Jalen Brunson solves puzzling Hawks defense, hangs 34 points in MLK Day victory

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau entered Monday’s matchup against the Atlanta Hawks knowing full well the challenge ahead. Twice this season, the Hawks’ defense, anchored by Dyson Daniels, had stymied Jalen Brunson, forcing subpar shooting nights from the Knicks’ captain.

This time, however, Brunson flipped the script.

In the 3 p.m. Martin Luther King Jr. Day tipoff at Madison Square Garden, the game dictated a new approach for the All-Star point guard — and Brunson responded by dissecting Atlanta’s defense, drawing fouls on Daniels, and torching the Hawks for 34 points in a much-needed 119-110 victory.

Brunson shot a hyper-efficient 12-of-18 from the field, 3-of-5 from three-point range, and 7-of-11 from the free-throw line. His ability to exploit Daniels’ aggression — baiting him into three first-half fouls — was critical, forcing the Hawks’ defensive anchor to the bench and limiting his usual effectiveness.

“When you see something like [Daniels’ pressure], you’re trying to make the right play,” Brunson said postgame. “He was pressuring up, so I was trying to obviously get the ball over half court, use his aggressiveness against him, and I was able to get a foul. The dude’s been playing well all year, and the way he’s been playing, it’s been noticed around the league.”

Daniels picked up a technical foul in frustration during the third quarter and fouled out late in the fourth, cementing Brunson’s dominant performance. Brunson gestured towards the Hawks bench for a substitution after Daniels picked up his second personal in the first quarter. He then had words for Atlanta’s defensive stopper when he fouled out with 1:16 to go in the final period.

“I just said that was six fouls. That’s all. Just stating a fact,” Brunson quipped when asked about his late-game exchange with Daniels. “In all honesty, he’s a great defender. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. With trash talk or not, being competitive, that dude can hoop.”

Brunson scored eight points in the first quarter, taking advantage of the minutes Daniels spent on the bench. But make no mistake, Daniels got the work, too — equal-opportunity buckets on MLK Day indeed.

Brunson added 11 more in the second quarter, attacking Daniels head on. On one possession, he used a Karl-Anthony Towns screen to throw Daniels off balance, then drove into his chest for a floater at the rim. Brunson dug deep into his bag to get the better of his opponent. After all, it was Daniels who held the star Knicks guard to just a 5-of-15 shooting performance in the Knicks’ Dec. 21 NBA Cup quarter final loss to the Hawks at MSG.

“Sometimes you’re going to miss shots, even good shots. Just keep shooting,” Thibodeau said. “Take good shots. The game tells you what to do.”

Brunson used his signature turnaround, fadeaway to get create enough space to get a shot to fall over Daniels’ contest in the second quarter. He also got a step-back two to fall with less than three minutes left before the half.

“They do a good job of havign Dyson Daniels and putting him in position to guard the ball. I feel like tonight, Jalen’s just a guy that’s gonna continue to do what he does,” Miles McBride told the Daily News. “He works hard and he’s confident in his game.”

The Knicks also adjusted their offense to mitigate Daniels’ relentless full-court pressure. Cameron Payne and other teammates took turns bringing the ball up the court, freeing Brunson to exert less energy to get the Knicks into half-court sets. Instead, the Knicks ran offense through Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished with seven assists and found Brunson on off-ball cuts both in the game’s opening possession and with under 7 minutes left for a bucket to put the Knicks up seven.

“I think we were able to get him a little bit more off the ball and not have him bring the ball up,” Josh Hart said. “Sometimes, when [Jalen] brings the ball up, it wastes about five or six seconds, and then it takes a couple seconds to get into something [on offense]. So now we’ve got 12 seconds to really go out there and execute. And we can’t play that way.”

The win snapped a stretch in which the Knicks had dropped six of their previous nine games, providing momentum as they prepare for the second leg of a back-to-back against the Nets on Tuesday. The Knicks had also dropped four of their last six home games before righting their wrongs on Monday.

Monday night.“I think more importantly, [the focus] was for us to get that win, regardless of who we were playing, just to have a win at home,” Brunson said. “With the stretch of games that we have at home, we’ve got to finish out this month strong. Regardless, it was a big win for us.”

Against an opponent that had dominated them twice before, the Knicks showed they could adapt and overcome — led by a captain who let the game guide him and delivered when it mattered most.

“He’s always going to come through,” said Thibodeau.

“I feel like at any given time, he’s capable of having a big night,” added McBride.