By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The New York Knicks lost a 15-point lead in the blink of an eye, nearly fumbled the game, but man, all thanks to Jalen Brunson, who wore an invisible cape and played like a hero to save the day and help his franchise advance to the semifinals of the Eastern Conference NBA Playoffs.
On May 2, 2025, Brunson showed why he is deserving of being named as the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year after breaking the hearts of the Detroit Pistons, 116-113, in Game 6 of their NBA Eastern Conference best-of-seven first-round playoff series.
Eager to eliminate the Pistons in six games to avoid pressure if Game 7 folded on their home floor, Brunson went beast mode in the most crucial stretch of the fourth and put the entire New York franchise on his back.
With the game on the line and the score equalized at 113-all in the final 10 seconds of the ball game, Brunson stunned the whole Little Caesars Arena after losing Ausar Thompson off a crafty separation move.
As the official timer ticked to 6.4 seconds, Brunson gathered, squared up for the heave, and netted the game-winning three-pointer that was the nail in the coffin for Detroit’s NBA season.
The Knicks had the chance to force overtime with 4.3 seconds left to operate, but their drawn-up play off the timeout went to waste as Malik Beasley failed to grab Cade Cunningham’s incoming pass off a curl action.
After the Pistons’ turnover, the Knicks just inbounded the ball en route to a hard-earned series win, with only 0.4 seconds remaining in the game clock.
Brunson was a one-man wrecking machine for New York after single-handedly bringing them back into the ball game with a seven-point deficit in the final 2:23 mark.
The hefty leftie kicked off his cold-blooded outing with a foul-counted fading shot drawn on Dennis Schroder that pulled the Knicks to within four points, 108-112.
Brunson then stepped on the gas pedal in the next offensive sequence as he muscled his way underneath for a reverse layup that trimmed their deficit to just a deuce, 110-112.
Karl-Anthony Towns made it a one-point game after splitting his attempts from the charity stripe, 111-112, but Detroit’s young front-court star Jalen Duren responded with his free throw shooting that increased the Pistons’ cushion to two points, 111-113.
With only 38 seconds remaining and the Knicks desperate for more points, Mikal Bridges came up huge after tipping in Brunson’s miss from the perimeter, which tied the thrilling affair at 113-all.
However, the Pistons failed to answer after Cunningham missed his layup attempt, that paved the way for Brunson’s clutch trifecta for the win.
New York was bound for another dominant outing on the road after ballooning their lead to as much as 15 points but the young and gutsy Detroit squad showed poise under pressure and banked on the hot-shooting of Beasley.
Beasley kept them in the game after torching the Knicks with a barrage of three-pointers before Schroder, Duren, and Cunningham connived to retake the lead and the momentum midway through the fourth.
Unfortunately, the Pistons just couldn’t contain Brunson, who was having himself a night after getting into his sweet spots while capitalizing on Detroit’s defensive decision to negate the double- team action.
Brunson ended his terrific night with his best-scoring output of the series as he exploded for 40 points alongside seven assists and four rebounds.
Bridges, who is coming off a two-game shooting slump, delivered when the Knicks needed his offensive lift the most as he backstopped Brunson with 25 markers built from an efficient 11/16 shooting from the field.
On the other hand, Detroit received a balanced scoring effort as five of their players reached the double-digit scoring mark but Brunson was just too much and played spoiler, erasing their hopes of a winner-take-all Game 7 rubber match.
With the series win over the Pistons, New York just set up a highly-anticipated Eastern semis clash against the defending NBA champs, the Boston Celtics, that repelled the Orlando Magic in just five games.
