{"id":733389,"date":"2026-05-13T16:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/733389\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:03:17","slug":"he-claimed-the-garden-as-his-own-reggie-miller-on-the-mentality-that-separates-jalen-brunson-from-donovan-mitchell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/733389\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHe claimed the Garden as his own\u201d – Reggie Miller on the mentality that separates Jalen Brunson from Donovan Mitchell"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major reason the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> have grown into a legitimate force in the Eastern Conference over the past few years has been Donovan Mitchell<\/a>. Since arriving, he has averaged 26.7 points per game over four seasons, giving the team an identity that it craved in the post-LeBron James era.<\/p>\n

Moreover, this season, when the Cavs have looked unsynchronized and underconfident, Mitchell has emerged as the stabilizing force, averaging 27.9 points per game in the regular season. In the team’s tense seven-game series against the Toronto Raptors<\/a>, he’s averaged a gritty 23.1 points per game.<\/p>\n

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Moreover, when Cleveland found itself down 0-2 against the No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons<\/a>, he averaged 39 points over the past two games to level the series.<\/p>\n

Yet despite that, Hall of Famer Reggie Miller<\/a> made it clear that he would pick the New York Knicks<\/a>‘ Jalen Brunson<\/a> over Spida.<\/p>\n

“The reason why the Knicks are ‘The Knicks’ is because of his mentality. We saw glimpses of this when he was with Dallas a little bit when he played with Luka,” Miller said<\/a>. “But the time that he put his foot in Madison Square Garden, he claimed the Garden as his own.”<\/p>\n

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Miller says Brunson is more trustworthy<\/p>\n

JB has been beyond sensational for the Knicks this season. He led them to a midseason In-Season Tournament triumph and averaged 26.0 points per game in the regular season to help them secure the third seed in the conference standings, then logged a series-high 26.3 points against the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then, against a star-studded Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> in the second round, Brunson averaged 29.0 points to close out the series in four games for the Knicks.<\/p>\n

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Thus, what separates Jalen from Donovan at this point, according to Reggie, is the “killer instict.” Put simply, it’s not just the averages, but the fear that JB’s presence instills in opponents in late-game situations and the confidence he gives his own teammates.<\/p>\n

“Anytime he’s on the floor, I’m worried to death. To me, he’s always one of the best clutch performers. He has the best footwork, he hits big shots,” Miller added. “I trust this dude 110 percent.”<\/p>\n

Related: Revisiting Reggie Miller’s wholesome reaction to making the NBA 75th Anniversary Team: “I’m a little flustered right now”<\/a><\/p>\n

The difference is success<\/p>\n

The contrast becomes sharper when looking at post-season success. In just three seasons, Brunson has led the Knicks to two conference finals, whereas in his eight years in the league, Mitchell has never reached the conference finals.<\/p>\n

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That’s the difference between Spida and the other premier scorers in today’s era. They can lead their teams to success, while Mitchell has seen his team eliminated in the early stages time and again.<\/p>\n

Thus, the only way Spida can change this is by leading his Cavaliers team deeper into the playoffs and triumphing in the next round, where JB and the Knicks are waiting.<\/p>\n

Related: Jamal Crawford says Knicks are thriving by using Jalen Brunson like Allen Iverson: “They’re a little less predictable”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on May 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major reason the Cleveland Cavaliers have grown into a legitimate force in the Eastern Conference over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[208,7,306,305,193,3846,188,864,1409,288,90897,6,191,207,4485,1279,476],"class_list":{"0":"post-733389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cavaliers","11":"tag-cleveland","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","14":"tag-detroit-pistons","15":"tag-donovan-mitchell","16":"tag-eastern-conference","17":"tag-jalen-brunson","18":"tag-legitimate-force","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-new-york-knicks","21":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","22":"tag-points-per-game","23":"tag-reggie-miller","24":"tag-toronto-raptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116568116661332322","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733389","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=733389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}