It feels impossible. It appears implausible. It seems, at the very least, unsustainable. Maybe it’s all of those three things. Maybe there will come a night, or a team, that has an answer for Jalen Brunson, that outduels the basketball grunge band known as the New York Knicks. Maybe it’ll be the Pacers, as early as Wednesday night.
We’ll have to see on Wednesday.
For now, the Knicks are 1-0 up in this series thanks to an impossible and implausible 121-117 win over Indiana. They won this one the way they won all four of the games against Philadelphia in the first round, playing a little rope-a-dope the first 40 or so minutes, then closing.
Mariano Rivera was in the building Monday night. He had to like what he saw out of the Grunge Knicks, and especially out of Brunson. Brunson is a basketball Rivera, a dead-eye closer. This time, he scored 21 of his 43 points in the fourth quarter. They trailed by nine points early in that period. They trailed by two with a minute and a half left.
Then, Tom Thibodeau made like Joe Torre, handed the ball to Brunson.
“What do we need?” Thibodeau asked. “That’s what he’s going to give us.”
Here’s what he gave them, starting with 1:14 left in the game:
Twelve-footer. Tied, 115-115.
He found Donte DiVincenzo open, behind the 3-point arc. When it splashed, it felt like one of the trains six stories below had made its way through the Madison Square Garden floor. It was 118-115.
Then three free throws. And that was that.
“We just find a way,” said Brunson, first player in NBA history — say those five words again — to score 40-plus points and have five-plus assists in five straight playoff games. “We give each other confidence to make sure we get the job done and move forward together.”
It feels impossible. It appears implausible. It seems, at the very least, unsustainable. And yet here was another game when the Knicks aimed a razzberry at the Minutes Police, the starters playing 214 of a possible 240 minutes, Josh Hart (24/13/8) going all 48, DiVincenzo (25 points, 5-for-9 from 3) logging 44, OG Anunoby (13 points, nine boards, countless defensive deflections) clocking in at 42.
And Brunson, of course, at 44.
“We always stay present,” said Isaiah Hartenstein, the slacker of the bunch with 36. “Especially down the stretch.”
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What we learned Monday night was something we suspected: the Pacers are going to be a hassle, and a handful. They nearly stole one with their star guard Tyrese Haliburton having a miserable game (six points, three turnovers). In truth, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle probably goofed pulling T.J. McConnell, who lived up to the “annoying little s–t” badge of honor Hart bestowed on him the other day, at game’s end.
Carlisle, and the other Pacers, will probably tell you privately the refs goofed with 12.1 seconds left when Myles Turner was whistled for an offensive foul as the Pacers were fixing to try a game-winner at the buzzer. Maybe they did. It sure was close.
“We’re not expecting to get calls in here,” Carlisle said. “It’d be nice if they laid off that one but they didn’t. That’s just the way it goes.”
Maybe there’ll be a critical two-minute report Tuesday. Monday, the critical 48-minute report was all that mattered.
“They played fast and physical,” said DiVincenzo, who scored 21 of his 25 in the second half. “We had to match that.”
“Our way,” Thibodeau said, “is that we have to play hard.”
They did. They so often do. The Garden was deafening at the start and devastating at the end, and in the middle kept waiting to see the version of the Knicks that tortured the 76ers in the first round. Then those Knicks arrived, just in the nick of time, grunge band in shorts, a basketball Soundgarden that made the Garden sound as alive as it has in years.
(Or at least in the 24 hours since the Rangers did the same thing Sunday.)
“It wasn’t a great win for us, but a win is a win,” Hart said. “We’d always rather learn off a win than off a loss.”
There’s more basketball ahead, lots of it, believe that. Haliburton can’t be this bad again. McConnell will be back for more. So will old friend Obi Toppin, who was terrific in only 19 minutes (12/6/3), another guy Carlisle might’ve done well to play more. Turner is a load. So is Pascal Siakam. They get another crack Wednesday.
For now? For the Knicks? It feels impossible. It appears implausible. It seems, at the very least, unsustainable. Maybe it’s all three of those things. Someone is going to have to prove it first.
