GREENBURGH — They hunted him, plain and simple.
Jalen Brunson is a great playmaker, a high-volume scorer and one of the best crunch-time players in the NBA. Yet, like all heroes, the Knicks superstar has a weakness: Brunson is a below-average defender, one of the weaker among guards in the playoffs, and the Atlanta Hawks have made it clear heading into Thursday night’s Game 3 of this first-round playoff series that they have been out to exploit this.
When Brunson is his primary defender, CJ McCollum, a 34-year-old guard who has never been an All-Star, is shooting 75% (9-for-12). Compare that to 46.6% shooting (14-for-30) when he isn’t.
In the Knicks’ Game 2 collapse, the difference was even more startling as McCollum was 5-for-6 with four assists with Brunson as his defender. In the final 2:08, McCollum blew past Brunson twice. His driving layup with 2:08 left gave the Hawks a 101-100 lead, and then his floater on the next possession made it a 103-100 game.
After finishing with a game-high 32 points in Atlanta’s 107-106 win, McCollum was asked if he sought out the matchup against Brunson.
“What do you think?” he responded in a big-fat-duh sort of way. “Yeah.”
And you thought this series would be boring without Trae Young to kick around? McCollum has put the Knicks on notice that they are not afraid to come after their captain, and now it’s time for Brunson and the Knicks to do something about it.
Brunson isn’t about to become an elite defender overnight, but — with some help from his teammates — he can do better.
“Defensively, we need him to get stops,” Josh Hart said after Knicks practice on Wednesday. “And we need to make sure we have his back and are talking to him when he’s on those isolations on CJ or whoever it is.
“We can talk to him. We can do those kinds of things to let him know where to force the ball or those kinds of things. But at the end of the day, he has to take pride in it. I think that’s just knowing him and watching the film, he was frustrated at some of those spots that CJ was able to get to and those kinds of things.
“I know the kind of guy he is and character he is and he’ll be better defensively for us.”
Brunson took ownership of his defensive struggles after Monday night’s loss.
“He was in a great rhythm,” Brunson said. “I’ve got to disrupt it, make him play on his heels, make him react to me defensively. He was just in a rhythm.”
Brunson’s struggles haven’t been limited to defense. Since scoring 19 points in the first quarter of the Knicks’ 113-102 win in Game 1, he has uncharacteristically struggled. In the seven quarters since, Brunson has shot 11-for-37 (29.7%). He has also made some costly mistakes, including getting stripped by Nickeil Alexander-Walker with 15 seconds left in Game 2 and the Knicks down by two.
Brunson has been the Knicks’ high scorer in both games, though his 39.6 shooting percentage is well below his regular-season average of 46.7. It’s hard to get too worried about Brunson’s game offensively. Elite players go through stretches where they just miss shots.
“We’ve just got to keep trying to move him around and give him different looks throughout the course of the game,” coach Mike Brown said.
Yet, one has to wonder if struggles on defense — especially on the perimeter where Brunson is particularly weak — don’t begin to affect Brunson and have an impact offensively when the game wears on. Yes, he made a big three in the final minute of the Game 2 loss, but he missed his share of fourth-quarter shots too.
It’s up to the Knicks to lessen the defensive pressure on him, to make things easier where they can. How can the Knicks do that? Make it a priority for everyone to be all-in on defense and let Brunson know they are there for him.
“You’ve got four guys that are behind him, that are gonna help him,” Mikal Bridges said. “Just know the personnel, who we guard and how we guard them, and then do your best to stay in front. You’ve got help behind you.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.