Forty-eight hours earlier Jalen Brunson had hunted James Harden for 38 points and dragged the Knicks back from 22 down to steal Game 1. In Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals he did the opposite, dishing 14 assists — a career playoff high — as New York pushed Cleveland into a 2-0 hole.
"They're presenting two to the ball," Brunson said. "I was able to find my teammates, and they were knocking shots down. Just trying to create an advantage by putting two on ball and trusting them and having them make the play."
The numbers tell the rest. Josh Hart broke open the game in the third quarter, scoring nine points during an 18-0 run, and finished with a playoff career-high 26 points. Karl-Anthony Towns has carried the offence as a primary facilitator at points this season too. Brunson said the willingness to swap roles has become the Knicks' most underrated weapon.
"I think it's an advantage for us, learning how to play differently. There's gonna be times where one game plan is going to be different than the next, and so being able to adjust and learn on the fly and adjust on the fly is something that we need to continue to get better at. But I think we've been doing a great job of it."
Mikal Bridges sat alongside Brunson and gave a version of the same message in plainer language. "He just plays the right way," Bridges said. "You're not gonna send a double team — I think it's an advantage for him. And then if you send a double team, he's going to read and react and find the open guy and play the right way. Ever since I've known him, he's played the right way. If you're going to keep helping off, he's going to make you pay, and that's what makes him great."
The 18-0 run that broke the game open started, in Brunson's telling, at the defensive end. "Our defence," he said. "I think we were able to get stops, and run, and get easy baskets. So our offence was definitely the way we were able to play in transition was a credit to our defence."
The Knicks have now won nine straight postseason games and are two wins away from their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999. Brunson said the difference between this Knicks roster and the team that lost in last year's conference finals comes down to chemistry that cannot be manufactured in a single off-season.
"A little bit more experience," he said. "I think the most important thing is that we're growing and learning together. No matter what the situation is, whatever the series is, we're open to learning, we're open to getting better. We're open to figuring out how to win games, trusting each other. So it's a lot of different things, but I think the most important thing no matter what is that we're sticking together."
Bridges agreed. "Having another year together, you know, building chemistry, just every day learning how to play off each other. That means a lot. It's big time for us. Just going through experience through last year — losing in Eastern Conference finals last year — just learn a lot of things about each other, and it definitely helps."
Bridges himself has been more aggressive driving the basket in recent games and explained the shift the same way Brunson did: read the defence and take what is there. "Just doing what the defence gives me," he said. "Just being aggressive — open, shoot, if not drive. I think it's just that simple."
The challenge for the Cavaliers is now structural. In Game 1 they could not stop Brunson hunting Harden; in Game 2 they sent him a double and watched Brunson serve up clean looks for Hart, Bridges, Towns and Miles McBride. The result is a series in which Cleveland has been beaten by two completely different versions of the same player, and a Knicks side that, in Brunson's words, just keeps figuring out how to win the next game.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/jalen-brunson-14-assists-playmaker-knicks-game-2-mikal-bridges-may-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
