Steve Popper: Knicks' Jalen Brunson struggling a bit offensively of late
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson argues for a foul in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets on Friday in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
LOS ANGELES — It wasn’t unusual to hear Jalen Brunson speak in quiet, measured tones after Sunday afternoon’s loss to the Lakers, putting the blame on his own shoulders even though it could have been spread up and down the roster. It was captain-speak, exaggerating his own faults.
But there was an understandable twist to it.
Brunson, like his teammates and the Knicks’ fan base, has come to expect to be able to bail out his team in games, whether it is with a high-scoring performance — the sort of unstoppable superstar performance that fills highlight reels — or the kind of late-game heroics that earned him the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year award last season.
In recent games, though, even as the Knicks have put on some impressive displays — at least before their struggles in a 110-97 loss to the Lakers — the offensive explosiveness of Brunson just hasn’t been there. He has shot under 50% seven times in the last eight games (39.9% overall and 39.4% from two-point range in that span). He averaged 20.6 points in those games after scoring 27.0 points per game before that.
“He’s human and he’s going to have some nights like that,” Mike Brown said Monday. “His track record shows that he can go get it done. It’s not anything I’m concerned about or I’m looking at. When he does have nights like that, how else can you impact the game? And he’s shown that he can do that.”
While Brunson has struggled with his shot and defenses have swarmed him, he has shared the ball, setting up teammates and making defenses pay for the attention focused on him. He has averaged 12.3 assists per game in the last three outings, including back-to-back 15-assist games against Oklahoma City and Denver.
But still, the Knicks have learned to rely on their star.
“It’s gonna happen,” Brunson said. “It’s part of the game. But you’ve got to continue to trust your work ethic and trust everything you put into it. Those things are gonna come around. That’s why you have to control the controllables.
“It’s part of being in basketball. Like I just said, you’ve got to trust your work ethic. Continue to be in the gym, do your routine, maybe switch it up a little bit, but at the same time, you’re still working on what you’ve got to work on.”
Teams attempting all sorts of defenses with the intent of slowing Brunson is nothing new. And really, none of the strategies have managed to work for more than a part of a game. Put a bigger defender on him and he finds a way to utilize his footwork to somehow get a shot off anyway. Speedy defender? Not a problem.
So it’s odd to see the shooting slump press on for multiple games.
Brunson spent a long time in the trainers’ room after Sunday’s loss. While Brown has managed to reduce the workload on much of the team, reducing the minutes for all of the starters, the one player who hasn’t seen much of a reduction is Brunson. He averaged 35.4 minutes last season and is at 34.8 minutes this season. He has averaged 36.1 minutes per game since the All-Star break and played 42:08 Sunday, and many of those minutes are spent with teams doubling him, trying to work him the length of the floor.
“He’s taking what the defense is giving him,” Brown said earlier on this trip. “They’re switching, they’re blitzing, they’re trying to throw the kitchen sink at him. And he’s doing a great job of getting off of it. And that’s part of the belief I was talking about. He’s getting off of it. And he believes in his teammates. And they’re making the plays they need to make when they’re committing two to the ball.”
Brunson will never complain about the workload, but he’s already played 60 games missing only five. Last season around this time, he got an unwanted breather when he sprained an ankle and sat out a month.
“I think he’s been pretty good and pretty even-keeled,” Josh Hart said. “I’m sure he’s probably frustrated with some of the stuff. Sometimes we probably have got to help him in terms of getting cleaner shots, getting better shots, maybe try to get him more into the flow of it. That’s something that we have to figure out. He works too hard to have bad-shooting games consistently, so we know that’ll turn around. In the meantime, we have to make sure to make it easier on him.”
Even if they do find a way to ease the burden, Brunson will put the pressure on himself.
Asked how much he is putting on himself, he said, “As much as it needs to be.”
Notes & quotes: The Knicks (41-24) held Mitchell Robinson out of the second half of a back-to-back set Monday night against the Clippers. Robinson has yet to play in both ends of a back-to-back this season, and the Knicks have only two remaining.
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.
