Roaring back and pulling out yet another historic comeback victory in the series opener against the Knicks is not enough for the Pacers.
Despite Aaron Nesmith’s outside shooting and Tyrese Haliburton’s choke sign invoking two-pronged memories of former Knicks nemesis Reggie Miller, the Pacers insist they can be better in several areas in Friday’s Game 2 at the Garden, with defending against opposing star Jalen Brunson at the top of that list.
Brunson netted a game-high 43 points on an efficient 15-for-25 from the field for his highest scoring output in 13 postseason games this year.
“He’s a great player, great scorer. He’s a great leader. He does so much for their attack, and I just have so much respect for him, and our team does,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “Making it hard on him is difficult because he just finds angles, he gets places, and he routinely makes shots that if most players took them, you’d say that’s a bad shot.
“But he just a bucket, man. He gets ball in the basket.”
Carlisle was Brunson’s head coach in Dallas for the first three seasons of the former Villanova star’s NBA career, but across Brunson’s four-year tenure with the Mavericks, he averaged just 11.9 points and 24.7 minutes in 277 regular-season appearances.
He truly took off as a scorer after signing with the Knicks as a free agent in 2022, more than doubling that scoring output to 26.4 ppg in three years in New York.
“I’ve had this question before, and I’m not surprised knowing his level of determination, how much of a winner he is, and how he really has always embraced the doubters. He just loves proving people wrong,” Carlisle added. “I mean, I could tell you a lot of stories about where he’s come from and how much he’s improved. But he’s basically made the statement here over the last three years in a very strong way.”
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Brunson’s offensive numbers have been even better in postseason play, raising his scoring average to 30.2 in 37 playoff games for the Knicks.
Asked about the difference in attempting to limit Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first round and Brunson now, Carlisle replied, “They’re both great players that are in a small handful of guys that are essentially unguardable. The difference is they’re different positions, and you have to be ready. You’ve got to have a toolbox full of tools, and not all tools are going to work.”
Pacers veteran T.J. McConnell said the “really difficult” challenge of guarding Brunson is that he has the inside-outside tools to score “at all three levels” — at the rim, in the mid-range game and from 3-point distance.
“He’s a great player. You’re not gonna shut a guy like that down,” McConnell said. “It’s about making it as difficult as possible. We threw four or five guys at him and he was still able to score at will.
“We have to make some adjustments there, but like I said, just a phenomenal basketball player. He doesn’t have any weaknesses. We’ve gotta be a little bit better at making it hard for him.”
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