Jalen Brunson’s Foot Injury Brought Up After Knicks Fall Short 111–106 in Game 3 vs Pacers

It was a bit surprising that Jalen Brunson was on the hardwood tonight. Following the right foot injury that he sustained in Game 2, along with the 42.4 minutes of game time that he has averaged over the past two weeks, fans were certain that Brunson would sit out as a precautionary measure. In hindsight, rest may have eve been much better for the All-Star as the New York Knicks suffered a 106-111 loss anyway. But, the point guard refused to use his injury as an excuse.

The Knicks have been extremely unlucky, having been an injury-riddled squad so far. The team has already announced that Julius Randle, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Mitchell Robinson are all out for the season. Further, just hours before tip-off, the Knicks even listed OG Anunoby as “out”, per CBS Sports.

With four crucial players from the rotation already missing tonight’s contest, Jalen Brunson decided to don the jersey and play through a sore foot. Despite the injury being severe enough to prevent him from playing much of the 2^nd quarter of the previous contest, the former Villanova Wildcat was on the floor for a whopping 38 minutes tonight.

Playing his second-fewest minutes of these playoffs, the southpaw recorded 26 points (lowest since Game 2 of the first round), 0 rebounds, and 5 turnovers.

It was quite obvious that Brunson struggled due to his injury. But during the postgame conference, he wouldn’t allow the ailment to be used as an excuse for the loss.

“If I’m out there, I’m playing. There’s no excuse whether I’m hurting or not. If I’m hurting, I’ll come out,” Brunson said.

Despite being shorthanded and suffering an injury, Brunson wasn’t asking for any sympathy. Instead, the 27-year-old shouldered all the blame for the loss based on one decision.

With 16.4 seconds remaining in the regulation, the Knicks found themselves trailing by 2 points. Here, instead of going for the safer option – a two-point field goal, Jalen went on to attempt an extremely contested three-pointer.

Wasting the possession, the Knicks’ leader admitted that he saw the decision as “terrible” in hindsight.

“It’s a terrible decision and something I need to learn from,” Brunson said postgame.

Brunson deserves a lot more credit than he believes. Despite the Knicks’ second (Randle) and third (Anunoby) options being out tonight, he led Tom Thibodeau’s boys to almost clinch a pivotal win at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

For the Indiana Pacers, however, they will hope to use the gained momentum entering Game 4. Additionally, Tyrese Haliburton and Co. will want to capitalize on the fact that their opponents are forced to play a small-ball lineup due to the absence of their Randle-Robinson-Bogdanovic frontcourt trio.