Leave it to a game played in Hollywood to have all of the drama, suspense, and plot twists you’d find in an Oscar-winning blockbuster. The New York Knicks fell to the Los Angeles Lakers late in overtime Thursday night, 113-109.
Although this game ended in five minutes of free basketball, it didn’t seem like it was trending in that direction straight out of the gate.
The Knicks came out flat on both sides of the ball, with all 15 of their points in the first eight-plus minutes of play coming solely from Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart. The duo finished the first quarter with 14 and 5 points, respectively.
Pair this with a combined 19 points and five assists in the first quarter from Luka Dončić and LeBron James, and we’ve got a four-point Knicks deficit heading into the second, 31-27.
That’s when things started to turn around for New York, though. In the opening minutes, a couple of threes from Landry Shamet and Josh Hart saw the Knicks grab their first lead of the game, 33-32, which they would scratch and claw to hold onto for most of the remaining matchup.
While the first quarter was basically all Jalen Brunson for the Knicks, the second quarter was a primetime airing of “The OG Anunoby Show.”
New York’s defensive stalwart kept his offense from the prior game against Golden State, flowing en route to 13 points on 100% shooting (5-5 FG, 3-3 3PT). The Lakers also shot 33% from the field (7-21) and 0% from three (0-8) as the Knicks held onto a 60-51 lead heading into the break.
But it was time to change the channel back after halftime. Following yet another Anunoby three in the opening seconds of the half, Brunson picked up where he left off in the first quarter, tacking on 10 more points to his total via a sequence of crafty moves in the lane.
As the Knicks’ captain continued to do all he could to keep the team afloat, Los Angeles began chipping their way back into the game. The Lakers outscored New York 25-24 in the third quarter, capping it off with a deep three from Dalton Knecht at the buzzer to bring the game to within eight points.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The Knicks played three quarters of competitive basketball on the back of Jalen Brunson, but it all came crashing down in crunch time.
Three-pointers have been a point of contention on both sides of the ball for New York this season, and the fourth quarter of this game fully displayed why that’s the case.
As the Knicks struggled to score in any capacity down the stretch, the Lakers kicked it into second gear, with LeBron James and Gabe Vincent combining for five threes on 71% shooting and Luka Dončić throwing a lob to Jaxson Hayes that made Crypto.com Arena shake (besides the point, but bring back the Staples Center).
The last of Vincent’s threes in the fourth gave the Lakers a 99-96 lead with 1:21 to play. With the Knicks’ back against the walls, who do they go to? Jalen Brunson, of course. And he delivers with a spectacular and-one to tie it back up with 46.4 remaining.
Following an empty Lakers possession on offense, the Knicks once again had the ball with 9.1 to go on the clock, and the game still notched. New York unsurprisingly tried to get it back into the hands of Brunson, but LA saw it coming from a mile away and doubled him into passing out of an ill-advised shot. The ball wound up in the hands of Josh Hart, who couldn’t get his layup off in time before time expired.
To overtime, we go.
The first few minutes of extended action should’ve been an omen for how this thing was gonna finish, as Luka Dončić hit a midrange fadeaway followed by a heavily contested three-pointer that maybe only two people on the planet can shoot and have opposing fans’ heads in their hands before it even passes through the net.
Los Angeles had a five-point lead within the blink of an eye.
However, the “Knicks,” as I’ll loosely put it, as it was truly just Jalen Brunson putting the team on his back for the umpteenth time this season, responded to every punch the Lakers threw in overtime until he physically couldn’t.
With a minute and a half to go and the Knicks down 107-105, Brunson forced his way down the court, crossing over Dončić and getting into the paint as he attempted to float in another two for the orange and blue.
And suddenly, the wind is taken out of the Knicks’ sails.
Brunson came down on his right ankle at an extremely awkward angle on Lakers’ guard Austin Reaves’ foot, sending him to the ground, wailing in pain. It was almost instantly apparent that he would not be able to finish the game.
Still barely able to walk on his own, Brunson remained in the game and promptly sunk two free throws before exiting toward the locker room to be examined. He had scored every single one of New York’s eight points in overtime to that point.
New York’s offense fell apart immediately in Brunson’s less than two-minute absence, with the entire team looking clueless about what to do next without their captain on the floor.
A broken possession saw OG Anunoby finish a tough layup plus the foul with 10.7 seconds remaining, putting the score at 111-109. He missed the free throw, but LeBron got the rebound and was fouled by Deuce McBride.
With the Lakers in the bonus, LeBron buried both free throws, bringing the score to 113-109. New York was unable to make anything else happen in the final seconds.
The Knicks were dead in the water.
Jalen Brunson finished as the game’s highest scorer, tallying 39 points and 10 assists before his late exit.
Next Up
The Knicks’ prospects for the remainder of this road trip are now up in the air as they wait to learn the extent of Brunson’s injury. He’s already been ruled out for tonight against the Clippers.
The good news is that the X-rays were negative, ruling out any possibility of Brunson having fractured his ankle on the play.
The bad news is that, depending on the severity of the sprain, it can take longer to recover from an ankle sprain than a fractured ankle.
Without Brunson available, New York will have to dig in deep to remain competitive and potentially find a new identity. Captain Clutch won’t be there to save them, as he has been so many times this season.
While the Knicks are on the second night of a back-to-back, the Clippers will be playing their third game in just four nights and are 4-6 over their last 10 matchups.
Jalen Brunson or not, the Knicks need to stay focused if they don’t want the entire West Coast trip to collapse as last night’s game did.
