When it comes to the top scorers in New York Knicks franchise history, a few names might come to mind. There’s Patrick Ewing, the franchise leader in points. Bernard King, whose 32.9 points per game in 1984-85 is the most in a single season by a New York player. More recently, Carmelo Anthony put up points in bunches and won a scoring title in 2012-13. Fans who really know Knicks history may even bring up Richie Guerin.
After just two seasons playing for New York, Jalen Brunson is already throwing his name into the mix as one of the best scorers in team history.
On Wednesday, the Knicks defeated the Indiana Pacers 130-121. They now own a 2-0 series lead over Indiana in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Despite missing the entire second quarter with a foot injury, Brunson returned for the second half and finished the game with 29 points on 11-18 shooting.
With that performance, he has already passed one of the previous names mentioned in career playoff points as a member of the Knicks.
Jalen Brunson Surpasses Knicks Scoring Champ in Playoff Points
Brunson Now Has More Career Playoff Points With Knicks Than Melo
Prior to Wednesday’s outing, the 27-year-old Brunson scored at least 40 points in four straight playoff games. He leads all players in this season’s postseason with his 35.6 scoring average in eight games.
Brunson this postseason:
35.6 PPG
8.1 APGLeading the playoffs in scoring with 50 more points than 2nd place. pic.twitter.com/eEx8f5hHqL
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 9, 2024
In last season’s playoffs, the Knicks advanced to the second round. They defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games before falling to the Miami Heat in six. In those 11 postseason games, the 6-2 guard averaged 27.8 points per contest.
So far with New York, Brunson has averaged 31.1 points in 19 playoff games. That gives him a total of 591 points for the Knicks in the postseason.
That playoff point total has already surpassed what Carmelo Anthony put up for New York in the postseason.
Anthony played 6.5 seasons for the Knicks. New York made the playoffs in his first three seasons with the club but missed out in his last four.
All in all, Anthony played 31 playoff games with the Knicks. They were able to advance to the second round once in 2013 where they lost to the Pacers in six games. Anthony averaged 28.0 points for the Knicks in the postseason giving him 589 total points.
Should Continue to Move Up Knicks Playoff Scoring Leaderboard
With his 591 playoff points with the Knicks, Brunson already has the 16th-most in franchise history. He should be moving even further up the list during this year’s playoffs as he is just 88 points away from surpassing Harry Gallatin who is currently in 12th. To enter the top 10, Brunson will need 208 more points to pass Latrell Sprewell who sits in 10th.
Brunson has a long way to go before coming close to Patrick Ewing’s franchise record of 2,787 points in the playoffs. Ewing also played 15 seasons for the Knicks while Brunson is only in his second. He will have a minimum of four more games (likely more) in this year’s postseason to add to his total.
