Mr. Clutch Comes Through Again.

In what looked more like a bi-polar convention at a psychiatric ward than an NBA playoff game, the New York Knicks were on the verge of a loss that would've meant a seventh and deciding game at Madison Square Garden Saturday afternoon. The Detroit Pistons had erased a twelve-point, fourth quarter deficit and were leading 112-105 with 2:35 left.

That's when Jalen Brunson - aka, Mr. Clutch - stepped up and said, "I don't think so." The Captain scored eight of his team's final eleven points, including a three pointer that hit nothing but net with 4.3 seconds on the clock that will go down as one of the most iconic shots in NBA playoff history, to propel the Knicks to a 116-113 win. He would finish the game with 40 points and seven assists.

We're running out of superlatives to describe Brunson and what he means to this team. Just look at some of these stats:

• He's tied for second with Giannis Antekokoumpo, Dwayne Wade and Charles Barkley for the most 40 point road playoff games with two. Michael Jordan - the greatest basketball player of all time -had four during his career.
• He opened this postseason with four straight 30 point games. The last player to do that was Jordan in 1998.
• In the series against the Pistons, Brunson scored 66 fourth-quarter points in just 55 minutes. Over his career as a Knick, he's averaged just under a point per minute in the fourth quarter of the playoffs. 
• In the three games at Detroit, Brunson scored 23 clutch-time points; the Pistons as a team scored 24.
• As a Knick, Brunson has averaged 31.5 points per game in the playoffs. His regular season average is 26.4.
• Brunson has more 30 point playoff games (14) than Magic Johnson (12), and Johnson appeared in 190 playoff games while Brunson has only appeared in 55.

Some have compared Brunson to another Knick great: Walt Frazier. Respectfully, while Frazier does have two rings to show for his tenure in New York, I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that when his career is over, his jersey will be hanging in the rafters. If the measure of a player's stature is how many times he comes through when it counts, then Brunson has earned every accolade he's received.

Case in point, the Pistons series. Going in, the so-called "experts" thought Cade Cunningham would be the best player on the court. Well, guess what? Jalen Brunson owned him, and it wasn't even close.

Detractors can mock his size all they want; they can continue to diminish his accomplishments on the court; or qualify them, as Candace Parker did last season on TNT. To his fans, he will forever be known as Mr. Clutch: the man who, night in and night out, dons a cape and delivers his teammates from the evil clutches of the loss column.

The man is legit, he's elite, and he's the reason the New York Knicks are headed to Boston to play the Celtics in the second round.

Critics be damned.