Brunson returns to lineup just four days after scary ankle injury
The Jalen Brunson did not last long.
The star point guard returned from a one-game absence and played over 37 effective minutes in the Knicks’ 125-111 loss to the Pacers on Saturday at the Garden.
Even if not 100 percent, Brunson easily was the best player on the team and scored 39 points on 14-of-25 shooting, on the court until the very end despite a score that became lopsided.
Brunson felt “fantastic,” he scare said facetiously, after mostly looking like himself.
Earlier in the day, Brunson had been called a game-time decision with a sprained right ankle that would not allow him to play in Thursday’s loss to the Mavericks and that represented one of the most significant worries of the Knicks’ season.
But Brunson, who suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s win over the Grizzlies, avoided a serious sprain and was back on the court just four days later. He went through a pregame warmup, felt good and got the green light.
“[I will play] when I feel like I can do the things I do and obviously play unusual basketball — not the normal style of basketball — just making sure I can go out there and be who I am for as long as I’m out there,” Brunson said. “When I feel that type of confidence, that’s when I know [I can play].”
The Knicks, who also welcomed Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks to the team, lost the game but at least fielded a representative roster. Without Brunson and several subtracted at the trade deadline Thursday, Miles McBride started at point guard (and scored 21 points, but on 22 shots) for a team that had just eight bodies available.
Brunson, of course, has become the most important body — even with Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson out with injury. The first-time All-Star point guard is averaging 27.5 points and 6.5 assists per game during a career-best season that has catapulted the Knicks into true contention.
Brunson has gotten stronger as the season has gotten longer and has averaged 33.8 points in six games after Randle dislocated his shoulder. It is not just that Brunson has been brilliant but that he has been consistently brilliant: He has played in 50 of the Knicks’ 53 games.
The Knicks’ hope will be
that Brunson is fully past the sprain. Asked if he would have to wait until Sunday morning to believe the injury scare is in the past, Brunson said: “I don’t know. That’s a good question. … We’ll see.”
Saturday marked the first time Brunson played alongside Burks, who had been with the Knicks in an earlier stint for a season and a half and left for Detroit after the 2021-22 season. As Burks exited a mediocre Knicks team, Brunson joined and helped accelerate the rise.
“Just the difference Jalen has made,” Burks said before the game about the difference with the Knicks now and then. “I mean, he’s an unbelievable player. I feel like bringing him helped the rebuild even better.”