Knicks reach NBA Cup final as Jalen Brunson scores 40 points
The Magic's Jalen Suggs is fouled by the Knicks Jalen Brunson in the second quarter of a semifinal game of the Emirates NBA Cup at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Credit: Getty Images/Ethan Miller
LAS VEGAS — In the second quarter Saturday, Jalen Suggs was racing to the basket with only the smallest player on the floor ahead of him. And Jalen Brunson delivered a hard foul, sending the former elite high school football player to the floor.
The point was made that if the Orlando Magic wanted to play a street fight of a game, the Knicks were willing to fight back.
Dismissing the talk about playing with pace, the Knicks instead got in the ring with the Magic and emerged with a 132-120 win that sent them to Tuesday’s NBA Cup final against the Spurs.
It wasn’t only Brunson, who had a superstar performance with a season-high 40 points, who fought through the physical play. Karl-Anthony Towns drove to the rim repeatedly, with Magic defenders bouncing off him, as he scored and flexed his way to 29 points. OG Anunoby added 24 points, three steals and a block and Josh Hart had 12 points, six assists and three steals for the Knicks (18-7).
“I feel like in the first quarter, the first couple of minutes, they were beating us up pretty physically,” Brunson said. “And so Coach [Mike] Brown basically told us to wake up and we had to match it, exceed it and do what we have to do. But I think it was good on our part how we responded to that, but they definitely brought the physicality to the game.”
Familiarity can breed contempt, and the two teams already have played four times this season, going 2-2. If this game was going to be a physical battle, it figured that the two hard-nosed point guards — Brunson and Suggs — would go shot for shot, bump for bump and shove for shove.
By halftime, each had 25 points. But while Brunson kept pouring it on, the Knicks stifled Suggs in the second half, holding him to one point after halftime before he left the game with a sore left hip.
“They are physical and get up in you and do a good job defensively and kind of take you out of what you want to run and what you’re trying to do,” Brown said. “But when you have an MVP-of-the-league candidate in Jalen Brunson, you know, 16-for-27, 40 points, he makes the game easier for everybody. That’s what MVPs are supposed to do, and he definitely did that tonight.
“He scored for us when we didn’t have much going with our offensive movement and stuff like that. And again, you give Orlando credit to play good defense. But 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.”
Two minutes into the second half, it was Brunson who set the tone. Anthony Black was ahead of the pack on a fast break, but Brunson again delivered a hard foul. Desmond Bane raced down the floor screaming about the play and was hit with a technical. So while the layup cut the Knicks’ lead to two, the technical foul triggered an 8-0 run in a span of 42 seconds. Anunoby and Towns hit short jumpers, Hart stole the ball from Black and Brunson sank an open three-pointer for a 10-point lead.
Orlando didn’t step back either, quickly rattling off a 12-2 run to tie the score and taking a two-point lead when Bane drove through the Knicks with 5:24 to play in the period. But Brunson was too much, drifting through the Orlando defense for an assortment of difficult mid-range shots. Then — when Black tried to take a charge outside the three-point line and fell to the floor — Brunson hit the three-pointer.
After Mitchell Robinson swatted a layup by Black to end the quarter, the Knicks took a 100-92 lead into the final period, led by Brunson’s 37 points.
“When you’re playing a great team and you know what they do so well, you’ve got to either match it or exceed it,” Towns said. “Their physicality and their pace is something that makes them special. We knew coming into this game that we needed to be physical, and we needed to match their pace and slow them down on their fast breaks.
“And I thought we did a great job out there, like I said, playing Knicks basketball, causing turnovers, utilizing transition points. When they got on their runs, we minimized the bleeding. That’s a great job by us and it’s a focused attack by us as well.”
From the start, the Magic did the things on both ends that troubled the Knicks in the first three meetings, playing more physically than any other team in the NBA. Bane bullied his way to the basket and knocked players to the floor on the other end as the Knicks begged for calls.
“Simple and physical,” Bane said after Friday’s practice. “We are not really out there trying to have no elaborate scheme or anything. It’s can you guard the man in front of you, and once the shot goes up, can you get the rebound. One through 15, that’s our goal. To be the most physical team on both ends of the floor every single night. When we win, we usually do that.”
Brunson kept the Knicks close early, scoring 11 points as Orlando took a 36-33 lead after the first period. When he went to the bench, the Knicks scored six quick points, with Tyler Kolek assisting on all three baskets.
The Knicks kept winning those minutes without Brunson, upping the lead to 48-40 with Kolek scoring in traffic and Hart again beating the Magic defenders down the floor. The Knicks outscored Orlando 38-28 in the second quarter to take a 71-64 lead into the half.
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.
