Jalen Brunson has found his footing. After a wayward Game 4 due to a lingering foot injury, Brunson stepped up in Game 5 for the Knicks to lead a 121-91 victory over the Pacers with 44 points, seven assists, four rebounds and a 51 percent field-goal percentage.

Brunson’s performance Tuesday made him the first player with five 40-point games in a playoff run since LeBron James in 2018 and marks the second most 40-plus point games in a single postseason in Knicks  playoff history. 

He now trails just behind Bernard King, who produced six 40-plus efforts games in the 1984 postseason. 

This was Brunson’s second 40-plus-point game of the series against the Pacers after producing 43 points in Game 1.

Brunson gave the Knicks a scare in leaving Game 2 with a foot injury, returning as a shell of himself to finish out the night, and struggled to do much the following game.

If Rangers fans were looking for another parallel to the team’s 1994 championship run, they got it on Thursday night.

The Rangers picked up another dramatic win over the Hurricanes in the second round of the playoffs for their seventh consecutive victory and are now 7-0 in the postseason, a feat they hadn’t accomplished since their last run to the Stanley Cup three decades ago. 

The magical run culminated in the Blueshirts’ first Stanley Cup championship in 54 years and also featured a Knicks run to the NBA finals, though the latter fell short of capturing a second championship that year for New York City.

That year the Rangers walloped the rival Islanders in a four-game sweep in the first round before they won the first three games of their second-round series with the Capitals. 

The similarities between the 1994 runs for both the Knicks and the Rangers have been hard to ignore over the past week as MSG has been the place to be with the first two games of each series taking place in Midtown Manhattan. 

Prior to Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Yankees manager Aaron Boone delivered a couple injury updates, including the status of top prospect Jasson Dominguez and veteran DJ LeMahieu.

Dominguez moves to DH in Single-A.
Boone provided an exciting update on Jasson Dominguez’s route return to the major leagues following Tommy John surgery on September 20, 2023. The 21-year-old will begin his rehab assignment with the Single-A Tampa Tarpons on Tuesday. According to Boone, Dominguez will DH for the first two weeks of the assignment before returning to the field.

Dominguez remains the Yankees’ top prospect, but has dropped to No. 37 overall in the MLB Pipeline rankings.