Knicks Notes: Brunson, Hart, Shamet, Robinson

Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson got off to a slow start in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, scoring just three points on 1-of-7 shooting in the first quarter while committing a pair of turnovers. He also got banged up during the first half of the contest, briefly heading to the locker room near the end of the first quarter to get checked out after taking a shot to his right knee, then getting his ankle stepped on during the second quarter.

However, Brunson ultimately played his usual role of closer for the Knicks, scoring 13 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter to help the club secure a 105-95 victory and take a 1-0 lead in the series. The performance helped continue to secure his place among the Knicks’ all-time greats, as Walt Frazier told Ian O’Connor of The Athletic.

“He’s got the tenacity of Willis Reed and he’s got my cool,” Frazier said. “… Jalen kept struggling through it, and you could see he was hurting. Kudos to the coach for keeping him out there and thinking Jalen can still get it back.”

As O’Connor writes, the win represented another step toward proving that Brunson can become the rare “small” guard to lead his team to a championship. He’s three victories away from joining stars like Isiah Thomas and Stephen Curry in that exclusive group.

“Jalen is absolutely good enough to win it all,” Thomas said prior to Game 1, per O’Connor. “As small players, we tend to get overlooked even though we’re always beating bigger players. In people’s minds there seems to be some height and weight requirement to win a championship. Jalen won (an Illinois) state title in high school. He won two national titles in college, and now he’s in the NBA Finals. He’s just a winner.

“People say, ‘Well, Jalen’s not as good as this one or that one,’ but when you put him between the lines with those guys, his teams win and those guys’ teams lose. What the hell are we doubting Jalen for? People say he doesn’t have the height or body type, but he beats all the people who do have those things.”

Here’s more on the Knicks:

• Wednesday’s contest was a quintessential Josh Hart game, according to Zach Braziller of The New York Post, who notes that the versatile forward had a major impact despite only scoring three points on 1-of-5 shooting. In just 27 minutes of action, Hart grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds while adding six assists and four steals. The Knicks outscored the Spurs by 22 points when he was on the floor. “That’s just who he is. He’s always been that way. I can’t explain it,” Brunson said of his longtime Knicks and Villanova teammate. “He just has a knack for doing things like that, and in crucial times as well. It’s a credit to who he is as a player.”
• Only Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns played more minutes than Landry Shamet (33) in Wednesday’s win, as the reserve wing continued an impressive postseason run by scoring 13 points and earning praise from head coach Mike Brown for his defense, per Howie Kussoy of The New York Post. Shamet was out of the rotation early in the postseason but has been a critical contributor in recent weeks as he increases his value ahead of unrestricted free agency.
• Knicks center Mitchell Robinson, who had two points and six rebounds in 13 minutes of action off the bench in Game 1, didn’t seem to be limited despite undergoing surgery to repair a fifth metacarpal fracture less than a week ago, writes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. “I didn’t think he was (limited),” Brown said. “I’ve got to go back and watch the tape. He caught a lob. He was still a vertical threat. … And then defensively, I thought he was pretty good as well, trying to rebound, keeping those guys off the glass.” How Robinson sustained the injury remains a mystery — he declined comment when asked after the game, telling reporters that he’s “here for basketball.”