Jalen Brunson pours in 55 points to lead Knicks to gritty win over lowly Wizards
NY Post
WASHINGTON — For most of four quarters, the Knicks played with their food. They allowed themselves to enter a danger zone against the tanking Wizards, the worst team in the East, and entered their first overtime of the season because legs were tired and their defense devolved into a porous mess.
So what should’ve been an easy evening turned into a dogfight for the Knicks, who required Jalen Brunson to morph into hero mode and drop 55 points to squeak out Saturday’s 136-132 OT win.
Brunson was a machine and did it unconventionally by today’s NBA standards, needing just three 3-pointers to reach his double-nickel.
He dropped 28 points in the paint, scored 42 overall after halftime, knocked down 16 free throws and collected nine assists, and the Knicks (22-10) needed all of it.
“It just happened,” Brunson said. “That’s the way the game was flowing. I looked up at the scoreboard, and it says 50-something.”
Saturday represented New York’s seventh straight victory and also its most unnecessarily dramatic. The Wizards are young and feisty and were led with 31 points from Justin Champagnie, the brother of former St. John’s star Julian Champagnie.
