Can Jalen Brunson lead the New York Knicks to an NBA title?

                                             (Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images) 

 
 As the New York Knicks look to win their first NBA championship since Phil Jackson's playing days (1973), all eyes are on their 6'2", 190 pound floor general Jalen Brunson, who is averaging 26.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game on 46.7% shooting from the field, 36.9% shooting from 3-point range, and 84.1% shooting from the foul line. Brunson has guided the Knicks to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 in which they fell to the Spurs in five games. In case you were wondering, yes, that was the 50 game lockout season. The season after Michael Jordan's final season in Chicago. 

Brunson has been amazing all season long and proven himself to be among the best guards in the NBA. He is incredibly shifty with the basketball and crafty around the rim, capable of scoring in a wide variety of ways with floaters, mid-range jumpers, 3-pointers, etc. There's really no way he can't score, which is why he's so difficult to contain. 

In their four-game sweep of the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, Brunson averaged 25.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 7.8 assists per game. He had two 30+ point performances, his best performance coming in Game 1 in which he had 38 points, five rebounds, six assists, and three steals. The Knicks rallied from 22 points down to win 115-104 in overtime. That comeback sucked the soul out of the Cavaliers, who pretty much curled up into a ball the rest of the series and lost the will to fight. 

Brunson has shown he can play at an elite level on the biggest of stages and none are bigger than the NBA Finals. Basketball is a team sport and so Brunson won't be able to do this on his own. He's going to need help from his teammates, most notably Karl-Anthony Towns, who is averaging 20.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 0.5 blocks per game.  Towns is going to have to do his part to take the pressure off Brunson and deliver the goods. If he has a big series, the Knicks could make this interesting. 

Ultimately, I do see the Spurs winning the championship in six games, but at the same time I'm not totally counting the Knicks out. When you have a guard as good as Jalen Brunson, you have to feel like any night can be your night and when you find yourself playing in the NBA Finals, you have to believe. It'll be fun to see how Brunson does and what kind of impact he has on this series. 

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Five things to look for in the Eastern Conference Finals: Knicks vs. Pacers

 

                                            (Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski/Imagn Images) 

The Eastern Conference Finals begins this week between the 3rd seeded New York Knicks and 4th seeded Indiana Pacers. Game one will be on Wednesday at 5:00 PM PT on TNT/TruTV. Below are five things to look for in the series. 

#1. Can the Pacers slow down Jalen Brunson? Jalen Brunson is coming into the series averaging a ridiculous 28.8 points and 7.7 assists per game during the playoffs. He's really in the zone right now. Something to look for is whether or not the Pacers will be able to do a better job defending him than the Pistons and Celtics did. If not, the Knicks are going to be extremely tough to stop. 

#2. Can the Pacers' ball movement make the difference? The Pacers averaged 29.2 assists per game during the regular season, which is 3rd in the NBA while the Knicks averaged 27.5 points per game, which ranks 11th in the NBA. During the playoffs, the Pacers have taken it up a notch with 29.7 assists per game as Tyrese Haliburton's 9.3 assists per game during the playoffs leads the NBA. If the Pacers are going to win the series, their ball movement is going to have play a major role. 

#3. Will the Pacers' rest help them out at all? The Pacers come into this series with more rest having taken out the top-seeded Cavaliers in five games while the Knicks had to play a game six to dispatch of the Celtics. Getting a couple extra days to rest should certainly help the Pacers, but will it make any meaningful difference? Game one should tell us a lot. 

#4. Can the Knicks close the gap on the 3-ball? The Knicks are shooting 35.8% from 3-point range in the playoffs while the Pacers are shooting 40.6%. If the Knicks want to win the series, it would help them a lot if they could get more threes to fall while defending the Pacers from the perimeter. The Pacers are coming in with a lot of confidence in their 3-point shooting, so slowing them down in that department will be no easy task. 

#5. Will the rivalry feel rekindled? The Knicks and Pacers had a lot of battles in the 1990s and have formed one of the more iconic NBA rivalries. This series certainly has a chance to add an exciting chapter to it. The fans should be fired up on both sides. It certainly would be good for the NBA to have this be a competitive series given the history between these two teams. 

Prediction: The Pacers seem to have really taken things up a notch during the playoffs. I got them winning this series in six games. 

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