Knicks' Jalen Brunson using season-ending turnover as inspiration - ESPN

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Ahead of the New York Knicks opening up the playoffs Saturday night at Madison Square Garden against the Philadelphia 76ers, Knicks star Jalen Brunson admitted he spent all summer thinking about his turnover in the closing moments of New York's Game 6 loss to the Miami Heat last spring.

«A lot more than you would think,» Brunson said, when asked how much he has thought about that turnover, which came with under 20 seconds to go in the game and New York trailing by two.

Rather than getting up a potential game-tying — or go-ahead — shot, Brunson got stuck in a double-team on the baseline and wound up trying to force a pass to a cutting Julius Randle coming down the lane, which was stolen by Miami. And, instead of New York possibly sending the series back to The World's Most Famous Arena for Game 7 and a chance to make a trip to the Eastern Conference finals, New York's season came to an end.

«We are in a position where we could have forced the Game 7 and I made a terrible decision and I had to live with that throughout the whole summer,» Brunson said.

«When I'm working out, I'm focusing on whatever I'm doing at that time, but that moment creeps back in your mind. You see it all over social media… it's impossible not to see things like that.»

It was a sour final note to a sensational first season in New York for Brunson, who signed with the Knicks as a free agent from the Dallas Mavericks in the summer of 2022 and immediately turned in one of the best seasons by a Knicks point guard since Hall of Famer Walt Frazier was running New York's two championship-winning teams a half-century ago.

And all Brunson has done as an encore is average 28.7 points and 6.7 assists for the Knicks this season, lifting them