Jalen Brunson’s answer was as simple as it gets.
When the Hawks blitz or double-team him, how does he combat that?
“Find the open man,” Brunson said after practice Monday. “There’s two on the ball. Someone has to be open.”
The reality for the Knicks has been less straightforward.
Other than the first quarter of Game 1, Brunson has been far from his best.
He’s shot a paltry 29-for-78 (37.2 percent) from the field across the past 15 quarters.
His turnovers have been up, including six committed during the Game 4 win Saturday.
Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker have guarded Brunson throughout the series, with strong results.
When a screen is set for Brunson, whoever is guarding the screener usually comes out aggressively and blitzes him.
Late in the shot clock or during key possessions, Daniels or Alexander-Walker often have a second defender join them and double Brunson.
Do the Knicks want Brunson to play through those double-teams or get the ball out of his hands, potentially limiting his scoring output?
“By feel,” coach Mike Brown said Monday. “Obviously, trying to get [Karl-Anthony Towns] the ball in different spots on the floor helped out a lot and took some of the pressure off him. But in the same breath, keeping the ball by using him as a decoy sometimes or a screen setter sometimes or sometimes you have him receive a screen and then get back involved in the action somehow, some way.
“The thing about him, he’s a great screen setter. He has a really good change of pace where he slips and stuff like that which can cause confusion.”
Despite his turnovers, Brunson was better at getting rid of the ball in Game 4.
The Knicks spent large chunks of the game playing through Towns as a hub rather than Brunson, and Towns recorded 10 assists as part of a triple-double.
“I feel like that’s who he’s been,” Miles McBride said Monday of Brunson. “I think he does a great job of gravitating multiple defenders to him. Teams are gonna do that on purpose. He does a great job of getting off it and trusting his teammates to make plays.”
It presents a tricky balance, though.
Brunson is supposed to be the best player in the series and be a big part of why the Knicks believe they are a contender.
It should not be that teams easily can stymie him with double-teams to make others beat them.
The Knicks want Brunson’s fingerprints on the game as much as possible, particularly down the stretch.
The Knicks lack proven playmakers outside of Brunson, too. It worked with Towns in Game 4, but that’s a strategy with mixed results.
There have been a plethora of instances of the offense becoming disjointed when Brunson relies on others to facilitate for themselves.
Ultimately, a deep postseason run likely would come through Brunson being a focal point, not a decoy.
For his part, however, Brunson is not against getting rid of the ball and playing more on the periphery.
“No,” Brunson said, “not when you have the result we did last game.”
What remains to be seen is if that result was a one-off or a blueprint for how to counteract opponents’ Brunson strategy.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
