Jalen Brunson excels with wit and ingenuity, but apparently that isn’t the Knicks star’s only advantage above the shoulders.
“I just know he has a big head,” Philadelphia 76ers guard Kelly Oubre Jr. deadpanned Tuesday after a film session in Midtown.
“He’s got the braids,” Oubre later added with a laugh. “He’s a very smart, tactical player, so he uses all that to his advantage. Hey, I’ll be there. He can whip me [with his braids] all he wants, but he’s not getting free like that.”
Now, it’s up to the Sixers to put their heads together and figure out how to slow Brunson down after he erupted for 35 points in the Knicks’ 137-98 win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Brunson shot 12-of-18 from the field, including 3-of-6 on 3-pointers, in his 31 minutes at Madison Square Garden. Oubre and rookie guard VJ Edgecombe were Brunson’s primary defenders, but the Knicks repeatedly created space and mismatches for Brunson using screens.
The pick-and-roll was particularly deadly against Sixers center Joel Embiid — a matchup the Knicks targeted.
“He’s a great player,” Oubre said of Brunson. “We’ve played against him plenty of times. We have to make the adjustments that we see on film, but kudos to him. He came out and started the series and did what they had to do at home. It’s up to us to respond.”
Brunson shot 4-of-7 on possessions in which Edgecombe was the closest defender, resulting in nine of his points, according to the NBA’s head-to-head tracking data.
The Knicks guard was 1-of-2 against Oubre and, mostly tellingly, 3-of-4 for eight points against Embiid.
“Most importantly, the ball was going in, and I got in a rhythm,” Brunson said after Monday night’s series-opening win. “My teammates did a good job with setting screens and getting me open.”
Two of Brunson’s baskets against the 7-foot Embiid were 3-pointers.
The other was a jumper in which Brunson got Embiid in isolation, used some fancy footwork to turn the big man around, and then pulled up at the free-throw line.
“They set high screens on whoever [Embiid was] guarding,” Edgecombe said Tuesday. “But I think that’s every team. Every team does that: Just try to get the big away from the basket.”
Edgecombe, a two-way standout whom the Sixers drafted No. 3 overall, found success against Brunson in the regular season, limiting him to 8-of-24 shooting over their four meetings.
But Edgecombe struggled to stay in front of Brunson on Monday and aims to improve in Wednesday night’s Game 2 at the Garden.
“He’s a great player, so he’s gonna make adjustments,” Edgecombe said. “Now, it’s time for me to make adjustments on how I guard [him]. Just [need to] play hard, fight through, just try to make sure I don’t get hit by any screens. Just try my best to stay in front of him and make him make difficult shots.”
Oubre previously matched up against Brunson in their teams’ first-round series in 2024, which the Knicks won in six games.
Brunson averaged 35.5 points per game in that series and shot 53.8% when defended by Oubre.
“There’s a couple of things I did then that I didn’t do now,” said Oubre, who noted the Sixers were still adjusting from a first-round series against the Boston Celtics in which Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Payton Pritchard — and their different styles — were focal points.
As for whether Brunson actually has a big head?
“I felt like that was something that was very well-documented,” Knicks teammate Josh Hart said Tuesday. “I don’t think that was any shocker when [Oubre] said that one.”
