Fearless hero Jalen Brunson sets tone for Knicks in momentous comeback
NY Post
Jalen Brunson donned that superhero cape yet again, and his latest second-half explosion spearheaded another frenzied comeback to vault the Knicks within one win of the Eastern Conference finals.
Brunson pumped in 26 of his team-high 39 points in the second half as the Knicks stormed back from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter for a rousing 121-113 win over the Celtics at the Garden to take a 3-1 series lead over the defending NBA champions.
“Times being tough like that, you know he’s going to never dwell from the moment, he’s going to stay locked in and get us there,” Mikal Bridges, who contributed 23 points, said of his former Villanova teammate. “He just wants to win. How he works, and he knows what he likes on the court, where he wants to get to.
“But I really think it’s the will to win and wanting to win a game that he turns up another level because he doesn’t want to lose. It’s great to watch and I’m glad he’s on my side.”
The league’s Clutch Player of the Year had totaled 28 points combined in the fourth quarters of the first three games of the series, also fronting the Knicks to consecutive comeback wins from 20-point deficits in Games 1 and 2 last week in Boston.
But Brunson also had been shooting just 38.1 percent entering Game 4, down from a .436 shooting percentage in the previous round against the Pistons and a .488 mark over 65 appearances during the regular season.
