For some time on Thursday, the player of the year of clutch was an uncharacterly difficult fourth quarter. In the game of the 6th series of the first round of New York, NIX against Detroit Pistons, Jalen Branson missed eight out of the first nine field targets that he tried in the final frame, and one of them was the result of the piston inexplicable clarifying the defensive situation that allowed him to undergo a slight setting.
She remained for one minute, Brunns was isolated against Ausar Thompson, an arrest-sports 22-year threat, which in the future has a team secured. Thompson shaded him on his right elbow, where he tried to do one -legged damage. Thompson knocked out the ball out of his hands, forcing the watch.
Brunzon was 3 in the 13th in the fourth quarter, when he missed the jumper in the middle range above Dennis Schreder in the next offensive ownership of the NIX. Mikal Bridges managed to overturn him, which gave Brunzon a chance to make all his mistakes.
20.6 seconds before the end and account is connected, New York intervened the ball in Brunns. Thompson was again everywhere. Bridges appeared to install the screen on the logo, but “ghostly” instead of making contact. Brunns went to the left, then stopped, drove the ball between his feet and completely spilled Thompson. He took two dribbling and climbed a straight line 3. The whole network.
The bucket gave him 40 points in the game and 10 in the fourth. After a rough game 5 in Madison Square GardenBranson returned to normal in the most possible way. Having absorbed the drill-and loud, expanded singing “Flop-Zat-Za”-on Little Caesars Arena, Branson broke the collective heart of Detroit and kissed fans.
With a stop at the next possession, Knicks finished the game at 11-1 and went to the second round with the victory of the 4-2 series. Now they are worried about Boston Celtics, and not about Thompson and annoying pistons.
“Dude, I just know him so well, and I just think when high-pressure situations arise, this does not care about him,” Bridges told reporters. “I just have been next to him for so long and I know that he was even throughout the night, regardless of whether he is fighting, regardless of whether he will never be able to say. Therefore, everything that I just thought was I hope he gets some separationThe field and as soon as he received a separation, then these were curtains. When he shot and did it, I felt that he did it. I was so clarified. You would think that I hit the winner of the game. ”
Branson said that he shot it “a little earlier than I wanted”, but, against a defender like Thompson, he had to immediately use the space that he managed to create.
“I really won’t go and think Okay, I’m going to take this step right here– said Branson. – This is just an instinct. He beat me in place, he cut me off, I just returned in the other direction, and I found a lot of space, and I was able to take a picture. It was difficult to play with this dude. He is big. And I told him, right to his face after the series (this), he made me work, so I received very respect for him. “
The coach from New York Tom Tibodo said that the play -off about perseverance, endurance and passage of emotional maximums and falls that are inevitable. In this regard, “makeup” and “intangible assets” of Branson – this is what makes him special.
“It’s easy to see how many glasses are scored by a guy or what physical instruments (player), but when you look at mental instruments, that’s all,” Tibodo said. “And then, how do you cope, for example, if you skip a shot? He returns, the next, he is going to remove him perfectly. He can skip it, but he will shoot the next great. ”
Just as they were in the series of the first round last season against Philadelphia 76ers, “NIX” was lucky to finish this series in less than seven games. Games from 3 to 6 came to the last possession, and New York needed a mileage of 21-0 in the fourth quarter to steal a beginner.
However, this is not an accident that NIX continues to find ways to pull close games, or that in Brunzon there is a longer list of players in its resume.
“You have to hang your hat to Brunzon for creating a place, finding his shot there at the end,” said the coach of the idra, J. B. Bickerstaff. “But it is difficult to protect. And the space with which they play, and how it can generate space in its size, is wonderful. I thought Ausar did a lot of work on him. He just did what he was doing, and did another. ”
Branson saved New York from the need to play the game 7 against the pistons. In the next round, however, its task will be much more rigid. Against the current champions, can this team even support it close enough so that its balancing the crisis can matter? Celtics is a more balanced team than NIX, with a much better interval, much greater versatility and ton firepower.
In particular, the crime of New York was not impressive in general against Detroit. This will have to change if they have a chance against Boston, and this is not all on Brunzon. His heroism can be part of the solution, but, with a much smaller space for errors, NIX cannot continue to look for him in order to save them.
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