Jalen Brunson helps Knicks stave off Magic rally

Eight minutes and 13 seconds remained in the third quarter and the Garden was suddenly quiet. A 10-point lead had vanished and the new point guard, Jalen Brunson, had just picked up his fourth foul despite hitting the floor himself. 

Tom Thibodeau didn’t go to his bench, despite the situation. That is how much he trusts his new floor general. Brunson responded by not only avoiding his fifth foul, but picking the Knicks up off the mat as well. 

Brunson scored the game’s next seven points, and his teammates followed his lead with an explosive 25-9 run to take control, sending the Knicks to their second win in as many games at the Garden, 115-102, over the young and winless Magic on Monday night. 

After that mini-Brunson spurt, the game opened up for the Knicks. Shots began to fall. They got stops. After years without a true point guard, Brunson (21 points, six assists, two steals) already seems like the answer the Knicks have been waiting for at that position. He has alleviated some of the pressure on Julius Randle, who continued his strong start to the season with 25 points and 12 rebounds. RJ Barrett rebounded from a shaky first half to score 20 points and hit his first three 3-pointers of the season after missing his first 11. Mitchell Robinson added 14 points and three blocks, and Obi Toppin chipped in 10 points off the bench. 

Rookie Paolo Banchero, the No. 1-overall pick out of Duke, led the Magic with 21 points. 

The Magic started the third quarter hot, ripping off an 11-2 run to take their first lead since the opening quarter. Despite Brunson picking up his fourth foul less than four minutes into the quarter, Thibodeau stuck with his new point guard and Brunson got aggressive, scoring seven straight points as the Knicks retook the lead. Soon, on the strength of a 16-3 spurt, the advantage was into double figures, the firing-on-all-cylinders Knicks dunking all over the Magic en route to a 14-point lead entering the final quarter. 

The bench provided a major jolt upon checking into the game in the first quarter, engineering a 16-6 run that was fueled by seven Cam Reddish points. Immanuel Quickley produced four assists in as many minutes to close the quarter, creating fast-break opportunities with his defense and pushing the ball down the floor. 

Twice in that opening half, the Knicks looked ready to pull away, only for the Magic to counterpunch. It was a six-point edge at the break, but felt larger, the Knicks outrebounding and outshooting their opponent. The one negative was Barrett’s continued shooting woes, to the tune of a 1-for-9 start, the young wing impeding the Knicks’ free-flowing offense with forced and errant shots. 

Bol Bol, the 7-foot-2 son of Manute Bol, wowed the Garden crowd with a career-high-equaling, 11 first-half points for the Magic, scoring on the perimeter and in the paint.