Knicks' Jalen Brunson returns against former team, scores 28 in win over Mavericks
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson dribbles against Mavericks guard Max Christie in the first half of an NBA basketball game on Wednesday in Dallas. Credit: AP/Tony Gutierrez
DALLAS — The Knicks took the mystery of Jalen Brunson’s status Wednesday all the way to the deadline to announce it, but really, there was little mystery attached to the questionable status or the talk of a game time decision.
For Brunson, any game is treasured, but a chance to face the team that let him walk away in the city that he thought he would spend his career, certainly would nudge the status of his sprained right ankle to the side of suiting up. When the game began he was in the starting lineup and you’d be hard-pressed to have seen a hint of any injury in the ensuing 48 minutes.
Brunson took his usual star turn in the spotlight and it was just enough as the Knicks escaped American Airlines Center with a 113-111 win over the Mavericks for their first road win of the season.
Brunson had a team-high 28 points — all in the first three quarters but one free throw with 3.8 seconds remaining. Dallas ran a beautiful inbounds play, Derrick Lively catching the ball near midcourt and leading Brandon Williams up the sideline. He drove in for what would have been the tying basket, but hooked Landry Shamet and an offensive foul was called, waving off the basket and ending the game.
In the biggest spot, with the Knicks trailing by two just over a minute remaining, it was Brunson combining with Josh Hart (16 points) to steal the ball from Naji Marshall and when Shamet found Brunson on the break in the corner, this time he drove into the middle and kicked it out to Shamet, open in the corner for a three that pushed the Knicks in front, 109-108, with 1:02 left.
Hart then found Shamet after an offensive rebound and he delivered from three again, giving the Knicks a 112-109 advantage with 31.4 seconds to play. And after an empty trip for Dallas, it was Shamet who went to the line and but he missed twice, giving the Mavs an opening to tie. After they misfired, Mitchell Robinson was fouled and he missed a pair, too. Marshall hit a pair of free throws for Dallas with 5.9 seconds remaining and the knicks inbounded with a one-point advantage.
The Knicks had to use their last timeout attempting to inbound in the backcourt and a second chance got the ball to Brunson. He missed the first free throw but secured the second for the final margin.
Dallas was without Cooper Flagg, a late scratch with illness, along with a long list of already injured pieces including Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. Even with its stars Dallas entered the night last in the NBA in three-point field goals made per game and 29th in percentage. But against the Knicks defense, which has been leaky against threes all season long, the Mavs converted 16-of-44.
Brunson left Dallas for New York for a lot of reasons — some that earned the Knicks a penalty for tampering although it’s hard to put a definition to the relationships he held with the Knicks with his godfather, Leon Rose, serving as team president, Tom Thibodeau the head coach at the time, who had seen him on courts since his childhood, and Rick Brunson, his father, serving as an assistant coach.
But Brunson has also flourished on the big stages. For a night here in Dallas, it was one, but there is no bigger stage than Madison Square Garden where Brunson has become an All-NBA star.
“Yeah, one, he’s one of the best players in the world when you look at, he was tough here,” said Mavs coach Jason Kidd, who helped nourish Brunson’s growth in the NBA during their time together. “He might use his right hand a little bit more that we tried to talk to him about using here. But I think you look at Brunson’s basketball IQ, his work ethic, he loves the game.
“When you ask about what’s grown, he loves the stage and when you’re playing for the Knicks what bigger stage you can be on. He’s not going to run from it. He’s going to embrace it. Just as we get older in life he knows what he has to do.”
Kidd understands it, having been on that stage himself in the final season of his own Hall of Fame career. He joined a team led by Carmelo Anthony and helped the Knicks to a berth in the Eastern Conference semifinals before the season ended in Indiana and his career did, too.
“It’s the Mecca,” Kidd said. “it’s one of the most popular places to play the game of basketball. I would say I enjoyed that one year. The car ran out of gas at the end. I had to park it.”
He paused before adding, referring to his time with the Nets when they were back-to-back Eastern Conference champs, “But I really enjoyed that place when I played on the other side of the river in New Jersey, because we owned it.” He paused again and said, “Wanted to see if I could make you guys laugh. I’ve been practicing that all day.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
