Charles Barkley hopes Jalen Brunson learns from foul trouble: ‘This is a wake up call’

During Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday, the Knicks finally beat the Pacers and earned their first win of the series by a score of 106-100. However, it wasn’t an easy night for the winners, as Jalen Brunson dealt with foul trouble and a tough shooting night in general. 

Nevertheless, the New York team still came out on top, with their star guard posting 23 points, two rebounds and one assist while shooting 6-of-18 from the field and 1-of-5 from beyond the arc in 31 minutes of game time.

Once the game was over, Charles Barkley sent a message to Jalen. “I’m hoping this is a wakeup call for Brunson… You’re gonna have to get off the ball. They’ve had their two best spurts in this series… They’ve had their best while everybody is getting involved,” the Hall of Famer said.

According to Chuck, Brunson still has plenty to improve despite his averages of 34 points and 5.7 assists during these conference final series. “He has to learn from that and get off the ball a little bit more,” the 60-year-old said during a recent playoff broadcast.

Another reason why they were successful on Sunday, was how coach replaced Mitchell Robinson for Josh Hart in the starting lineup, improving the Knicks defense early on in the match. He finally decided to mix things up during his squad’s latest game, which ended in their first win of the series.

According to Josh himself, he proposed this idea to his coach. “It was something that I’ve had in the back of my mind, and I’ve always wanted to do. Down 0-2, especially with how [Robinson] played last game, that was something that we had to do. And obviously that’s a group decision that really boils down to Thibs and myself…

“It was never going to be a tough day for me because I had a hand in that decision. When I’m in a decision like that and kind of got the ball rolling on that, it was funny. Y’all [the media] are scrambling, trying to get answers, and I never really cared because it was kind of my decision. I was comfortable with it,” the player told the press.

It’s been uncommon to see Hart being benched in recent times, as he’s been named the NBA’s Minutes Champion, after averaging 37.6 minutes per game this campaign. As we have become accustomed to by the New York star, he received the news with humor. “Minutes champion?” the 30-year-old said. “Guess I got my cardio in this year.”