Jalen Brunson didn’t hesitate with his answer. He’d just attempted a career-high 26 shots and finished with his fifth-worst conversion percentage (30.8) in a postseason game. For so many nights this season, and in many obvious ways, Brunson was the reason why the Knicks won, secured the No. 2 seed and were in that spot — celebrating the immediate aftermath of a 111-104 triumph over the 76ers in Game 1 of their series — to begin with.
But for one night, the Knicks needed a different hero.
So when asked about what it took for the Knicks to erase their deficit to start the fourth quarter and survive the opener, Brunson, in an on-court interview with MSG, uttered the words “Deuce McBride” and nodded his head as the fans around him responded by shouting Miles McBride’s nickname in the same style Springsteen fans would at a concert — a drawn-out echo that sounded as if it’d reverberate through the Garden’s exits, out onto Seventh Avenue and last until Game 2 tipped off Monday.
Brunson, with just eight baskets, finished with 22 points. McBride, in just 28 minutes, finished with 21. He was joined by a collection of contributions from Josh Hart, Isaiah Hartenstein, Mitchell Robinson and others — basically anyone in Tom Thibodeau’s eight-man rotation — that were just enough to overcome Brunson’s struggles, providing a blueprint the Knicks hope to never use again but, as their victory demonstrated, could if needed.
