The New York Knicks are starting to get healthier at exactly the right time, but with Julius Randle still out, the majority of the burden to create offense continues to fall on the shoulders of Jalen Brunson. And Brunson, as he has done for the entirety of his tenure thus far as the star guard in the Big Apple, has delivered yet again. On Thursday night, Brunson put the Portland Trail Blazers through the ringer, scoring 45 points on 14-30 shooting from the field to lead the Knicks to a 105-93 victory.

Brunson simply had the Blazers defenders on toast; from Matisse Thybulle to Scoot Henderson to Dalano Banton, no one stood a chance in slowing down the Knicks guard, who got to his spot at will. It was a bit of a throwback outing from Brunson, as despite scoring 45 points, he only made two three-pointers, which means that he did the majority of his damage from inside the arc.

As a result of Jalen Brunson's latest scoring masterclass, Knicks fans were in a state of euphoria on Twitter (X), celebrating Brunson for how much he has meant to the franchise since taking his talents to the Big Apple during the summer of 2022.

“Jalen Brunson is such a dog man,” one fan wrote. “M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P! Have a night Jalen Brunson!” wrote a Knicks fan page on Twitter.

The Knicks were already on an upward trend to begin the decade, as they made the postseason in 2021 off a breakout season from Julius Randle. But it's the arrival of Jalen Brunson that has elevated the Knicks from fringe playoff contention to being a dark horse title contender that has a legitimate shot at winning it all given their two-way prowess.

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“Jalen Brunson absolutely turned the Knicks around. He is an animal,” @AllAboutHornets wrote. Added @Ricooffici, “Brunson will go down as top 5 New York Knicks basketball player 🔥🏀.”

Now, the focus for the Knicks will be continuing to get healthier with a little over a month to go before the playoffs begin. Once in the postseason, Jalen Brunson should have the platform to, yet again, cement himself as one of the best big game performers in the NBA.