The New York Knicks are on the cusp of winning their first piece of silverware in 52 years, though it is not the Larry O’Brien Trophy. A 132-120 victory over the Orlando Magic on Saturday night lifted the Knicks to the NBA Cup Final, where they will play the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
Big names need to step up on the big occasion, and star point guard Jalen Brunson did just that in the semifinals, dropping 40 points with eight assists in the win.
His performance was so good that his head coach, Mike Brown, continued urging anyone with a set of ears to seriously consider Brunson as the NBA’s MVP.
“It’s beautiful to be able to see him do what he’s more than capable of doing on a national stage like this in an environment like this,” Brown said. “Hopefully, you media and the fans out there can continue talking about him as an MVP of this league because that’s exactly what he is.”
Brunson has firmly been in the NBA’s MVP discussion for the better part of the last three years. He won the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year last season and is currently averaging a career-best 28.8 points per game with 6.4 assists this year.
“He makes the game easier for everybody,” Brown said. “That’s what MVPs are supposed to do, and he definitely did that [Saturday]. He scored for us when we didn’t have much going with our offensive movement and stuff like that. You have a guy like that that can go get a bucket, and he keeps you in the game and. gets you leads, and at the end of the day, he carries you home.”
He accounted for 35% of his team’s total points in the first half, accounting for 25 of their 71, then scored 12 of their 29 in the third quarter to keep an eight-point lead intact heading into the fourth.
“This is no campaign speech, I’m just telling the truth,” Brown said. “He has not gotten enough credit… When I see someone bring up MVP, you see a lot of the great candidates who deserve it, but I never hear Jalen’s name. When you’re first and second in either conference, and you’re putting up the numbers he’s putting up, his name has to be one of the first names coming out of some of these mouths.”
