Knicks beat Kings as Jalen Brunson scores 42 points
Kings forward Keegan Murray defends Knicks guard Jalen Brunson in the first half of an NBA game in Sacramento, Calif., on Saturday. Credit: AP/José Luis Villegas
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For all of the longtime Knicks fans who long for the days of the defensive street fights that the Knicks of the 1990s used to have, this one was for you.
On a night when only Jalen Brunson could provide any offense, a stifling, roughneck style of play prevailed as the Knicks escaped the Golden 1 Center with a 98-91 win over the Kings.
Brunson, who scored 45 points against Portland on Thursday, had 42 against the Kings. He joined Bernard King, Patrick Ewing and Carmelo Anthony as the only players in franchise history to score at least 40 points in consecutive games.
“It means a lot,’’ Brunson said. “I said this on the air: I don’t have the resume those guys do. So it means a lot, but I’m just happy we won the game.”
Said Josh Hart, “He goes out there, controls the game. He’s our go-to guy. Great that he was able to kinda get into that company. That’s elite company. Maybe he’ll pass a little bit more next game. But it was good. It was good. Good he’s in that company.”
The Knicks (40-27) moved within two games of the third-place Cavaliers and three games of the second-place Bucks in the Eastern Conference.
When it mattered most in the final minute, the Knicks forced a double-dribble on Domantas Sabonis and three missed shots. The Kings were held to 17 points in the fourth quarter and went scoreless in the final 2:31.
With the score 94-91, in a comical sequence, Brunson drove for a floater past a completely immobile Keon Ellis, who had turned his head and didn’t react at all until Brunson was several steps past him. Brunson then hit two free throws with 15.6 seconds left.
Before the blow-by, Brunson dribbled up top and had Ellis' head on a swivel as the Sacramento guard looked for potential screens on either side. Isaiah Hartenstein faked setting one as he curled past. Ellis finally fell for Brunson's fake hand movement — Brunson asked for a screen to be set on Ellis' right side even though there was no Knick in the vicinity — and when Ellis stared toward his right, Brunson dribbled hard past Ellis' left side, leaving him stunned, open-mouthed and looking silly as he tried to catch up.
From OG Anunoby's perspective, how do you not get deked?
"Just by not worrying about the screen,'' he said. "I’m sure someone told him the screen was coming. He looked. But it’s harder.''
It was a battle for everyone but Brunson, who dominated even though the Kings worked desperately to get the ball out of his hands, blitzing and double-teaming him at every turn.
After Brunson’s 45-point performance on Thursday, Tom Thibodeau said, “What can you say? It’s unbelievable just to watch it. He ended up with 17 free throws, and I thought that there could have been a lot more.”
This time Brunson’s first free throw didn’t come until 8:51 left in the third quarter, and that wasn’t a case of getting a call, as De’Aaron Fox was hit with a technical foul.
The first time Brunson went to the line for an actual foul call came with 5:46 left.
Donte DiVincenzo had 15 points (5-for-16 shooting) and Alec Burks had 12 off the bench.
The Knicks took a 75-74 lead into the fourth quarter despite shooting just 15-for-44 as a team outside of Brunson (and 5-for-23 from beyond the arc).
In search of a spark somewhere, Thibodeau turned to his pair of struggling trade-deadline acquisitions — Burks and Bojan Bogdanovic. They attempted every shot for the first 6:14 of the fourth quarter before Brunson finally got in the game and converted a cutting layup. As ugly as it may have been searching for someone other than Brunson, the Knicks managed to take a lead with that lineup.
Said Thibodeau, "It was a hard-fought game. There was a physicality to it. I thought we made a lot of tough plays in the fourth quarter when the game was in the balance."
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
