Brunson Put Knicks On His Back Down Stretch. NY 110 Philadelphia 105

February 27, 2025 LouV 2024-25 0
Jalen Brunson scored 11 straight Knick points in the closing minutes to rescue NY. Photo courtesy NY Knicks.

Jalen Brunson put the Knicks on his back and carried them to a win — scoring 11 straight NY points in the closing minutes to turn a 4-pt Philly lead with 2:42 left into a 107-102 Knick lead with 32 seconds left.

On a Wednesday night at a ROCKING Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks were without Karl-Anthony Towns — resting a day with a sore knee — and of course Philly is without Joel Embiid. NY jumped out to a 19-pt lead by the 2nd quarter, led by a Mikal Bridges scoring spree, and it looked like an impending blowout — as Philly had lost 7 straight coming in and has been playing miserable ball.

But this was Madison Square Garden, and the 76’er players turned around and put on their best effort in weeks. Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and Kelly Oubre led Philly back little-by-little, until they took the lead for the first time in the game, 97-96 with 3:59 left.

That’s when Brunson put his cape on, and after that it was Brunson, Brunson, Brunson, and more Brunson. And a little bit of Precious Achiuwa defense — he had the shot block of the game against 7-footer Andre Drummond with 34 seconds left (and had 4 shot blocks on the night) — and Josh Hart rebounds (he had 17).

Brunson finished with 34 pts and Bridges had 28.

Thibs’ Thoughts

“We built a big lead, they hit some shots on us, closed the gap,” said coach Tom Thibodeau afterwards. “Then start of the 4th they had Maxey and George in — they call it the gap there — we were trying to buy some time. Then we made timely plays down the stretch to pull it out.”

“(Brunson) hit big shot after big shot,” continued Thibs, “We had a number of guys step up and make big plays. They’re tough covers. Maxey is a load to deal with; Paul George is a load to deal with; and Oubre is one of the most underrated guys in the league. I thought Drummond gave them good minutes too. We knew it would be a hard-fought game; just find a way to win.”

“Mikal was terrific,” Thibs added. “Not only his scoring but he was on Maxey the whole time, and they were running a lot of stuff for him, and he’s dangerous in every phase of the game, whether it’s transition, it’s the pick and roll, it’s off the ball, catch and shoot, layers — that type of stuff — you have to get around screens the whole time.”

NY improves to 38-20, still tied with Denver and Memphis for the 4th best record in the NBA. Philly drops to 20-38.

1. Bridges Scoring Explosion Leads NY to Early Lead

With Karl-Anthony Towns out, Ariel Hukporti got his first start in the NBA — and scored the first Knick bucket on a slam dunk inside.

The Knicks edged out to a 7-4 lead on scoring by Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson, and then Mikal Bridges went NUTS — scoring 11 straight points: a 10-ft jumper, a dunk off a Brunson assist, a pullup, another J, and a 3 — the last 4 buckets all off Brunson feeds — and NY was up 19-8.

Bridges continued to score throughout the 1st quarter — another 3, a couple of 10-footers, and a free throw off a drive — as the Knicks continued to look for him with the ball and run plays for him.

2. NY Up by 19 in 2nd Quarter

NY took an 11-pt lead into the 2nd quarter and then the 2nd team of Cameron Payne, Miles McBride, and Precious Achiuwa not only kept the lead but pushed it to the teens.

The starters came back and pushed the lead to 19 points.

An Arial Hukporti dunk off a Josh Hart assist made it 50-32 NY with 4:32 left in the half, and a Brunson floater with 3:52 left put NY up 52-33 — what would be their largest lead of the night.

“Brunson puts and keeps his defender at his mercy,” enthused NBA Analyst Ross Kreines.

3. Philly Pulls Back into Game in 3rd

The Knicks had a 16-pt lead at the half — but Philly — coached by Nick Nurse — regrouped and got back into the game in the 3rd, pulling to within 9 points by the end of the quarter. They were not going to go away.

Tyrese Maxey was using his split-second speed to blow past Knick defenders, and getting calls from the refs on any kind of contact, which had Miles McBride shaking his head after getting called for fouls with minimal contact.

Kelly Oubre Jr was a marksman — going 9-14 on the night and 4-6 from 3 for 24 pts. And Paul George was having what some said was his best night for Philly since they signed him to a 4-year, $50-to-$55-Million a year contract last summer — scoring 25 pts on 9-20 shooting (4-9 from 3).

4. Philly Takes 4-Pt Lead with 2:42 Left

OG Anunoby looked a little awkward on a couple of drives on the night — but with 8:32 left he was fouled on an ahead-of-field drive — that Philly’s Nick Nurse challenged and won — the refs saying OG walked just before the foul. It seemed OG was fouled as much or more than Maxey had been on many of his drives — but the refs didn’t see it like that — and Maxey scored on a drive on the other end to pull Philly within 7.

Then Ariel Hukporti went out with a slight knee sprain — OG Anunoby replacing him — and so down the stretch the 6’8 Precious was at center — which turned out to be prescient.

NY withstood Philly’s early-4th-quarter ‘gap’ attack and were still up 9 with 6:35 left after a Brunson bag-of-tricks drive.

But Philly went on a scoring flurry — with Maxey’s super-quick drives — and getting calls on minimal contact when he missed — and Oubre Jr nailing shots, and Paul George doing his best Dean Martin. Philly sliced into the lead until a Paul George 3 pulled them to within 1 point with just over 4 minutes left, and then a Tyrese Maxey drive put them ahead, 97-96 with 3:59 left.

An Oubre 3 put Philly up by 2, and then a Tyrese Maxey floater put Philly up by 4 pts at 102-98 with 2:42 left. The Knicks were in disarray — it was looking like it was going to be a very bad evening for NY.

5. Brunson Puts Cape On

And that’s when Jalen Brunson put his cape on.

He drove — got fouled — and hit 2 free throws to pull NY to within 2 pts. At that point Brunson was 12-12 in free throws on the night.

Maxey — who despite his brilliance on drives was 0-10 from 3 for the game — missed a 3 and Brunson came down and used his splendid footwork to score inside and tie the game, 102-102 with 1:59 left.

Maxey missed a drive — Josh Hart defending — and then down the other end Brunson hit a HUGE 3 and NY was up 105-102 with 1:28 left as Mike Breen on the broadcast seemed to will it in and MSG erupted.

Knick defense caused Paul George to turn the ball over inside — Philly’s Nick Nurse challenged the call saying Anunoby had hit George’s hand but lost the challenge — it was ruled incidental contact after the ball had become loose — and NY had the ball again with a 3-pt lead.

But Brunson missed a drive and Precious missed the offensive tip in and here came Philly again, down 3 with 53 seconds left.

6. Precious Defense

Ty Maxey drove to the basket with 35 seconds left and Philly down 3, but again Knick defense defended him well, forcing a miss. But the 7-foot Drummond got the offensive rebound and was about to put it back up for a 2-foot chippie — and that’s when 6’8 Precious Achiuwa came up with the block of the game — going straight up to knock the ball out the 7’0 Drummonds’ hand from underneath.

7. Final Seconds

Philly had to foul, and Brunson made both free throws — at that point he was 14-14 on the night — to give NY a 5-pt lead with 32 seconds left.

But Philly came right back: a quick Ty Maxey drive out of a timeout to pull within 3 with 28 seconds left — a play expertly drafted by Nick Nurse.

The Knicks and Thibs did the same thing right back at them: OG Anunoby all alone for a dunk after a time out — a play expertly drafted by Tom Thibideau.

After some free throws (Brunson missed one to go 15-16 on the night) NY was still up by 5 when Tyrese Maxey missed another 3 with 13 seconds left for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401705404

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