PHILADELPHIA — Part of the problem is the high bar Jalen Brunson has set for himself. He’s been so good, so often. He’s been a dynamic leader. There was a fun debate crackling across New York after his 47-point explosion Sunday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center if he’d actually usurped Aaron Judge as the face of New York sports.
Just the fact that people are having that conversation with Judge in the core of his prime and popularity and Brunson not yet through two full seasons as a Knick tells you how terrific Brunson has been. Time after time. Game after game.
But that standard comes at a price.
It feels like the Beatles never recorded a bad song. But you can look it up: They sure lent their names to “You Know My Name (Look up the Number).” It seems like every project Steven Spielberg even looks at turns to instant gold; maybe go have another look at “1941” and see if that’s really true.
The truth is, Jalen Brunson woke up Wednesday morning for literally the first time in his 659 days as a Knick shrouded with something other than universal praise. Tyrese Maxey outscored him 46-40, and outplayed him down the stretch. Brunson missed a batch of shots late that he routinely makes, including a buzzkill missed free throw when Joel Embiid picked up his daily flagrant late in OT (though he immediately followed with a game-tying 3). He had a brutal unforced-error turnover a few moments later.
There were actually multiple shouts of “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!” cascading from the Garden’s upper levels during the latter phase of the game, which, given Brunson’s standard approval rating there, sounded like folks booing Springsteen singing “Jersey Girl” at Giants Stadium because he botched a few chords.
“Not good judgement on my part,” Brunson said, leading off his press briefing following the gut-wrenching 112-106 loss Tuesday night. “There was a careless turnover in overtime, and then just making sure we were all on the same page at the end of regulation. Hats off to them, they kept fighting and played the full amount of 53 minutes.”
Now, if you’re looking for hopeful signs, that’s a big one, if an unsurprising one: Brunson immediately owning the loss. Brunson has been like that since the day he arrived. He seems terribly uncomfortable when the balance of credit shifts in his direction so he makes certain to carry as much blame as his shoulders allow, too.
Sometimes it almost seems misguided. Brunson will still occasionally riff about how the Knicks’ elimination game in Miami last spring was his fault, despite the fact that he was fearless and gallant to the end of that one, scoring 41 and keeping the Knicks breathing to the final moments while the other four starters in that game shot 5-for-32.
As recently as February he had this to say about that one: “I cost us that game.”
It wasn’t true then. And he certainly wasn’t alone in why the Knicks surrendered a six-point lead Tuesday with under 30 seconds to play. Everyone had a hand: Mitch Robinson’s awful foul and misguided outlet pass; Josh Hart and OG Anunoby missing late free throws; Deuce McBride having no answers for Maxey; Donte DiVincenzo looking so lost that Thibodeau deemed him unplayable down the stretch.
But those guys, good as they are, are just important parts of the Knicks’ engine.
Brunson is the essential part.
And so when he leaks a little oil, as he did Tuesday, it’s magnified. And if we’re being both honest and fair: Where, exactly, would the Knicks have been without his 40 points, and without his leadership?
“I’ve got to be better,” Brunson said.
Here’s the thing, too: We have seen his body of work for almost two full years. We have seen his body of work over his whole career, actually; and if we have learned anything it’s that he’s the one thing the Knicks won’t have to worry about when they play Game 6 on Thursday at what will surely be a well-oiled arena by the time the ball tips just past 9.
Want to worry? Think about who besides Brunson you really want at the line in crunch time. Want to really worry? For the second straight year, the fact is Brunson is trying to finish games without a legit No. 2 scoring wingman. Last year Julius Randle was hurt and ineffective, this time he’s just out.
It’s been a quiet badge of honor among the Knicks that they’ve gotten this far in that state, and they’ve shown they are capable of keeping that up. The tricky part is that against a team like the Sixers, they can’t always afford for Brunson to merely be good. Thursday, for one, they’ll need him to be “Let it Be” great, and “ET” great.
