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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.
“I thought it was a good response in all areas… we knew it would be a challenge, and I thought we responded in a positive way,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the win.
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.
“The makeup of our team is outstanding,” Thibodeau said. “We’re not gonna be perfect, but we’ll have some games when we fall short. But I know the work that they put in and the commitment that they’ve made to each other and that goes a long way over the course of a season.”
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.
“Strong both sides of the ball, played with good pace both in transition and in the half court and then I thought the rebounding was really good and sharing the ball was really good, and taking care of it,” Thibodeau said.
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…
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Author : SNY
Publish date : 2025-01-12 22:30:00
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