Jalen Brunson overcomes slow start, dishes out 14 assists in Knicks’ Game 2 vs. Cavaliers
NEW YORK — Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson acknowledged the conundrum. Atkinson was largely satisfied with the difficulty level of the New York Knicks’ looks during their furious fourth-quarter comeback in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, saying the attempts were in the “first percentile of shot quality.” But he also watched Jalen Brunson score basket after basket against ...
NEW YORK — Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson acknowledged the conundrum. Atkinson was largely satisfied with the difficulty level of the New York Knicks’ looks during their furious fourth-quarter comeback in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, saying the attempts were in the “first percentile of shot quality. ” But he also watched Jalen Brunson score basket after basket against James Harden as the Knicks erased a 22-point deficit en route to a historic come-from-behind overtime victory on Tuesday night.
The Knicks repeatedly set screens in that fourth quarter to switch the 36-year-old Harden onto Brunson, and Brunson took advantage with 16 points in the period. “The numbers would say [to] stick with what you’re doing,” Atkinson said ahead of Game 2 at Madison Square Garden. “From a process level, it’s working.
But we all know, too, there’s a great player on the other team that can disrupt that process, and you say, ‘Well, we’ve got to help our players. ’ I always go to that first. How can we help our players?
” Ultimately, the Cavs opted to adjust their defensive strategy in Thursday night’s Game 2, making it a point to deny the switch, and it made for a much tougher scoring night for Brunson. But that wasn’t enough to deny the Knicks a 109-93 victory as they took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Brunson scored 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting Thursday, but he dished out 14 assists, his most of these playoffs.