Jalen Brunson scored 44 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 30 and 18 rebounds as the Knicks ran away from the Milwaukee Bucks, 140-106, on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
New York appeared to flush a dispiriting, crushing loss to Oklahoma City on Friday with the big win as they hope the performance snaps them out of a funk of four losses in the previous five games entering the afternoon.
Behind Brunson’s 23-point first quarter and Towns and Cam Payne going for 13 each in the second, the Knicks led by as many as 16 in the first half, shooting 26-for-46 from the floor (10-for-25 from three). The Bucks shot 53 percent in the first half but went just 4 of 16 from deep.
New York pushed the lead to 17 with two easy buckets at the rim which forced a Milwaukee timeout 52 seconds into the third quarter. The Doc Rivers timeout resulted in back-to-back threes from Brunson and Towns (around the Bucks’ sixth turnover and a missed jumper) and another timeout 50 seconds later. The lead was as many as 27 as the Knicks started 8-for-10 from the floor and the game was all but over from there.
The home team finished 51-for-88 (58 percent) from the floor and 18-for-41 (43.9 percent) from three. They had 29 assists to just 12 turnovers.
The Knicks improved to 26-14 on the season and solidified their position as the three-seed in the Eastern Conference in front of the Bucks, who fell to 20-17.
Here are the takeaways…
– Brunson drew a pair of and-1s, with the Bucks’ Andre Jackson Jr. picking up two of them to give him three fouls after just 3:31 of first-quarter action, on his way to scoring 23 first-quarter points as he went 7-for-7 from the charity stripe. (The Knicks’ start also got Milwaukee reserve AJ Green for a pair of fouls in the opening period.)
Brunson, who came one point from his career-high for a quarter, was the only Knick to attempt more than two shots in the period as he went 7-of-11 with the rest of the squad combining to go 5-for-9.
He returned after sitting for over seven minutes to start the second and added a pair of assists before knocking down a pair of jumpers late to give the Knicks a 75-62 halftime lead.
The Garden went silent when Brunson appeared to sustain a right shoulder injury under three minutes into the second half. The guard stayed down under the basket and at the dead ball pointed to the locker room and walked right off. He returned with a little over three to play in the quarter to a big ovation. He added five to give him 37, draining a deep three over the outstretched arm of Giannis Antetokounmpo.
A step-back three gave Brunson 40 in the game in the fourth before he exited with the game in hand finishing with 44 points on 16-for-26 shooting (5-for-10 from three, 7-for-8 from the line) with six assists, five rebounds and a plus-23 in 29 minutes.
This was the most points by a Knick in history when playing under 30 minutes.
– Towns, who made his first basket 69 seconds into the game, began to leave his mark in the second quarter with five buckets to give him 18 points at the half to go along with nine rebounds. But he picked up a silly foul in the quarters closing minutes to give him three for the game.
Towns showed off his passing prowess early in the fourth with two beauties for cutting layups, he finished with 30 points on 10-for-16 shooting (2-for-5 from three, 8-for-9 from the line) with 18 rebounds (five offensive) and four assists and was a game-high plus-28 in 36 minutes.
– After Brunson torched the Bucks’ backcourt in the first, Payne picked up the torch in the second with 13 points (3-for-4 from deep) in 8 minutes of second-quarter play that helped the Knicks really pull away.
Payne finished with 18 points (6-for-10 from the floor and 4-for-7 from deep) adding two rebounds and two assists for a plus-18 in 14 minutes.
– Mikal Bridges, after going 0-for-9 from the field (0-for-7 from three) in Friday’s loss, knocked down his first bucket, a corner three. But that was the only bucket he made and attempted just one other shot in 22 minutes of first-half play, but he did add four assists, two rebounds and two blocks.
Bridges finally attempted another shot with under three minutes to play in the third, but drew iron on a three. He had just six points for the game (2-for-5 shooting and 1-for-4 from deep) with six assists and was a plus-17 in 37 minutes
– Josh Hart didn’t attempt a shot for his first 14 minutes on the floor (20:56 of game time) and knocked down a corner three. He was a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor for 11 points to go along with 11 rebounds and four assists as a plus-24 in 35 minutes.
– Damian Lillard put his mark on the game early with a 7-0 run by himself, he had nine points in the first as Antetokounmpo had 13 with five rebounds. Rivers would use five players off the bench and the defensive combos were simply not working to slow down the Knicks.
In the third, the Bucks’ duo started 5-for-10 from the floor and got them to 20 points a piece, and the game had started to slip past them before they whittled it down to a 16-point deficit as New York went over four minutes without a field goal. A 9-0 Knicks run in the fourth extinguished all hope later.
Lillard finished with 22 and was a minus-24 in 37 minutes. The Greek Freak had 24 and 13 rebounds and was a minus-20 in 31 minutes.
Highlights
What’s next
The Knicks conclude the homestand on Monday night against the Detroit Pistons with a 7:30 p.m. tip.
