Jalen Brunson has been nothing short of amazing since he started the new season with the New York Knicks. At this point, there's no denying that the Knicks made the right decision to spend big on the former Dallas Mavericks guard in free agency. It's also hard to deny, however, that the Knicks would have been much better if Donovan Mitchell was on their roster.

Mitchell, who the Knicks so sensationally missed out on during the offseason, showed New York exactly what they were missing after erupting for 38 points for the Cleveland Cavaliers. After the game, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau could not help but heap praise on Mitchell (via Peter Botte of the New York Post):

“Mitchell and Love [were] a problem. Obviously, Mitchell is going to command a lot of attention and he did … and we didn’t close as hard as we needed to,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We just gotta close … Mitchell, 13 3s, the ones off the dribble, those are tougher, but he shoots them well. And then Love, that’s been his strength for a long time. And Wade.”

Mitchell absolutely caught fire for the Cavs, draining no less than eight triples on the evening. Kevin Love joined in on the party with eight treys for himself, as Cleveland emerged with a 121-108 victory.

The Knicks were actually up by nine points entering the final frame, but a mind-blowing 37-15 fourth quarter in favor of the Cavs ensured that New York wasn't going to escape with a road victory on Sunday night.

Thibodeau commended the Knicks for their effort, but he also had to remind his team about needing to close games out:

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“They got 50 [3’s] up, and that’s the challenge,” he said. “You gotta do more than one thing. You gotta compete, you gotta be into the ball, you gotta be up to touch on the screen, you gotta drop with the roller. I liked the way we competed the first three quarters. I thought we did a lot of good things, but we have to understand the intensity of the fourth quarter. We have to do better and we will.”

The Knicks are now 3-3 with a highly-anticipated matchup against Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks in Madison Square Garden coming up on Wednesday night.