Jalen Brunson: Scoring 61 Points 'Doesn't Matter' Amidst New York Knicks Loss

Jalen Brunson had no interest in historical precedent after the New York Knicks lost to the lowly San Antonio Spurs despite his legendary scoring output.

Mar 29, 2024; San Antonio, Texas, USA; New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) reacts while / Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

Jalen Brunson doesn't see the point around individual points.

Brunson put forth one of the greatest offensive performances in New York Knicks history on Friday night against the San Antonio Spurs, scoring 61 points in an interconference tilt at Frost Bank Center.

Though he fell two points short of breaking Carmelo Anthony's single-game record, no New Yorker has hot more shots from the field in a game than Brunson, who saw 25 shots fall through. The 47 attempts it took to get there are the most any NBA player has tried in a single game since the late Kobe Bryant put up 50 in his farewell game in 2016. Brunson is also just the third Knick to have at least 60 in a game and the seventh in this NBA season.

Inclusion among legends, however, means nothing to Brunson, who worried more about the cumulative box score rather than the individual. If the Knicks miss out on a prime playoff seed, fans and observers will too.

“It’s great, but ... that stuff is washed out the window with a loss,” Brunson said, per Steve Popper of Newsday. “So it doesn’t really matter.”

Despite Brunson's showcase, the Knicks dropped a 130-126 overtime decision to the lowly Spurs on Friday. In a case of the NBA's future facing its present, rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama countered Brunson's performance with history of his own: the 40-point, 20-rebound double-double the most recent No. 1 pick put up was the first of its kind for a first-year player since Orlando's Shaquille O'Neal posted similar tallies in 1993.

With Wembanyama's wares, the Spurs (18-56) officially earned their first three-game winning streak of the season. Brunson's breakout was partly necessitated by San Antonio conjuring a 17-point lead for halftime, one built by a 10-of-20 effort from three-point range over the first two dozen minutes. A third quarter surge set the stage for history and a thrilling finish, as Brunson put in 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting. San Antonio took advantage of a long-awaited rest for Brunson, scoring the first nine points of the final period before he came back in.

Thus, a night that began with the possibility of the Knicks (44-29) inching closer to the Eastern Conference's second seed instead ended with them back in fourth thanks to Cleveland's win over Philadelphia. Falling to the Spurs, long eliminated from any sort of postseason contention, already feels like a missed opportunity: all but one of the Knicks' final nine regular season games comes against a team currently situated in their respective conference's top 10.

That gauntlet begins on Easter Sunday when the Knicks face the Western Conference co-leaders from Oklahoma City (7 p.m. ET, MSG)