Jalen Brunson pours in 55 points to lead Knicks to gritty win over lowly Wizards
NY Post
WASHINGTON — For most of four quarters, the Knicks played with their food. They allowed themselves to enter a danger zone against the tanking Wizards, the worst team in the East, and entered their first overtime of the season because legs were tired and their defense devolved into a porous mess.
So what should’ve been an easy evening turned into a dogfight for the Knicks, who required Jalen Brunson to morph into hero mode and drop 55 points to squeak out Saturday’s 136-132 OT win.
Brunson was a machine and did it unconventionally by today’s NBA standards, needing just three 3-pointers to reach his double-nickel.
He dropped 28 points in the paint, scored 42 overall after halftime, knocked down 16 free throws and collected nine assists, and the Knicks (22-10) needed all of it.
“It just happened,” Brunson said. “That’s the way the game was flowing. I looked up at the scoreboard, and it says 50-something.”
Saturday represented New York’s seventh straight victory and also its most unnecessarily dramatic. The Wizards are young and feisty and were led with 31 points from Justin Champagnie, the brother of former St. John’s star Julian Champagnie.
The Rangers hit the mark with their on-ice ceremony honoring Mika Zibanejad ahead of his 1,000th NHL game Monday night.
PORT ST. LUCIE — For now, Craig Kimbrel is choosing Mets purgatory.
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Almost a year to the day after a goaltender interference call against Kyle Palmieri lost the Islanders a game against the Blue Jackets that started their season’s death spiral, they were on the wrong end of another controversial call against those same Blue Jackets that might have had the same effect.
On the Queens side of town, the reno began in earnest almost as soon as Francisco Lindor grounded into the 4-6-3 double play. That ended a 4-0 loss before a rare sizable crowd at Miami’s loanDepot Park last Sept. 27, all of them there to witness the final death rattles of an epic baseball calamity.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is being paid handsomely for his breakout season.
Next comes the harder part. Mostly because it can’t get any easier.
It was Kids Day at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but for the Rangers, it’s been All About The Kids for months.
PORT ST. LUCIE — From the moment he was told he needed surgery on his left hamate bone, Francisco Lindor fixated on the recovery time. Trainers provided the Mets shortstop a six-week pathway to return to play, and Lindor was determined to hit every marker.
Dylan Garand knew the number off the top of his head. He knew that, between the regular season and playoffs, he’d logged over 160 games with AHL Hartford, and he was right. Before the Rangers recalled him Friday, Garand had served as the Wolf Pack’s goaltender 165 times.
SAN DIEGO — As you may have seen elsewhere in this newspaper (and also if you haven’t deleted me yet from your social media), I have a book coming out Tuesday called “The Bosses of The Bronx.” Much of it details the 37 years’ worth of antics, winning, losing, winning again and overall mania of George Steinbrenner’s time with the Yankees.
Don’t close the curtain on “Mean” Joe Greene.