{"id":341782,"date":"2025-12-10T21:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T21:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/341782\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T21:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T21:27:10","slug":"knicks-jalen-brunson-has-flipped-the-script-of-his-scoring-prowess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/341782\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks\u2019 Jalen Brunson has flipped the script of his scoring prowess"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NBA Cup quarterfinals.<\/a><\/p>\n

TORONTO \u2014 Jalen Brunson spent all of last season putting rival teams to bed.<\/p>\n

His crossovers were like a light kiss on the forehead. His jumper tucked them in. His and-1 finishes turned out the lights.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s captain won last season\u2019s NBA\u2019s Clutch Player of the Year award, an honor that goes to someone who routinely wills their team to victory in the game\u2019s most intense moments. Brunson did it in the regular season and the playoffs. He did it while being defended by players three inches taller, some 20 pounds heavier. A scorer\u2019s scorer.<\/p>\n

A season later, Brunson has flipped the script. He doesn\u2019t need to pop up in teams\u2019 nightmares much anymore. He\u2019s been doing his work early, and the Knicks are reaping the benefits more often than not in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Tuesday night, when New York took down the Toronto Raptors<\/a>, 117-101, in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, was the latest and loudest example of Brunson\u2019s newest endeavor. He scored 35 points, 20 of which came in the first quarter. Brunson is averaging 10.6 points per game in first quarters this season. Only the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Luka Don\u010di\u0107 is averaging more, and he has played in five fewer games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have one of the best players in the NBA on your team and you get to see him do what he does at a high level, it\u2019s always fun,\u201d Karl-Anthony Towns said.<\/p>\n

The Knicks had one thing going for them in the opening minutes against Toronto: Jalen Brunson. The defense was nonexistent \u2014 New York gave up 39 points, which is usually a death sentence for most teams. However, Brunson kept the Knicks afloat, putting up everything with precision. All of Brunson\u2019s 20 first-quarter points came off jumpers. Each one. It was either a pull-up 3 in someone\u2019s face or his patented drive-and-step-back midrange shot.<\/p>\n

There was a moment with about two minutes left in the first quarter when you had to semi-seriously ask yourself whether Wilt Chamberlain\u2019s 100-point scoring record was in jeopardy. There wasn\u2019t going to be a conspiracy behind this performance, though. This would have been captured in 4D for eternity.<\/p>\n

This felt like one of those\u00a0nights, the type that defines and immortalizes the great scorers who have squeaked their sneakers on an NBA court.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe bailed us out offensively in that first quarter,\u201d Knicks head coach Mike Brown said. \u201cWe were able to score with them or keep it close because Jalen had a big first quarter, which he, obviously, is more than capable of doing. That\u2019s just who he is, when you talk about MVP candidate of the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing Josh Hart likes more than taking jabs at Brunson. It pains one to compliment the other, especially when asked to do so while sitting right next to each other. Hart has been front and center for many special Brunson nights. They were college teammates at Villanova and have been teammates for several years in New York, where Brunson has ascended into stardom.<\/p>\n

And yet, even Hart had to concede that even he catches himself saying, \u201cDamn!\u201d when Brunson gets into one of those zones. Tuesday was one of those moments.<\/p>\n

Of course, though, praise couldn\u2019t come before a poke at one of his best friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to watch when you don\u2019t get the ball,\u201d Hart jokingly said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing else to really do but watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, he\u2019s an extremely gifted scorer. I\u2019m happy he\u2019s on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jalen<\/p>\n

\n Jalen Brunson made 13 of his 19 field goal attempts Tuesday night. (Kevin Sousa \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

When asked to speak about himself or his performances, Brunson is typically nonchalant about it all. \u201cThe ball was going through the hoop,\u201d he said after Tuesday\u2019s performance, a night when he finished 13-of-19 from the field. Brunson speaks with genuine humbleness. He also speaks with a matter-of-factness that resembles a killer, which, on the basketball court, he is. There\u2019s enough evidence to point to throughout the years.<\/p>\n

A case could be made that the Knicks\u2019 poster boy is, pound for pound, the best scorer in the NBA. He put the ball in the basket at all three levels. He scores off the dribble. He\u2019s an efficient spot-up shooter. He gets to the line. Brunson does all of this while being generously listed at 6 feet 2. He\u2019s nowhere near the fastest player in the NBA. He might not be able to jump over a stack of phone books anymore.<\/p>\n

Brunson gets by with elite footwork that is second to none and that Brown compares to Kobe Bryant\u2019s. Brunson\u2019s ability to routinely play off two feet keeps him in control of himself and a defender. It\u2019s the fundamentals that separate him from a lot of the other elite scorers in the NBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a conversation about this in our coaches meeting this morning,\u201d Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovi\u0107 said before the Raptors and Knicks faced off in New York late last month. \u201c(Brunson) is the type of player I can put in the same conversations as Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Nikola Joki\u0107. They\u2019re guys who just play at their own pace. You can\u2019t speed them up. Their awareness is amazing. At every point in time, they know where the hand of the defensive player is, what is the footwork, how they can get by somebody, how they can get to their sweet spots on the floor. \u2026 He\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like you said, he\u2019s not the fastest, not the strongest, but his skill level and shooting ability is amazing. It makes him one of the biggest offensive weapons in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks want to be able to take down teams without having to rely on Brunson bailing them out like he did in the first quarter Tuesday night in Toronto. That\u2019s a good goal to have.<\/p>\n

With that said, very few are as good at scoring as Brunson. Sometimes letting him blackout is the best course of action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NBA Cup quarterfinals. TORONTO \u2014 Jalen Brunson spent all of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,361,99],"class_list":["post-341782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}