{"id":658598,"date":"2026-05-22T14:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/658598\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T14:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:28:09","slug":"jalen-brunson-jokes-about-assists-to-josh-hart-after-knicks-playoff-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/658598\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Brunson Jokes About Assists to Josh Hart After Knicks’ Playoff Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jalen Brunson<\/a> had a comical reaction to Josh Hart<\/a>‘s Game 2 eruption against the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks<\/a> defeated Cleveland 109-93 Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks now hold a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.<\/p>\n

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Hart exploded for a playoff career-high 26 points, seven assists and four rebounds. He proved instrumental to New York<\/a>‘s 18-0 third-quarter run.<\/p>\n

A big part of that surge came from Brunson feeding Hart, who went 5-of-11 from three-point range. Brunson also delivered 19 points and a playoff career-high 14 assists, the most by a Knicks player in a playoff game since Charlie Ward in 1998<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then came his hilarious admission that feeding Hart was never the intention.<\/p>\n

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“I’m really not trying to look for him, he just happens to be open,” Brunson told reporters postgame, drawing laughs from the room.<\/p>\n

Brunson was joking, at least partly. The two have spent years ribbing each other. The quip landed exactly as intended.<\/p>\n

Before suiting up together in New York, the pair played two seasons at Villanova. They won the NCAA national championship together in 2016.<\/p>\n

Their bond runs deep enough to spawn their own podcast. Brunson and Hart co-host the “Roommates Show” alongside Matt Hillman. Brunson made clear that the jokes only go so far.<\/p>\n

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“I have the utmost confidence in him,” Brunson said postgame. “Watching the things he does after practice, the routine, and everything. He works hard. I know we joke around about his practice habits, but he just works hard.”<\/p>\n

The Knicks now sit two wins away from the NBA<\/a> Finals. Brunson and Hart’s lighthearted chemistry on and off the court has been central to New York’s inspiring playoff run.<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Evan Turner Predicts Winner of Knicks-Cavaliers Series<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on May 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jalen Brunson had a comical reaction to Josh Hart‘s Game 2 eruption against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[8174,62393,36783,61628,355,2005,361,99],"class_list":["post-658598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-eastern-conference-finals","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-josh-hart","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658598","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=658598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}