The Knickshad four players score over twenty points including 38 from Jalen Brunsonin a 129-122 Christmas Day win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Less than 48 hours after the Bucks got their ninth straight win over the Knicks with a 19-point victory on Saturday, New York’s Brunson, RJ Barrett, Julius Randle and Immanuel Quickley combined for 103 points to snap Milwaukee’s seven-game winning streak. The Knicks improved to 17-12, the Bucks fell to 22-8.
Here are the takeaways…
– In the early goings, it was just the B’s of New York on offense as Brunson and Barrett combined to go 11-for-16 from the floor to account for all of the Knicks’ first 24 points, as the rest of the squad began 0-for-5 through the first nine minutes of the contest before Quickley hit a transition three. (Quickley’s seven points were the only from the bench in the first half.)
Barrett started the game with some impetus on offense and knocked down two of his first three-pointers, a good sign as he had been struggling from behind the arc of late, shooting just 26 percent over his last 16 games. He finished the opening quarter with 14 points (6-for-10) with two rebounds and a steal. But Barrett would only attempt one shot in the second half, and played sparingly after the first quarter, finishing with 21 points in 28 minutes.
Brunson had 15 points (7-for-10) to help the Knicks build a 36–27 lead after 12 minutes during which the home side scored 22 points in the paint to the visitor’s 10.
– Randle, who did not get off to his customarily fast first-quarter start, with just one bucket on four shots, knocked down his first two shots in the second to extend New York’s lead to 13. Randle would go 7-for-13 in the game’s final three quarters to finish with 24 points to go with nine rebounds in 41 minutes
– Damian Lillard began his first Christmas Day game in five years ice-cold missing his first five shots before knocking down long-two and a deep three late in the first quarter. Giannis Antetokounmpo similarly struggled, first with Randle defending him and then Taj Gibson getting the better of the two-time MVP for three blocks in the early goings of the second.
Of course, those struggles wouldn’t last as Antetokounmpo would finish with 32 points on 13-for-24 shooting and Lillard with 32 on 10-for-21 shooting.
– After a 7-2 Milwaukee run – all from Lillard – cut New York’s lead to six, but Brunson responded with a pair of buckets before Randle knocked down the Knicks’ seventh three of the half for an 11-point halftime lead.
The Knicks shot 47.3 percent from the floor in the first half with Brunson and Barrett combining for 38 points on 16-for-28 shooting. But almost more importantly they out-rebounded the Bucks 35 to 27 and held Milwaukee to 39.6 percent (19-fo-48 from the floor) and 27.3 percent (6-for-22) from behind the arc, which had been the difference the last three times these teams met up.
– Isaiah Hartenstein had all seven of New York’s first points in the second half, but picked up his third and fourth fouls inside the first two minutes and the shorthanded Knicks would have to lean on Gibson at center. And Milwaukee responded with a 17-8 run over the next five minutes to cut the Knicks lead to four.
Hartenstein stayed out of foul trouble the rest of the way to finish with 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 33 minutes.
Antetokounmpo had 17 points in the third quarter, but the Knicks got eight big ones from Josh Hart, including a series of tough jumpers in the paint, and closed the quarter with a 6-1 spurt to push the lead back to 11 entering the fourth.
The Knicks matched their largest lead of the game and forced a Milwaukee timeout under three minutes into the fourth with a 6-0 run with buckets. from Quickley, Quentin Grimes
and Hart. And Quickley wasn’t done, responding to baskets from the Bucks with three straight baskets for the Knicks to give him nine in the quarter and keep the lead in double figures.
Quickley would finish with 20 points in just 22 minutes on 7-for-10 shooting. Hart added 10 with nine rebounds, four assists and two steals in 31 off the bench.
The Bucks put together a 15-5 run late in the fourth to cut the Knicks lead to just six with 1:31 to play but Brunson’s push shot gave him 38 on the game and provided a huge sigh of relief for the home side.
Brunson would make 15 of 28 attempts in 37 minutes of action to go with six assists and four rebounds and zero turnovers.
New York outscored Milwaukee 72-50 in the paint while shooting 54.3 percent from the floor in the game and hole the Bucks to 47.4 percent
Highlights
What’s next
After the short two-game homestand, the Knicks hit the road for a three-game trip to Oklahoma City, Orlando and Indiana kicking things off at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 27 against the Thunder.
