Knicks Amused By Jalen Brunson Hate

"To Jalen, those are cheers," Thibodeau said in video from MSG Network, hardly able to contain a smirk. "He lives for that stuff."

Damning from Detroiters only served to fuel the latest chapter of Brunson's legend: the captain put in 30 points, a dozen alone during the last eight minutes of play, to help the Knicks preserve a lasting lead and secure a 118-116 victory that gave them a 2-1 series lead. Together with Karl-Anthony Towns, Brunson was part of the first New York tandem to score at least 30 points in the same playoff game since Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell united to pull it off in the 1999 run to the Finals.

In typical Brunson fashion, the Villanova alum had fun with the chaos of Knicks basketball, as he tried to goad questioners into repeating the R-rated chants from Pistons fans, who received special props from the point guard for their vocal work.

"I give them a lot of credit. They made an environment special for their home team," Brunson said in video from SNY, admitting that he had never seen such hated directed toward him "in the NBA." "We just found a way to win the game, but that was definitely a lot, so you've got to give a lot of credit to that fanbase."

Thursday marked the first NBA playoff game in Detroit since 2019 and fans were in a frenzy after the Pistons stole Game 2 at Madison Square Garden earlier this week. While the fans got their money's worth — Thursday's game fell just short of the three-hour mark — Brunson lived up to his newly-installed Clutch Player of the Year with crucial tallies in the final period that helped seal New York's fate.

It led Josh Hart, a primary dispenser of Brunson roasts, to compared the point guard to metropolitan enemy and lasting Golden State Warriors agitator Draymond Green, who has faced similar chants during the Dubs' series with the Houston Rockets.

"He’s the Clutch Player of the Year. In those moments, he’s not really too worried about the crowd. He’s focused on helping his team win and he did that," Hart lauded, per Adam Zagoria of NJ.com. "Obviously, you heard it. Houston did it to Draymond [Green] and Boston did it to Draymond, so we don’t care. We’re going to go out there and play our game and nothing the fans do really dictates how we go about anything.”