Knicks’ Brunson drops 38 lumps of coal on Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks hadn’t just been beating the New York Knicks, they were beating them easily.
So in front of a sold-out home crowd and a national TV audience, the Knicks used the Christmas stage to make their stand against the Bucks.
Jalen Brunson scored 38 points and the Knicks snapped Milwaukee’s sevengame winning streak, ending their lengthy skid against the Bucks with a 129122 victory Monday at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks had dropped nine straight meetings, including a 130-111 loss on Saturday in the opener of this two-game series. The Bucks had routed New York twice while rolling through their December schedule, but they haven’t solved Brunson all season, and the point guard got plenty of help from his teammates this time.
“They’re a good team. We feel like we’re a good team as well, so just kind of taking that challenge, accepting that challenge that we hadn’t got them yet,” Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley said. “It had been a while, so this was a good one to get.”
Julius Randle added 24 points and nine rebounds, RJ Barrett bounced back from a poor game Saturday with 21 points and Quickley came off the bench to score 20.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard each scored 32 points for the Bucks, who fell to 9-2 this month. Khris Middleton added 24 points.
The Bucks rang up 146 points against the Knicks in the quarterfinals of the inseason tournament on Dec. 5 and didn’t cool off much Saturday. But they seemed short on energy Monday in the middle of an extended Christmas stay in New York, with still another game remaining in the city when they visit Brooklyn on Wednesday.
“We knew coming in everything that we were lined up for and it is what it is,” Lillard said. “We got the first one, we came in for this one, they got off to a good start, they played a great game and we just got outplayed.”
Milwaukee came in averaging 132.4 points in December but couldn’t break 40 until there were less than four minutes remaining in the first half. The Bucks trailed by 16 with 41⁄2 minutes remaining in the game before a late flurry that made the score closer than the game felt.
“I thought they outcompeted us today for the most part,” Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said. “I thought offensively we got some good looks, but we just couldn’t knock them down. And when you’re on the road, you get clean looks, you’ve got to knock them down.”
Brunson shot 15 for 28 from the field, following up games of 45 and 36 points against the Bucks this season. Isaiah Hartenstein had 11 points and eight rebounds, and Josh Hart came off the bench for 10 points and nine rebounds.
Antetokounmpo had 13 rebounds and six assists, but the Bucks fell to 3-3 in their sixth straight Christmas appearance.
The overhead video board incorrectly listed his brother Thanasis as the starter when lineups were announced, but Giannis quickly reminded everyone who he is, slamming down a lob pass on the opening possession and then making a jumper on the next trip. But Brunson was the best player on the floor the remainder of the period, scoring 15 points to spark the Knicks to a 3627 lead after one — the same lead the Bucks had Saturday.
“I just thought the energy level was back to where it needed to be,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.
at Nuggets 120, Warriors 114:
Jamal Murray scored 28 points, Nikola Jokic overcame an off day from the field by going 18 of 18 from the free-throw line and Denver extended its winning streak to five games by holding off Golden State.
Jokic finished with 26 points despite shooting four of 12 from the field. He set a career high with his 18 made free throws. Jokic also had 14 rebounds and eight assists.
“I have no problem with the officials themselves,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “I have a problem with the way we are legislating defense out of the game. That’s what we’re doing.
The way we’re teaching officials, we’re just enabling to players to [fool] their way to the foul line. If I was a fan, I wouldn’t have wanted to watch the second half of that game. It was disgusting.
“It was just baiting refs into calls. But the refs have to make those calls because that’s how they’re taught.”
Last Christmas, the Nuggets big man erupted for 41 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists in an overtime win over Phoenix.
It was a back-and-forth game that featured nine lead changes in the second half. Denver took the lead for good on Jokic’s left-handed hook shot with 5:16 left.
“He gets fouled a lot. He gets beat up down there,” explained Nuggets teammate Jamal Murray, who scored a game-high 28 points. “It’s hard to call every foul, I understand. They can only do so much.”
76ers at Heat, late.
Mavericks at Suns, late.