The New York Knicks are expected to be without Jalen Brunson for at least two weeks with an ankle injury he suffered to begin the team's Western Conference road trip against the Los Angeles Lakers.
With Brunson out, the Knicks will be asked to do more in order to continue winning and keeping pace with the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
CBS Sports writer Jack Maloney emphasizes how important Brunson is to the Knicks and how vital he has been for the team's success.
"Even after adding Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges in the offseason, this remained Brunson's team. He is not only their best scorer and playmaker, but their leader and go-to option late in games," Maloney writes.
"The Knicks are 16-8 in clutch games -- games where the score is within five points with five or fewer minutes remaining -- and are tied for the second-best winning % (.667) in the league in those situations largely because of Brunson. His 145 clutch points are tied for the most by any player this season, and he was shooting 52.2% with 23 assists to just seven turnovers in clutch minutes."
The Knicks have the talent to compete with some of the best in the NBA, but they don't know a whole lot about themselves without Brunson.
Before sitting out of Friday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Brunson had only missed one game earlier in the season. The Knicks came out on top against the rebuilding Utah Jazz, so there's not a lot of a sample size to see how New York would do without him.
Over the next two weeks, the Knicks have some winnable games, so they need to take advantage as they look to keep pace in the very tight Eastern Conference playoff race.
