Knicks Make Heat Pay After Taunting Jalen Brunson

Imitation is the finest form of flattery but it provided the New York Knicks only apparent fury.

The Knicks may have found a premature turning point in their fledgling season, overcoming a 13-point deficit en route to a 116-107 triumph over the Miami Heat on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center. The obvious headliner was Karl-Anthony Towns’ 44-point, 13-rebound breakout but Miami itself may have been ultimately responsible for the Knicks’ comeback.

South Beach took its largest lead of the night on a Nikola Jovic three-pointer that created a 70-57 advantage with 8:20 remaining in the third quarter. In his jubilation, Jovic, who sank the three in the corner in front of the visitors’ bench put his hand to his face in a fashion Knicks fans found familiar.

While some Heat fans interpreted it as a de facto tribute to former postseason star Caleb Martin (the current Philadelphia 76er would often press his hand to his face after three-pointers), Jovic used three fingers, which appeared to reference Jalen Brunson’s famed showcase of pressing his thenar space (the area between the thumb and index finger) to his mouth.

Jovic’s three helped Heat fans temporarily combat an invasion of Knicks fans in the Kaseya Center stands but it proved to be only a temporary surge: from that point forward, the Knicks ended the third quarter on a 30-10 run over the last eight minutes of the period, part of a 59-37 tally at the end of the game overall. New York (2-2) thus secured its first road win of the season and opened a four-game road trip on a high note.

Wednesday’s game also proved to be a personal comeback for Brunson: the point guard and Knicks captain shouldered blame for struggling to facilitate after Monday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, namely for the low volume from incoming star Towns, who put up only 27 shots from the field in his first three games as a New Yorker.

Towns’ 17-of-25 tally on Wednesday coincided with Brunson’s season-best effort of nine assists. A dozen of Towns’ points, the third-best scoring effort in the whole NBA so far this year, came off Brunson helpers.

Brunson also thawed after a frigid start from the field: after missing all but one of his first eight tries, Brunson scored 18 points in the productive second half on a 5-of-10 output to close, securing a 22-tally output behind only Towns. That included a 3-of-4 posting with an extra point on the line, featuring the three-pointer that gave the Knicks a permanent lead with 3:34 remaining in the third.

Brunson will have a chance to build on his momentum come Friday when the Knicks continue their road trip in Detroit (7 p.m. ET, MSG).

Make sure you bookmark All Knicks for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!