CHICAGO — This is the kind of defensive backcourt tailor-made to stop Jalen Brunson.
The kind of stifling perimeter defenders who’ve stopped many dynamic guards who’ve taken the floor at the United Center.
Brunson is not one of them.
The Knicks’ All-Star guard continues to prove he is everything detractors say he is not, including incapable of rising to the moment to pick apart stifling point of attack defenders the likes of which the Bulls employ.
It’s one thing if Brunson does it in Milwaukee, where the Bucks lost their defensive identity after trading for Damian Lillard — a superstar scoring talent who doubles as a net negative on the defensive end.
In Chicago, Alex Caruso and Coby White are two of the NBA’s better defenders at the guard spot.
Brunson doesn’t see defenders — only the bottom of the net, which he found time and time again in a 128-117 Knicks victory over the Bulls in front of a sellout Windy City crowd on Tuesday.
The Knicks’ floor general tallied 45 points on 13-of-24 shooting from the field and 7-of-12 shooting from the three-point line. He also shot a perfect 12-of-12 from the foul line and dished eight assists to help embolden New York’s chances at clinching the playoffs for a second year in a row, with home-court advantage in the playoffs looming as an added bonus.
Thanks to Brunson — and an Orlando Magic loss to the Houston Rockets — the Knicks are now in sole possession of the Eastern Conference’s No. 3 seed.
They are now one game behind the Milwaukee Bucks, who defeated the Boston Celtics on Tuesday but lost Giannis Antetokounmpo to a non-contact calf injury.
Ahead of tipoff, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau complimented Brunson’s ability to find ways to score despite defenders forcing him off the ball more since Julius Randle’s Jan. 27 shoulder injury.
“It’s twofold. You have to see what your opponents are doing, so you have to think about different ways that you can try to offset the things that they’re trying to do. So the more scenarios you can put him into, the more difficult they become,” Thibodeau said on Tuesday. “Sometimes, it’s off the dribble. Sometimes, it’s catch-and-shoot, so it’s off the catch. And then sometimes you’re not bringing a screen into it. So I think the more you can move him around and then a lot depends on what they’re doing defensively, like to try to take advantage of that.”
Brunson’s performance marked his 10th 40-point game of the 2023-24 NBA season. Only two players in Knicks franchise history have scored 40 or more in a season more times: Patrick Ewing, who logged 11 40-point games in the 1989-90 season; and Bernard King, whose 1984-85 season featured a record 13 40-point games.
Brunson also logged his 33rd game with 30 or more points on the season. He is averaging 38.4 points per game since scoring 61 points in the Knicks’ March 29 matchup against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Knicks lost to the Spurs in overtime that night. The Bulls tried their hardest to claw back from down double digits to force an extra period on Tuesday, but Brunson shut the door closed late in the fourth.
Brunson turned the United Center into a laundromat and put Bulls wing defender Javonte Green on spin cycle.
Brunson came off an Isaiah Hartenstein screen at the top of the key, then snatched the ball back to re-establish size-up positioning on Green before hitting him with a behind-the-back then in-and-out crossover and driving to the rim.
Caruso stepped over to contest, but Green fouled Brunson, who floated a layup off the glass before the whistle.
The Knicks star then turned baseline and flexed with both arms towards the Bulls fans sitting courtside before yelling, “and f——g one!”
A long overdue moment for a first-time All-Star who hadn’t gotten the benefit of the officiating whistle all season.
Brunson faces another stifling defensive back court on Thursday, when the Knicks travel to Boston to face the Celtics, who deploy Jrue Holiday and Derrick White — two All-NBA defenders last season — as point of attack hounds on a championship team.
It’s a tall order, one the Knicks need to prepare themselves for in case they meet the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, but not an assignment too tough for Brunson, who continues to rise to the occasion, and lift the Knicks with him.
