BOSTON — The best team in the NBA threw all it could at Jalen Brunson. By the end, it was as if the Boston Celtics didn’t attempt enough.
The Celtics’ top-flight defenders couldn’t slow the New York Knicks point guard. They scrolled through defensive coverages, some as creative as Brunson has faced this season. None hampered him as intended.
These days, not much does.
Brunson and the Knicks eviscerated Boston on Thursday. The Celtics’ cosmetic final period prettied up the result, a 118-109 win for New York, which led by as many as 31 points in the second half — thanks, in part, to another sparkler from Brunson, who fell one point short of his third consecutive 40-point performance.
“The way he plays, the things he can do, it’s definitely special,” OG Anunoby said. “He’s one of the best in the league. He’s playing like an MVP; (he) should win MVP.”
The Knicks (48-32) are third in the Eastern Conference but could still finish anywhere from second to sixth. The East is so jumbled that even with only two games remaining, they could still play any of five teams in Round 1. If the bracket breaks in a friendly way, they could win multiple playoff series.
Wherever they go, Brunson will carry them — and not because he’s the league’s fourth-leading scorer, not because he’s dropped 35-plus points in five consecutive games, not because he is their No. 1 source of offense, not even because for a second consecutive season his production has crescendoed over the second half.
In an age of offense, lots of players can score. But only a handful can bend a defense the way Brunson did against the Celtics, who reeled off a catalog of strategies Thursday and still couldn’t find one that worked.
GO FURTHER
Jalen Brunson’s ‘special’ performance against Celtics not just about the numbers
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