Brunson Makes Knicks History in Game 4 vs. 76ers

It is Jalen’s world and we are just living in it. In a matinee playoff game on Sunday, the New York Knicks went head-to-head against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center for Game 4 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.

The Knicks won the game by a final score of 97-92, and Jalen Brunson led the way with an incredible 47 points, four rebounds, ten assists and one block while shooting a sparkling 18/34 from the field and 2/8 from beyond the arc in 44 minutes.

He also made team history during the contest.

Brunson is now the first Knick in franchise history to accumulate 30+ points and 10+ assists in consecutive postseason games.

Brunson is coming off the best regular season of his eight-year career where he averaged 28.7 points, 3.6 rebounds and 6.7 assists per contest while shooting 47.9% from the field and 40.1% from three-point range in 77 games.

He would not let them go back home to Madison Square Garden tied at two and a crowd that seemed divided between big Northeast cities had a decidedly Knicks sound down the stretch. In the crowd there was a who’s who of celebrity athletes that included former NBA superstar Julius Erving, Micah Parsons of the Dallas Cowboys, Hall of Famer Allen Iverson, women’s championship coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks Dawn Staley and former New York Knicks star John Starks.

“The Philadelphia fanbase is, I said this before, they’re very relentless and very passionate. I mean, I’m an Eagles fan, I would know,” said Brunson, who won two national championships playing collegiately for Villanova. “But seeing the Knicks here and hearing the Knicks here, it was pretty cool and it’s awesome.”

Not for Joel Embiid, who had to hear Brunson get louder chants of “MVP! MVP!” than the guy who actually won the award last season.

“Disappointing. It’s unfortunate,” Embiid said. “I’m not calling them out but it is disappointing,” adding that he’s aware that Knicks fans often make the short 2-hour train trip for the road games.

“But never seen it (like Sunday) and I’ve been here for 10 years. Yeah, kind of (ticks) me off, especially because Philly is considered a sports town … so it shouldn’t happen.”

But Brunson’s show-stopping performance was too extraordinary not to cheer as he surpassed the 46 points scored by Bernard King in 1984.

Even through the Knicks injury woes, Brunson led them to the second seed in the Eastern Conference with a 50-32 record, only behind the Boston Celtics.

Brunson was in the locker room to start the fourth quarter but returned to hit a basket over Sixers big man Joel Embiid during a 6-0 Knicks run that gave them the lead for good and made it 86-81. He had another clutch basket that made it 95-89 with 55 seconds remaining on the clock and the Knicks closed it out.

This is not Brunson’s first rodeo when it comes to playing big in the playoffs. He had a 41-point game for the Dallas Mavericks against the Utah Jazz in 2022 and another for the Knicks last year against the Miam Heat, but that one came in Game 6 where the Knicks’ season ended in heartbreaking fashion.

Embiid led the 76ers with 27 points, ten rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks. Tyrese Maxey added 23 points for Philadelphia.

Game 5 of the series will be on Tuesday evening at the world’s most famous arena in New York City.

Whoever wins the series will advance to the semifinals and face off against either the Indiana Pacers or the Milwaukee Bucks.