NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen Brunson took the blame when the Knicks dropped the opener of the Eastern Conference semifinals and insisted he needed to be better in Game 2.
Halfway through, it appeared he wasn’t.
Struggling again with his shot and this time a sore right ankle as well, Brunson told himself he needed to fight through it.
He did, getting New York back to even in the series.
Brunson scored 30 points Tuesday night and keyed the run the Knicks needed just in time for a 111-105 victory over a Miami Heat team playing without Jimmy Butler.
Julius Randle returned from a sprained left ankle that sidelined him in Game 1 with 25 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, and RJ Barrett scored 16 of his 24 points in the first quarter for the No. 5-seeded Knicks. Josh Hart finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists.
But it was Brunson, who was 0 for 7 from 3-point range in the opener, who made the biggest plays after going just 1 for 6 for seven points in the first half.
Caleb Martin scored 22 points in place of Butler for the Heat, who host Game 3 on Saturday afternoon. They will hope to have Butler, the leading scorer in the playoffs who sat out after spraining his right ankle late in their 108-101 victory in the opener.
Miami had a six-point lead midway through the fourth quarter thanks to undrafted players Martin and Gabe Vincent before Brunson, who had been listed as questionable after feeling ankle pain at the end of Game 1, took over.
He made a 3-pointer that became a four-point play when Isaiah Hartenstein was fouled on the play, and the point guard then scored to knot it at 93.
The Heat went back up 96-93 on Vincent’s three free throws, but Hart tied it with a 3 before Brunson hit a 3 and scored again to make it 101-96 with 2:48 remaining.
Butler is averaging 35.5 points in the postseason, finishing off the top-seeded Bucks in the first round with 56 and 42 points in the the last two games. He had 25 points and 11 points in the opener of this series and almost watched his teammates pull this one out without him.
Randle was originally hurt against the Heat in a victory March 29 after starting the first 77 games. He returned for the start of the playoffs but wasn’t sharp for much of the series against Cleveland before reinjuring the ankle in the Game 5 clincher.
He was much better Tuesday for a Knicks team trying to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000, when they got there after beating Miami in seven games.