Jalen Brunson makes his return: What we saw in the New York star’s first game back

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NEW YORK — Jalen Brunson has never missed this many games. Not in high school. Not in college. Not in the NBA.

“No,” Brunson said as he knocked on wood when asked whether he’s ever been away from the game for this long. “Before COVID shut down the season, I tore my labrum in my shoulder. But that was only like 10 games prior or something like that.”

The All-NBA New York Knicks guard has been an ironman his entire basketball career, so Sunday night’s return from a 15-game absence was foreign territory. He expected to be in a rhythm, though, as if he never missed a step. The great players tend to think that way. However, Brunson, believe it or not, is mortal. There was rust, as there should be. In a 112-98 victory over the Phoenix Suns, Brunson finished with 15 points and six assists on 3-of-9 shooting in 34 minutes of action. He uncharacteristically had two of his three turnovers within the game’s first 12 minutes.

“I could be better, could be worse,” Brunson said when asked to assess his performance. “A lot of room for improvement on my end, obviously. I’m surprised about the conditioning part. I thought that would be a lot worse, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

“Mentally … just making sure I can trust myself in the things that I do. Everyone always talks about the physical part (of coming back from injury), but, mentally, it’s about trusting your movements, the way you play and not second-guessing yourself. That was a huge adjustment, but I’m feeling a lot better.”

As Brunson shook off the cobwebs throughout the night, the man who has saved New York over and over this season appeared. Brunson scored seven of his 15 points within the final two minutes as Phoenix put a scare into New York late in the fourth quarter.

It’ll take time for Brunson to get back to the player he was before the injury. That’s usually the case for anyone who is sidelined for nearly a month. With Brunson back in the fold, New York has a week to do what it’s set out to accomplish all year, which is play its best basketball at the end of the regular season. That isn’t possible without Brunson’s being the best version of himself. And it sounds like coach Tom Thibodeau is going to make sure Brunson and his team use these final seven days of the regular season to try to find what they’ve been searching for over the last six months.

“As you head down the stretch, you want to check boxes,” Thibodeau said when asked about the potential of locking up the No. 3 seed over the next few days. “You want a winning record at home, winning record on the road. Fifty wins is good, and you want the highest seed possible. And then you want to be playing well. We’re going step by step. We’re not skipping over anything. This is the approach that we’ve taken all season long, so we’re not going to change now. We feel like this will help prepare us for what’s down the road.”

OG Anunoby’s tour de force continues with Brunson back

If you were concerned about the possibility of OG Anunoby’s play taking a step back with Brunson back in the lineup, Sunday night likely eased your nerves.

Anunoby has been one of the best players in basketball over the last three weeks, averaging 24.9 points, 1.7 steals and 0.9 blocks while shooting 52.5 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from 3 over his last 12 games, and discovered an aggressiveness that was consistently seen before Brunson’s injury. Against the Suns, Anunoby finished with 32 points on 13-of-17 shooting (team-high attempts) from the field and 6-of-9 shooting from 3.

Of course, Brunson won’t only get up nine shots, and his increase in field goals will cut into Anunoby’s attempts at times. However, everything Anunoby did without Brunson in the picture can continue with Brunson in the picture, as Sunday night suggests. Anunoby was forceful in his drives. He had a quick trigger from 3. All of these things were possible before Brunson was hurt.

This isn’t an either-or scenario. The best version of the Knicks is a healthy Brunson doing what makes him special (breaking down defenses off the dribble, getting into the paint, making the right reads and creating something out of nothing) and Anunoby being aggressive within the flow of the offense. These two things can coexist, and they should, beautifully.

Anunoby had actions run for him against the Suns. He knocked down the spot-up shots that came his way. Brunson’s presence alone should make these opportunities more available to Anunoby. It’s important that he remains aggressive and continues to play within the flow.

Lastly on Anunoby, he’s approaching 130 dunks this season with one week left. He’s often among the league leaders in dunks from non-centers. This year is a career-high mark in punishing the rim.

I just needed to know (I spent my playing career going from 3-point line to 3-point line): Does dunking that much hurt?

“It depends on the kind of dunk you do,” Anunoby said. “You try to avoid the wrists, make sure you’re dunking with your hands.”

Rotation questions loom as postseason nears

Not only did Brunson make his return Sunday, but also backup guard Miles McBride came back from a groin injury after missing the previous eight games, and Cameron Payne played two games in a row after missing time with an ankle sprain.

The Knicks have been relatively healthy this season regarding their starters, but they’ve had rotation players missing here, there and for big chunks throughout the year. Sunday night was the first time New York had its full rotation without any restrictions. With that, Precious Achiuwa, who has spent most of the season as the backup center because of Mitchell Robinson’s lengthy rehab process, was out of the rotation in the win against Phoenix. So was Delon Wright, who successfully started in the absence of Brunson and Payne.

Thibodeau used a nine-man rotation, with Landry Shamet rounding out the final spot. Come the postseason, it feels likely Thibodeau will shorten his rotation to eight, maybe seven (with exceptions depending on how a particular game goes), as he often did in last year’s playoffs. My gut tells me Shamet will be the odd man out come the playoffs and Thibodeau will primarily rely on McBride, Payne and Robinson off the bench.

(Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)

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