to get to 30 points, he shot 28 percent for 20 points in Game 2, and while he had solid efficiency in Game 3, his process, turnovers, and defense left much to be desired.
If Brunson is playing more like his past two games (and entire playoffs) than the first two of the Finals, the Knicks are in exponentially better position to close this series out and win their first NBA championship in over half a century.
Here’s what San Antonio has done to disrupt his rhythm, how he got it back, and what that means for Game 5…
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The Spurs have maintained the strategy of not letting Brunson get any comfortable looks. He’s pressed 94 feet down the court by the defensive demon Stephon Castle, and his favorable matchups are choices of guys many inches taller than him or Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama.
They’ve had Wembanyama lurking in the paint and are switching or blowing up enough off-ball actions to deter the Knicks from their Karl-Anthony Towns-centric offense, which opened up Brunson’s off-ball game. His free catch-and-shoot or cutting attempts have been few and far between, with only a couple of set plays opening things up for him.
With Brunson largely on the ball, he has consistently seen coverages forcing him to try and score in the packed paint, make the perfect dish-out or hit tough pull-ups. Picks are largely switched among wings, or if Wembanyama is the low man, he’s in a drop that covers twice the space of a normal player.
In the former scenario, that essentially just leaves Brunson playing one-on-one ball, which was much less of a problem against…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knicks-star-jalen-brunson-found-164500410.html
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Publish date : 2026-06-12 16:45:00
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