Jalen Brunson was doing Jalen Brunson things for the first 12 minutes. It was a quick reminder, in case we forgot about these annual April and May experiences, that the point guard is more than capable of elevating his game when it matters most.

But something else happened Saturday. Brunson stopped hitting shots. Frankly, he was bad. After scoring 19 points in the first quarter, Brunson shot just 1-for-11 for the combined final three quarters.

Read that again — just one shot made from the best player for three quarters.

And read this, too — it didn’t matter.