NEW YORK (AP) — Even while Jalen Brunson was having his worst game of the postseason, the New York Knicks wanted him on the floor.
Instead, the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year was stuck watching a critical stretch of crunch time in Game 5 on Tuesday night from the scorer’s table.
The ball wouldn’t go out of bounds and nobody would commit a foul to stop the clock, which kept running from the time Brunson and Josh Hart checked out with injuries with 2:57 remaining all the way until just 27 seconds remained.
The Knicks trailed by six by then and lost 106-103 to the Detroit Pistons, cutting their lead to 3-2 in the first-round series.
“It’s tough, but I have the utmost faith, regardless of the result, in my teammates, no matter who’s out there,” Brunson said of that stretch. “Trust, faith, belief, all that. I’ll always have that in my teammates.”
They tried to pick up the slack on a night Brunson shot just 4 for 16 from the field and scored 16 points, a little under half the 33.3 he had averaged through the first four games. Three other Knicks scored more than Brunson, who had at least 30 in each of the first four games.
“Offensively, I didn’t make good decisions personally,” Brunson said. “The ball wasn’t going in the hoop for me, but I’ve just got to control things I can control and go from there.”
Despite his struggles, the game was tied at 95 before Jalen Duren’s dunk with 3:09 to play. Hart appeared to hurt his wrist or hand on a hard landing on the play, and it appeared Brunson may have aggravated his right ankle injury during the possession.
So, with Hart still down, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau had to call time with 2:57 and take both players out. That left the Knicks with only one remaining, which he didn’t want to use to stop the clock so Brunson and Hart could have re-entered.
“Just where we were with our timeouts,” Thibodeau said. “Coach’s decision.”
Brunson would score only three points in the fourth quarter after he had 12 or more in the final period in each of the first four games. Late game is usually when he shines, as he was the runaway winner of the award voted to the player deemed best in the clutch, which is defined by when the score differential is within five points or less, and the game is in either the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or in overtime.
But after having to watch a portion of it Tuesday, he insisted there’s no problem with the ankle, which forced him to miss 15 games late in the season.
“I’m all good,” he said.
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