Brunson gets 47 to power Knicks over host 76ers
Jalen Brunson had just finished the highest-scoring game of his playoff career, the highest ever by a New York Knicks player in the postseason, and he was impressed.
Not by his own performance. Brunson loathes talking about that.
He meant by the Knicks fan base, which came into Philadelphia, took over the arena and made Joel Embiid as miserable as the guys wearing blue.
Brunson scored a career playoff-high 47 points, added 10 assists and the Knicks beat the 76ers 97-92 on Sunday to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Brunson had a 41-point game for Dallas against Utah in 2022 and another for the Knicks last year against Miami, but that one came in the Game 6 where the Knicks’ season ended.
He wouldn’t let them lose Sunday and a crowd that seemed split between big Northeast cities had a decidedly Knicks sound down the stretch.
“The Philadelphia fan base is, I said this before, they’re very relentless and very passionate. I mean, I’m an Eagles fan, I would know,” said Brunson, who won two national championships playing collegiately for Villanova. “But seeing the Knicks here and hearing the Knicks here, it was pretty cool and it’s awesome.”
Not for Embiid, who had to hear Brunson get louder chants of “MVP! MVP!” than the guy who actually won the award last season.
“Disappointing. It’s unfortunate,” Embiid said. “I’m not calling them out but it is disappointing,” adding that he’s aware that Knicks fans often make the short train trip for the road games.
But Brunson’s performance was too marvelous not to cheer as he surpassed the 46 points scored by Bernard King in 1984.
OG Anunoby added 16 points and 14 rebounds, and took on some of the defensive assignment against Embiid in the fourth quarter as the Knicks moved to within a victory of getting to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second straight year.
Embiid finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Tyrese Maxey added 23 points for the 76ers.
Saturday’s late game
Boston 104, at Miami 84:
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown each scored 22 points, and the Celtics soundly beat the Heat to a take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Tatum added 10 rebounds and six assists for the Celtics, who led Game 3 wire-to-wire and reclaimed the home-court edge they lost when Miami won Game 2 in Boston. Kristaps Porzingis had 18 points and Derrick White scored 16 for the Celtics, who used runs of 12-3, 11-0 and 20-8 in the first half to take control.
Bam Adebayo scored 20 points for eighth-seeded Miami, which remains without starters Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier because of injuries. Nikola Jovic and Tyler Herro each scored 15 for the Heat, who got 12 from Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Game 4 is Monday in Miami, where the Celtics are 9-2 in their last 11 games and 6-1 in their last seven playoff games.
It was a season low in points scored for Miami and a season low in points allowed for Boston.
Bucks’ stars out
The Milwaukee Bucks were without injured AllStars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard for Sunday night’s playoff game at Indiana.
Both were officially listed as out for a pivotal Game 4 on Sunday’s injury report.
Antetokounmpo has sat out the first three games in this series and has not played since straining his left calf April 9. Lillard joined the injury list after Friday’s Game 3 loss . He twisted his left knee in the first quarter, went to the locker room and then injured his Achilles tendon in the waning minutes of regulation.