Jalen Brunson's teammates revel in Knick's  50-point night

LOS ANGELES — When the celebration of his breathtaking performance in the Knicks’ win in Phoenix on Friday night had ended, Jalen Brunson stood at his locker, surrounded by reporters and cameras. But before the first question could be asked, his teammates began to weigh in.

Ryan Arcidiacono muttered, “Perfect? Didn’t you miss a free throw?”

Deuce McBride walked into the crowd of reporters and said, “He don’t pass the ball.”

RJ Barrett slid past the crowd and echoed that sentiment: “Pass the [expletive] ball.”

The playful comments provided a backdrop to keep Brunson humble — which you can be assured is unnecessary — and covered up his teammates’ excitement as he produced a historic night on the court.

It was a career-high 50-point effort with supernatural shooting. He was 9-for-9 from three-point range, matching the NBA record for most threes without a miss. In the second half, he piled up 35 points and shot 12-for-12, including 8-for-8 from beyond the arc.

A perfect night?

“No. I mean I missed a free throw, according to Ryan,” Brunson said. “I had no idea. I was just playing free.”

Even if the shooting and scoring was different on this night, Brunson’s reaction was the same as it was when he struggled in Utah two nights earlier and the same as any of his star turns since joining the Knicks. But this indeed was different.

As the clock wound down to the final buzzer, his teammates raced from the bench. Julius Randle wrapped up Arcidiacono, who had dribbled out the final seconds, and took the ball from him to ensure that Brunson would have the game ball, securing it and holding it over his head until he found Brunson and presented it to him.

This was a process that had never entered Randle’s mind before Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a Bucks-record 64 points in Indiana this past week and an odd controversy erupted as he tried to obtain the game ball for his mother.

“Yeah, we couldn’t have that,” Randle said. “Had to make sure we got the real game ball. I don’t trust Ryan with the game ball. They might look at him and think, ‘We can take that.’ I had to make sure I got it and I secured it.”

When Brunson made his way to the locker room, his teammates soaked him with bottles of water. While joking about his selfishness, they acknowledged just how special this performance was — and not just for the shooting and scoring.

Brunson had nine assists and matched his career high with five steals. On one of those, with the game still in the balance, he headed downcourt for an uncontested fast-break layup — and even while chasing a career high, he opted to flip it to Randle for a dunk.

“I appreciate it,” Randle said. “That’s just the type of player he is. He’s unselfish, plays the right way. Usually, you play that type of way, good things happen.”

“You want your players to achieve all the things that they want to achieve, but you want them to do it within the context of winning,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “And that’s the most important thing. And that’s what I love about our team. There’s the individual things that come that are a byproduct of winning.”

This one was good enough that it prompted Thibodeau to joke about Brunson’s father, former Knicks player and current assistant coach Rick Brunson. “I was telling his father, he had his career in one night,” Thibodeau said.

The effort from Brunson drew a more serious reaction from the other side, where Suns superstar Kevin Durant — one of the greatest scorers in NBA history — sounded almost envious of what Brunson accomplished.

“That’s his franchise,” Durant said. “And he’s going to be a Hall of Fame player by the end of his career the way he’s playing out there.”

High praise from someone whose Hall of Fame bust already is being carved out. But that was the sort of performance it was and it came in a huge spot, with the Knicks already having lost in Utah to start the trip and the schedule getting no easier with a back-to-back game against the Clippers on Saturday night and a meeting with the Lakers on Monday night before departing Los Angeles.

It helped create a festive atmosphere on a team in need of a lift. “It was a cool feeling,” Brunson said. “They were probably more excited than I am. I got a great group of teammates and I’m just happy we came out with a win.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.