CLEVELAND — It’s easy to forget now, because of how well he has performed in the postseason the past two years, but Jalen Brunson hasn’t let the memory fade completely from his consciousness.
He still remembers his playoff debut, and how much he struggled in a opening-round, seven-game series loss to the Clippers as a member of the Mavericks two years ago.
“Knowing how I played that series and knowing what I could’ve done — I could’ve been better — it was always on my mind,” the Knicks’ point guard said Tuesday, before the team flew to Cleveland for Wednesday’s Game 5 owning a 3-1 series lead. “It still is.”
Brunson averaged 8.0 points and 1.4 assists in that series in just 16.3 minutes per game.
Dallas lost in seven after taking a 3-2 lead.
It was his third year in the league, and it was somewhat of a wake-up call, a reminder of how far he still had to go.
“For me, it wasn’t my best, but I think I wouldn’t really trade anything, any experience,” he said. “Going through that experience was enough [for me to learn]. Just staying composed, staying poised, just really taking it one day at a time, one possession at a time, not being worried about getting rattled or anything like that.”
There has been no rattling Brunson in the postseason since.
He helped the Mavericks reach the Western Conference finals last year, carrying Dallas in the first three games of their first-round series win over the Jazz when Luka Doncic was out, and he has been just as potent so far in these playoffs.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Knicks vs. Heat NBA playoff series
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- Knicks battle but fall in season-ending Game 6 loss to Heat
- Knicks couldn’t survive two minutes without Brunson
- Brunson’s heroic night spoiled by late turnover
As co-star Julius Randle has struggled coming off a sprained left ankle late in the regular season, Brunson has emerged, averaging 24.3 points, 5.0 assists and 4.3 rebounds in outplaying Donovan Mitchell in the playoffs for the second straight year.
With Brunson on the floor, the Knicks are outscoring the Cavaliers by 7.1 points per 100 possessions.
The team with the No. 1 defensive rating in the league during the regular season has had no answers for him.
They’ve tried to blitz him.
They’ve thrown bigger defenders at him. Nothing has worked.
The Knicks have had the best player in the series, ironic considering all the talk about Mitchell joining Brunson last summer before he was traded to the Cavaliers.
It was the No. 1 question prior to Game 1: Would the Knicks regret that non-trade? But Brunson and his teammates have answered it with their play, not that it was something they have talked about.
“If we needed any extra added motivation,” Brunson said, “something’s wrong.”