NEW YORK — You can’t reduce a playoff series to one play; there’s too much going on, too many context-dependent factors for any one thing to mean everything. If you had to use just one to try to sum up the state of affairs in the first-round matchup between the Knicks and Cavaliers, though, you could do worse than the high pick-and-roll New York ran with just under two minutes to go in Sunday’s Game 4:
Jalen Brunson: bang. pic.twitter.com/u4YtQvRTCq
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) April 23, 2023
Jalen Brunson stares down Caris LeVert, who opened the series on Cleveland’s bench, moved into the starting lineup after the Cavs struggled offensively in Game 1, filled that void fantastically in Game 2, but frequently found himself squarely in New York’s crosshairs on defense in Game 3.