Knicks’ Game 3 task: Getting away from Jalen Brunson one man show

The Knicks invested so much to provide Jalen Brunson with needed scoring help.

But that supporting cast can’t, well, support if it never gets the ball.

Through two games of this first-round series against the Pistons, which is even at 1-1 heading to Detroit for Thursday’s Game 3, the numbers are startling.

This is certainly not what president Leon Rose and coach Tom Thibodeau envisioned when they made two blockbuster trades to acquire Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges along with giving OG Anunoby the biggest contract in franchise history over the offseason.

The Knicks had just 15 assists during their 100-94 Game 2 loss Monday night at Madison Square Garden, their lowest total the entire season.

In Game 1, which the Knicks won 123-112, they had just 15 assists through the first three quarters before recording 11 in the fourth quarter, when they utilized a 21-0 run to blitz the Pistons with 40 points.

No ball movement, no fun. More ball movement, more fun.

“Definitely taking each possession at a time and trying to figure out the best course of action,” Brunson said after Game 2. “It’s very tough when there’s one ball. We have a lot of great players on this team and definitely it’s on my shoulders. I’m not gonna point fingers and say some people do that and this. It’s on me to make sure I set the table.

“So I’ll go back and I’ll figure out what I need to do. We’ll have conversations and we’ll figure out what we need to do for Game 3.”

When digging further into the numbers, it grows even more concerning — and perplexing.

Through the two games, the Knicks averaged 254.5 passes per game, per NBA.com’s tracking stats. That’s way down from the regular season, when they averaged 281.2 passes per game. And it would be the lowest across the NBA in the regular season — the Rockets ranked last with 262.2 passes per game.

Brunson averaged a career-high 7.3 assists in the regular season, but the way he’s utilized his teammates through two postseason games has not worked.

It’s resulted in the ball sticking in his hands for long periods of time, and the team’s secondary scorers getting iced out.

His usage rate (which measures how active a player is in his team’s offensive plays) has skyrocketed in the two playoff games, up to 36.3 compared with 28.9 in the regular season.

That 36.3 mark would have been the highest in the NBA in the regular season. It was 39.2 in Game 2.

He passed to Towns just 12 times in Game 2, and Towns consequently was extremely quiet, with just 10 points on 5-for-11 shooting from the field.

He also did not take a single shot in the fourth quarter. Brunson passed to Bridges 38 times, Josh Hart 32 times and Anunoby 19 times.

Towns and Anunoby, the Knicks’ second- and third-leading scorers in the regular season, are simply getting the ball less.

Towns averaged 46 touches in the first two games of the series, down from 59.6 in the regular season.

In Game 2, that was all the way down to 36.

Anunoby averaged 42.5 touches in the two games, down from 44.9 in the regular season and had just 38 in Game 2.

Hart’s touches have also decreased, averaging 63 in the two games compared to 70 in the regular season.

The only starter whose touches increased is Bridges, who averaged 60.5 touches in the two games, up from 54.3 in the regular season.

Brunson has held the ball for an average of 10.1 seconds per possession through the two games, up from 8.6 seconds in the regular season.

“I think it just derives from us playing slower,” Hart said. “I think when we play fast, it’s tough for teams to keep up. We’ve got a lot of weapons out there. When you’re playing fast, you can cause the defense to make mistakes. When you’re stagnant, it’s tougher. It’s tougher for them to make a mistake, it’s tougher to attack the basket, it’s tougher to do certain things. I’d say we played a little too slow. The thing about the playoffs is it’s never easy. Now we’ve got to watch film, learn and grow from it.”

Thibodeau joked that Brunson “put on his cape” and saved the Knicks in Game 1.

But it’s time for him to get his sidekicks going.

Because it’s those sidekicks who the Knicks planned on making the difference this postseason.