![\"Barbara](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776902476_426_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nGREENBURGH \u2014 They hunted him, plain and simple.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Game 3 of this first-round playoff series that they have been out to exploit this.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t.<\/p>\n
In the Knicks\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
After finishing with a game-high 32 points in Atlanta\u2019s 107-106 win, McCollum was asked if he sought out the matchup against Brunson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you think?\u201d he responded in a big-fat-duh sort of way. \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s time for Brunson and the Knicks to do something about it.<\/p>\n
Brunson isn\u2019t about to become an elite defender overnight, but \u2014 with some help from his teammates \u2014 he can do better.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefensively, we need him to get stops,\u201d Josh Hart said after Knicks practice on Wednesday. \u201cAnd we need to make sure we have his back and are talking to him when he\u2019s on those isolations on CJ or whoever it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the kind of guy he is and character he is and he\u2019ll be better defensively for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brunson took ownership of his defensive struggles after Monday night\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was in a great rhythm,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to disrupt it, make him play on his heels, make him react to me defensively. He was just in a rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brunson\u2019s struggles haven\u2019t been limited to defense. Since scoring 19 points in the first quarter of the Knicks\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
Brunson has been the Knicks\u2019 high scorer in both games, though his 39.6 shooting percentage is well below his regular-season average of 46.7. It\u2019s hard to get too worried about Brunson\u2019s game offensively. Elite players go through stretches where they just miss shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to keep trying to move him around and give him different looks throughout the course of the game,\u201d coach Mike Brown said.<\/p>\n
Yet, one has to wonder if struggles on defense \u2014 especially on the perimeter where Brunson is particularly weak \u2014 don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got four guys that are behind him, that are gonna help him,\u201d Mikal Bridges said. \u201cJust know the personnel, who we guard and how we guard them, and then do your best to stay in front. You\u2019ve got help behind you.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\tBarbara 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREENBURGH \u2014 They hunted him, plain and simple. Jalen Brunson is a great playmaker, a high-volume scorer and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,677,6,191],"class_list":{"0":"post-716234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-hawks","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york-knicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116451099938526321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}