Few gamers in NBA historical past have delivered postseason manufacturing fairly like Jalen Brunson’s.
On Thursday, Brunson grew to become the fourth participant ever to file 10 video games of at the very least 30 factors and at the very least 5 assists in a single playoff run.
The others?
Michael Jordan, who achieved the feat thrice.
LeBron James, who additionally did it in three totally different postseasons.
And Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who, like Brunson, joined that unique membership this yr as he led his Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder to the NBA Finals.
Brunson’s tenth such efficiency got here in Thursday’s Sport 5 of the Jap Convention Finals, when his 32 factors and 5 assists helped lead the Knicks to a 111-94 win over the Indiana Pacers at Madison Sq. Backyard.
“He was cooking, that’s what I saw,” Karl-Anthony Cities mentioned of Brunson after that Sport 5 win. “When he’s playing like that and he’s hitting shots, obviously it energizes everyone.”
In fact, there’s context to these numbers.
The NBA postseason didn’t develop to 4 rounds till 1984, and the primary spherical didn’t change into a best-of-seven collection till 2003.
The Knicks wanted six video games to get previous the Detroit Pistons within the first spherical and 6 video games to get rid of the Boston Celtics within the second spherical, awarding Brunson extra alternatives to achieve these statistics.
Thursday marked Brunson’s seventeenth recreation of the postseason.
However his firm is undeniably elite.
Jordan grew to become the primary participant with 10 video games of 30+ factors and 5+ assists in a single postseason in 1989.
He repeated the feat in 1990 and 1992.
Jordan’s Chicago Bulls misplaced within the Jap Convention Finals in 1989 and 1990, they usually received the NBA Finals in 1992.
James, in the meantime, achieved these numbers in 2015, 2017 and 2018. He was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers all three years and misplaced within the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors every time.
Brunson entered Saturday evening’s Sport 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis averaging 30.1 factors and seven.0 assists per recreation this postseason.
Within the video games after Knicks losses, Brunson was averaging 31.9 factors and seven.3 assists. The Knicks have been 6-1 in these video games, and Brunson posted a plus/minus of +71.
“I wanted to [set the tone], for sure,” Brunson mentioned after Sport 5, when he scored 14 factors within the first quarter. “But it was more than putting the ball in the basket. I mean, that happened, but just trying to make sure we’re all on the same page and ready to go and just trying to give everyone energy.”
Thursday’s recreation was Brunson’s twenty first playoff efficiency with at the very least 30 factors as a member of the Knicks in 41 alternatives.
Earlier within the postseason, Brunson set the Knicks file for profession 30-point video games within the playoffs, passing Patrick Ewing, who had 18 in 135 video games — albeit in a lower-scoring period of the NBA.
Brunson made illustrious historical past final postseason, too, when he grew to become the fifth participant with 5 consecutive video games of at the very least 30 factors and at the very least 5 assists. The others are Jordan, James, Oscar Robertson and Kobe Bryant.
Final yr additionally noticed Brunson change into the fourth participant with 4 consecutive 40-point playoff video games, becoming a member of Jordan, Jerry West and Bernard King.
