Nursing a right foot injury, the relentless Knicks point guard pushed New York to a commanding 2–0 lead in the second-round series.
The pain was evident, even if the stoic Jalen Brunson refused to give into it. Whatever triggered Brunson’s right foot injury, which he appeared to tweak in the first quarter of Wednesday’s Game 2 of the second-round series between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers, the impact was obvious. There was no burst on Brunson’s first drive to the basket in the third quarter. Defensively, he looked a step slow.
Each game, the legend of Brunson grows. His 36 points per contest in April helped push the Knicks, who have been without Julius Randle since late January, into the No. 2 seed. His 35.5 points against the Philadelphia 76ers powered New York into the second round. Against Indiana, armed with its own star point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, Brunson has been electric. He scored 43 in Game 1. In Game 2, he racked up 24 of his points in the second half.
He needed to. Indiana came out firing in Game 2. Haliburton, who was held to six points in Game 1, more than doubled it in the first quarter. Obi Toppin, who the Knicks discarded last summer for a pair of second-round picks, had 10 off the bench. Indy’s full-court defense seemed to wear down a Knicks team that rarely goes to its bench. The Pacers shot 57.1% from the field in the first half—including 52.6% from three—and looked poised to send the series back to Indiana tied at one.
The Knicks will take a commanding 2–0 lead to Indiana but make no mistake, the Pacers are not going away. A couple of bad whistles cost them a chance to win Game 1 and Indiana had its chances in Game 2. Haliburton sprung to life Wednesday, and T.J. McConnell’s pesky defense gave Brunson trouble. New York, meanwhile, lost O.G. Anunoby in the third quarter with a hamstring injury and Brunson’s foot won’t have much recovery time before Friday’s Game 3.
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