On Wednesday, the NBA introduced that New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson was named the 2024-25 Clutch Participant of the 12 months.
The award embodies a participant who delivered when the lights shined the brightest and got here by way of late in shut video games. Brunson joins De’Aaron Fox and Stephen Curry because the three winners of the award since its inception throughout the 2022-23 season.
Brunson gained the award in a landslide victory, garnering 70 out of 100 first-place votes. He completed with 426 whole factors, 114 factors forward of Denver Nuggets celebrity middle Nikola Jokic, who completed with 312 factors.
Jokic, Anthony Edwards, Curry and LeBron James had been the one different gamers to obtain first-place votes.
Regardless of the brand new additions of Karl-Anthony Cities and Mikal Bridges, Brunson has remained the Knicks’ nearer.
The star guard made his second-consecutive All-Star staff and averaged 26 factors per recreation this season. He improved his effectivity from final yr, getting buckets at a 48.8% clip from the sector whereas draining 38.3% of his pictures from past the arc.
That prime effectivity continued even when the lights had been vibrant. In accordance with the NBA, Brunson averaged a League-high 5.6 factors per recreation in clutch conditions—possessions inside the last 5 minutes of a recreation when the rating is inside 5 factors. He additionally drained 52 clutch subject objectives and shot over 51.5% from the sector inside the last minutes of video games.
Because the Knicks battle towards a gritty Detroit Pistons squad within the opening spherical of the playoffs, Brunson’s clutch gene has delivered in each Video games 1 and three. In Recreation 1, Brunson helped cap off a 21-0 run by hitting a go-ahead hook shot and making two layups to assist the Knicks draw back for a 123-112 victory. In Recreation 3, Brunson shot 4-6 within the fourth quarter, together with sinking 4 free throws that iced the sport within the last seconds of a 118-116 recreation.
For the reason that Pistons maintain video games shut, search for the Knicks to depend on their nearer and Clutch Participant of the 12 months winner to shut out video games and advance to the second spherical of the playoffs.
