Steve Popper: Jalen Brunson bounces back, but turnovers doom Knicks vs. Clippers
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson argues for a foul in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets on Friday in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
LOS ANGELES
It wasn’t unusual to hear Jalen Brunson speak in quiet, measured tones after Sunday afternoon’s loss to the Lakers, putting the blame on his own shoulders even though it could have been spread up and down the roster. It was captain-speak, exaggerating his own faults.
And maybe the easiest prediction to make as you listened to him was that his own offensive struggles wouldn’t last.
From the very start Monday night, Brunson was back to the hard-to-stop scoring force he has been for years.
But what didn’t change from the last game was that it didn’t make a difference.
Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns put on the sort of star performance you need to lift a team on a long road trip in one of the toughest stretches of the schedule. But it wasn’t enough as the same problems that plagued the Knicks a day earlier resurfaced in a 126-118 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers at the Intuit Dome.
Brunson finished with 28 points, shooting 12-for-23, and Towns led the Knicks with 35 points, 13-for-17 shooting, 12 rebounds and seven assists. But it wasn’t the shooting that was the problem for the Knicks, it was the turnovers and defensive lapses.
The Knicks had cut a 15-point deficit to five with just over two minutes to play when Brunson slithered his way into the lane and rose to launch a floater, but Derrick Jones Jr. reached from behind him and blocked the shot. The Clippers responded with a three-point play and a three-point field goal to slow the Knicks' comeback.
With the Knicks trailing by six with 34.9 seconds left, Landry Shamet and OG Anunoby came up empty on a pair of three-pointers, ending the last-gasp hopes.
The back-to-back frustrating losses spoiled the mood that seemed set by the 39-point win in Denver. The Knicks committed 20 turnovers against the Clippers after an 18-turnover performance against the Lakers.
“We had 18 or 19 turnovers last night,” Mike Brown said. “We had 20 tonight, and for 24 points. They outscored us by 14 points just in that area alone. So I like our fight. I like the way we played in the second half for the most part. We’ve just got to find a way to take care of the basketball.
“We’ve been pretty good in that area and yesterday we weren’t and today we weren’t. It’s one of those things we’re going to keep talking about, keep showing it and we’ll see how it goes forward. I’m not going to overreact to two games. On the road against good teams, it impacted the outcome of both games in a very heavy way.”
“I think a lot of them, we were getting downhill and trying to make plays,” Brunson said. “But we got to be better playing off two feet, obviously. Playing more controlled. But they got a lot of guys on their team who are steal guys, who are long wingspans, play passing lanes. That’s what they do. We played to their strengths.”
Brunson, like his teammates and the Knicks’ fan base, has come to expect to be able to bail out his team in games, whether it is with a high-scoring performance — the sort of unstoppable superstar performance that fills highlight reels — or the kind of late-game heroics that earned him the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year award last season.
Before Monday night, though, the offensive explosiveness of Brunson just hadn’t been there. Entering Monday, he had shot under 50% seven times in the last eight games (39.9% overall and 39.4% from two-point range in that span). He averaged 20.6 points in those games after scoring 27.0 points per game before that.
“He’s human and he’s going to have some nights like that,” Brown said before Monday's game. “His track record shows that he can go get it done. It’s not anything I’m concerned about or I’m looking at. When he does have nights like that, how else can you impact the game? And he’s shown that he can do that.”
While Brunson has struggled with his shot and defenses have swarmed him, he has shared the ball, setting up teammates and making defenses pay for the attention focused on him. Entering Monday, he had averaged 12.3 assists per game in the last three outings, including back-to-back 15-assist games against Oklahoma City and Denver.
But still, the Knicks have learned to rely on their star.
“It’s gonna happen,” Brunson said. “It’s part of the game. But you’ve got to continue to trust your work ethic and trust everything you put into it. Those things are gonna come around. That’s why you have to control the controllables.
“It’s part of being in basketball. Like I just said, you’ve got to trust your work ethic. Continue to be in the gym, do your routine, maybe switch it up a little bit, but at the same time, you’re still working on what you’ve got to work on.”
“I think he’s been pretty good and pretty even-keeled,” Josh Hart said. “I’m sure he’s probably frustrated with some of the stuff. Sometimes we probably have got to help him in terms of getting cleaner shots, getting better shots, maybe try to get him more into the flow of it. That’s something that we have to figure out. He works too hard to have bad-shooting games consistently, so we know that’ll turn around. In the meantime, we have to make sure to make it easier on him.”
Even if they do find a way to ease the burden, Brunson will put the pressure on himself.
Asked how much he is putting on himself, he said, “As much as it needs to be.”
Notes & quotes: The Knicks held Mitchell Robinson out of the second half of a back-to-back set. Robinson has yet to play in both ends of a back-to-back this season, and the Knicks have only two remaining.
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.
