Is Jalen Brunson hurt? Knicks star's mysterious Game 7 exit explained

The New York Knicks have been held together with duct tape and string during the NBA playoffs with injuries ravaging the lineup. It finally caught up to them in Game 7 as they fell behind the Indiana Pacers by double-digits.

Any hope of the Knicks advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals likely hinged on Jalen Brunson having an individual performance for the decades. Instead, New York got more bad news.

Brunson exited the game in the second half and went back to the locker room without any apparent explanation. Soon enough, the Knicks provided some unfortunate clarity: He suffered a fracture in his left hand and could not return.

Jalen Brunson injury update: Knicks star has fractured left hand

The ESPN broadcast pointed to this play as the moment Brunson suffered the injury:

At this point, the Knicks can just shake their heads and curse their bad luck. The cosmos really, really, really didn't want them to extend their season with injury after injury piling up. Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic were already lost to injury. Josh Hart was playing through an injury on Sunday while OG Anunoby lasted five minutes trying to give it a go before he had to exit.

It was honestly impressive they made it to Game 7 in the first place.

The likelihood of New York advancing was already low given the 15-point halftime deficit and out-of-this-world shooting performance from the Pacers. Tyrese Haliburton was 6-of-11 from beyond the arc entering the final five minutes and the entire starting lineup was shooting better than 50 percent from the field at that stage. But Brunson at least gave them the slimmest of chances to pull off a miracle despite shooting 35 percent from the field before his exit.

It was fitting then, that the Knicks' hopes were likely crushed by one last injury.