He subbed in just in the Knick of time.
Knicks superfan Rachel Kim, known for pampering her Jalen Brunson doll and bringing the team good luck with “reverse voodoo,” brought the plushie back for the playoffs.
And ever since his return to social media, the team has won three straight games, advancing to the semifinals.
“At this point, I’m like, ‘Is it me?’” Kim told The Post, a day after the Knicks clinched Round 1 of the Eastern Conference first-round playoffs by crushing the Hawks, 140-89.
Before Thursday’s Game 6 blowout, she posted a clip icing and rotating “Lil Jalen’s” ankles, massaging and icing his hands — and even spraying a hydrating and calming mist on his face.
He is also sporting a new good luck charm — hot dog barrettes — gifted by a NYC artist and fellow Knicks fan.
After the Knicks won the game — the largest playoff winning margin in the franchise’s history and the largest halftime lead in NBA playoff history — fans took to Kim’s comment section to thank her, with one saying, “This is the only logical explanation for tonight’s game.”
The Manhattan nurse and Villanova alum first reintroduced “Lil’ Jalen” last Saturday night for Game 4 against the Hawks — at the insistence of her husband — after the Knicks had dropped Games 2 and 3.
“I restarted the videos because my husband was like, ‘Please can you do something, they lost two in a row. He was begging me,” Kim said.
But Kim, who went viral last playoffs season for introducing the doll, wasn’t sure she could handle the pressure.
“I told him, ‘I don’t know if I can do it again this time because it was a long process since they made it so far last year.’ And if I would forget to film something, I would be so stressed,” she said.
But Kim made a game-time decision.
During the second quarter of Game 4 on April 25, she placed cucumbers on the doll’s eyes and iced his ankles, mindful of his past strains.
“Jalen wasn’t playing that well at first, but once I posted, he got 39 points,” she said of the Instagram and TikTok clips.
“My husband said, ‘You posted at the perfect time. Now Jalen is going off!’”
Then for Game 5 on Tuesday, she placed Lil’ Jalen in a mini ice bath — and the team won again.
On Friday, after the Game 6 blowout, Kim posted a video saying, “I think I might actually be doing voodoo so um I don’t know, can the Knicks pay me?”
Fans agreed — tagging the Knicks and commenting with things like, “Pay my girl!”
Brunson knows about the doll made famous by his fellow Villanova alum.
“His sister DMed me and was like, ‘I just wanted to say these are so funny. And I’ve sent them to Jalen,’” Kim recalled.
Brunson and his teammate Josh Hart — who graduated Nova with Kim in 2017 — even mentioned the doll during their “Roommates Show.”
As Round 2 approaches next week, Kim is already mapping out her strategy.
“I didn’t start posting until they needed me, and I feel like that’s the route I should take.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
