Knicks’ Jalen Brunson sets MSG career-high with 47 points in win vs. Heat

Mike Brown doesn’t watch much college basketball. The Knicks head coach is more likely to spend his Saturdays locked in NCAA football rather than keeping up with the next wave of college players. So when Jalen Brunson was building a legacy at Villanova — winning national championships in 2016 and 2018 — he did so well beyond Brown’s line of sight.

“I had no idea [he could become this player] when he was in college,” Brown recalled Sunday. “Obviously he was a good player because he won two national championships. You knew he was a good player because he’s starting and impacting the game at the highest level.

The days of anonymity are long gone.

Brunson is now in prime time — viewing appointments, the kind of players around whom opponents build game plans and coaches lose sleep. It’s a reality Brown first absorbed from afar while serving as defensive coordinator for the Golden State Warriors, tasked with slowing down a then-emerging Dallas Mavericks guard during the playoffs.

Brown is now taking this same course again. Only this time, he’s sitting courtside, watching from the front row as his All-Star point guard and Most Valuable Player candidate gives seminar after seminar.

The class was officially in session Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

Call it a 47-point masterclass from Dr. Brunson, who surgically dismantled the Miami Heat to lead the Knicks to a 132-125 victory. The Knicks’ star guard shot 15 of 26 from the field, 6 of 13 from beyond the arc and a perfect 11 of 11 from the free throw line. It was the most points Brunson has ever scored at home as a Knick and his 20th 40-point performance in the orange and blue — 21 if you count his 40-point outburst in the NBA Cup Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, a game the league quietly excludes from official statistics.

“He’s a special player,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “I think we all know that. It doesn’t surprise you when he has nights like this.”

Yet while other coaches say Brunson’s rise came from left field, Brown remembers the early signs.

Back on the West Coast, during those bruising playoff battles, he realized: The Mavericks had something special on their hands. Something they ultimately let go for nothing as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2022.

To survive, Brown turned to his ultimate defensive chess piece: Draymond Green. Without him, the Warriors would have been forced to constantly double-team, a concession that would have unraveled their defensive structure.

“He was a terror at the time. We had to double-team him. So I knew he was a very good player,” Brown recalled. “Being able to coach him, plus he’s older now, you can see all the other things. His work ethic, his competitiveness, his confidence, all those other things, but back then he was a problem. He was a problem.”

A few years later – and a few thousand miles to the east – Brunson went from playoff nuisance to household name.

It’s an asset to be an All-Star. A candidate for a second straight All-NBA First Team nod. And, if Brown has his way, he will be a leading MVP contender for a Knicks team sitting as the No. 2 seed in the East with a 20-8 record after Sunday’s win over Miami.

This victory won’t happen without Brunson. He scored 27 points in the first half alone, erasing an initial 10-point deficit. He sent the Knicks into halftime with a four-point lead after burying Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s three-pointer.

“When you’re struggling offensively, you want to have a league MVP by your side, and he scores 47, especially [as efficient as he was]”, while dishing out eight assists, I have to mention: that’s what he can do and that’s what MVPs are supposed to do on nights like tonight,” Brown said.

Brunson returned midway through the fourth quarter. Brown hoped he wouldn’t have to turn to him again.

But that’s not how these games tend to go.

If you take a good player off the field, things can falter. Are you taking an MVP candidate off the floor? A double-digit lead can evaporate in minutes. That’s exactly what happened Sunday, when the Heat took a comfortable lead in a two-possession game with Brunson watching from the bench.

Brown’s intention was clear. After Brunson played an average of about 40 minutes per game during the Knicks’ three NBA Cup games, the head coach wanted to step aside — just a little. Technically, he did it. Brunson played 38 minutes against Miami.

In practice, the Knicks needed all of them.

“You try to sit it out as long as possible, but if you feel like the game is slipping, it’s my job to help us win in the best way possible,” Brown said. “It’s just a matter of knowing that we’re in a little bit of a downer right now and we have to continue to fight to get out of it and get our feet back under us.

“Throwing it out there is saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got to go get this game.’ I tried to make him sit as long as possible. Let’s go get that game.”

Brown pulled the lever he knew would stop the bleeding. Brunson delivered — again — because that’s what stars do and what MVP candidates get paid to do.

Sometimes load management meets reality. And the reality, for the Knicks right now, still goes through No. 11. Even if no one saw it coming – except maybe the coach who must have plotted against him years ago.