Jalen Brunson earns place in Knicks lore with legendary performance

PHILADELPHIA — By the end, the angry basketball constituents of this city had given up trying to drown out the chants. Most of them were halfway to the Ben Franklin Bridge, anyway, having fled when Kyle Lowry, a shrewd player — decided to be too clever by half — purposely missing a free throw without letting his teammates know his intentions. 

So now here was Jalen Brunson at the free-throw line, his knee throbbing and history beckoning, 5.0 seconds to go at the denouement of one of the great playoff games you’ll ever see. The first pushed the Knicks lead to four and all but clinched the game, and a commanding 3-1 series lead in this best-of-seven series with the 76ers. 

The second nudged him into history, slipped him past Bernard King, his 47th point of the game moving him alone into first position on the single-game playoff scoring list, all time, for a team that has been playing playoff games since 1947. It also nailed down a 97-92 Knicks victory that even the 76ers can’t spin in any way other than they were beaten, soundly, at every important moment. 

“Jalen’s a great player,” said OG Anunoby, who would have gotten the game’s second star if basketball copied hockey, who not only had 16 points and 14 rebounds but also managed to contain Joel Embiid in the fourth quarter as well as Embiid can possibly be contained, despite giving away 5 inches and 40 pounds. “You come to expect that.” 

He smiled. 

“You expect him to make every shot.”