Jalen Brunson scores 30 as Knicks top Nuggets 122-112 for fifth straight win

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On a night when the Knicks played well enough to get leads, but not well enough to completely bury the Nuggets, Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby took advantage of every open look and made just enough effort plays to outlast Denver for a 122-112 win Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.

Brunson finished the night with 30 points on 10-for-16 shooting with 15 assists, four rebounds, two steals and was a plus-16 in 36 minutes. Anunoby added 23 on 9-for-15 shooting (5-for-7 from three) with four rebounds and was a plus-15 in 39 minutes.

The Nuggets opened up the third on a 20-6 run to erase a six-point Knicks lead. But New York had answered with a 27-12 spurt over the quarter’s final seven minutes to enter the fourth up by seven with Brunson going for 18 in the quarter (6-for-8 from the floor, 2-for-3 from three).

In the fourth, the Knicks matched their biggest lead of the game at 12, but again the visitors hung around to cut the lead to four with 4:30 to play.

When they needed another bit of effort, they got it as Brunson found Josh Hart for a layup, a Karl-Anthony Towns block led to Brunson finding Mikal Bridges for an alley-oop layup, before Brunson corraled a rebound and found Hart again to put the Knicks up 10, ending the Nuggets’ last charge.

New York improved to 32-16 with a fifth straight win. Denver dropped its third straight game to fall to 28-19 on the year.

Here are the takeaways…

– Seventy-nine seconds into the game – on the Knicks’ second offensive possession – Nikola Jokic fouled Towns driving to the basket. It was the three-time NBA MVP’s second foul of the game and saw him land on the bench 2:12 into the first quarter with just two points to his name.

With the Serbian on the bench, the Knicks turned three straight missed Nuggets jumpers into easy buckets, the final two coming as Anunoby leaked out and was found for uncontested dunks. Brunson got into the act capping a 15-0 Knicks run with six straight points.

New York started hot in the quarter (8-for-9 from the floor) and led by as many as a dozen, but came back down to earth (going 4-for-13 down the stretch) missing several at the cup, to hold just…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jalen-brunson-scores-30-knicks-031500049.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2025-01-30 03:15:00

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