Jalen Brunson is making a name for himself as a big-time player, potentially carrying the New York Knicks into the second round of the playoffs.
Brunson led the Knicks to a 126-97 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. The Knicks now have a 3-2 lead over the Hawks in their best-of-seven, first-round Eastern Conference series and will try to clinch the series on Thursday in Atlanta.
Knicks Dominate Game 5
Brunson scored 39 points with eight assists and a game-high plus-23 rating in Tuesday’s romp over the Hawks in New York. In five playoff games, he is averaging 28.2 points and 5.8 assists.
Brunson has scored 26-plus points in four of the five contests and continues to provide matchup problems for Atlanta.
Atlanta coach Quin Snyder acknowledged the difficulty in containing Brunson. “We’ll keep putting different guys on him, changing matchups, trying to do anything we can to make it hard on him,” Snyder said.
Knicks coach Mike Brown stated they were, “trying to move him around as much as we can so they can’t catch a rhythm with him”.
Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 16 points and 14 rebounds, while OG Anunoby added 17 points and 10 rebounds.
“OG and KAT were monsters,” Brown said. “They were phenomenal.”
Hawks Struggle to Find Offensive Rhythm
Atlanta struggled offensively in Game 5, with no player reaching 20 points. Jalen Johnson scored 18, and Dyson Daniels added 17.
CJ McCollum, who was the hero of Atlanta’s Game 2 win in New York, struggled, going 3-of-10 shooting with six points.
The Hawks conceded defeat when they cleared the bench trailing by 24 with 4:09 remaining.
The Physicality Factor
The Knicks were able to make the game more physical, which is the style New York prefers against the more finesse game Atlanta desires.
Atlanta center Onyeka Okongwu said, “We’ve just got to play through it. We can’t let their physicality take us out of what we want to do.”
Johnson’s playoff performance has dipped compared to his regular season stats. He is averaging 19.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists in the playoffs, compared to 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists during the regular season.
Snyder stated, “They did what they were supposed to do, protecting home court. Their defense never really let us establish consistently how we need to play to beat them.”
Knicks Prepare for Tough Closeout Game
The Knicks are aware of the challenge ahead despite their dominant win.
“We just understand what the situation is. The toughest game to win is the one that ends someone’s season,” Towns said.
Towns added, “We’ve got to be super disciplined. We have to execute at the highest level that we have in this series. We have to be ready for a really tough game.”
Atlanta need to rediscover their usual form to stay in the series. “We’re not really playing like ourselves. We’re not running. We’re not moving the ball. We’re not spacing,” Okongwu said. “The things that we did to get us to this point of the year, we’re not doing well enough. So we have to do that on Thursday.”
The Knicks produced a tough-guy effort on Tuesday.