Knicks rally to take lead but fall to Grizzlies

Hours before game time, Jalen Brunson went out on the court, tested the quadriceps contusion that had kept him out of practice Saturday and declared himself ready to play — later explaining, “If I can walk, I can play.”

It seemed a perfect prelude to a heroic moment.

Brunson had the ball and the game in his hands twice in the last 10 seconds as the Knicks battled the Grizzlies on Sunday night — and twice he misfired on shots he has made so many times as the Knicks fell, 127-123, at the Garden.

“Two shots that I’ve made a lot of in my career,” Brunson said. “So I just rushed them. Plain and simple. Just rushed it. I say this all the time — my teammates and coaches have a lot of trust in me. They welcomed me with open arms. That hurts when I can’t pull through for them. It hurts.”

The Knicks (9-11) came back from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to take a 123-122 lead with 26.3 seconds left on a pair of free throws by Brunson.

Ja Morant then cut to the rim on a give-and-go (leaving Cam Reddish in his wake), went up, spun and put up a shot that Mitchell Robinson blocked from behind. But the 6-2 Morant grabbed the loose ball and hit the easy layup to put Memphis ahead by one with 13.9 seconds left.

Brunson, who managed to play nearly 36 minutes after being questionable until game time, missed a pull-up jumper from just inside the free-throw line with 9.8 seconds left. Morant made the first of two free throws with 7.1 seconds remaining but missed the second, leaving Memphis ahead 125-123. Brunson then missed a driving floater with 1.6 seconds left and Jaren Jackson Jr. hit two free throws to clinch it.

Brunson finished with 30 points — including 17 of the Knicks’ 40 in the fourth quarter — and nine assists. He scored at least 30 for the third straight game but was left to wonder about what could have been.

“That’s it, take your shot,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “That’s his bread and butter, got to where he wanted to be, got a good shot up. We missed.”

When it mattered most, the Knicks couldn’t overcome the jaw-dropping athleticism of Morant. Whether it was hanging in the air as defenders surrendered to gravity around him, slipping through a maze of Knicks grasping at air or smoothly dropping in jumpers and finding open teammates, he simply took over.

“The bright lights, man,” said Morant (27 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 14 assists). “Having a triple-double in the Garden is crazy. Growing up watching teams come here and play, watching the Knicks play, everybody loves the Garden. We really called it ‘the bright lights’; everybody is watching. For me to be able to go out and play how I played tonight was a big sign for me.”

With the Knicks fully healthy for the first time all season, it became a watch-and-see experiment to see how Thibodeau would utilize his deep roster. The one spot that Thibodeau seemed determined not to mix and match was who was going to be the primary defender on Morant. Quentin Grimes drew the assignment, and his time on the bench was designed to match Morant’s breaks, but Thibodeau opted to leave Grimes on the bench down the stretch and hand the assignment to Reddish.

“I ain’t gonna knock Ja’s game at all,” Reddish said. “I rock with Ja’s game. He’s a great player. I take pride in my defense no matter who I’m guarding.”

“We got behind. They closed the gap and then it felt like there was a good rhythm to that group,” Thibodeau said. “And so, that’s really the reason why we did what we did. To me, it’s also giving him a different look. I think Cam’s length gives you something different. I think the physicality of Quentin is different. And look, we’re loaded up. We’re trying to guard him with the team. Sometimes we guarded him great and he still made.’’ 

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.