ATLANTA — Mike Brown did the most logical thing in the world. There were 12.5 seconds left in a basketball game the Knicks had been desperately trying to steal for an hour. The Knicks had the ball. They have Jalen Brunson on the team.

There is only one choice here.

“Go win the game,” Brown said.

And normally, that is the soundest of all basketball strategies. Brunson has a home at the corner of Clutch and Fearless, he has shown that time and again, year after year. Time and again, even when he isn’t at his best for the first 45 or 46 minutes of a game, he is an assassin across the final two.