What started out as a get-right game for the Knicks took a sharp U-turn when Brook Lopez blocked Jalen Brunson’s shot three minutes into the second half and Brunson immediately grabbed his shoulder, motioned to the bench and walked down the tunnel toward the locker room.
But after a brief injury scare, he popped back out of the tunnel six minutes later, reentered the game to “MVP” chants and picked up where he left off — finishing with 44 points to secure his second 40-point game this season in the Knicks’ dominant 140-106 win over Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and the Bucks on Sunday at the Garden.
Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 30 on efficient 10-for-16 shooting. Cameron Payne added 18 points off the bench. The Knicks (26-14), finally, snapped out of their 3-point funk and finished five points shy of their season high.
Still, for those minutes without Brunson, everything was in flux for the Knicks.
They’d already lost four of their past five games. Brunson, as their star point guard, remains the heartbeat of their offense, even after the addition of Towns. That unit was already struggling — especially from beyond the arc — before Sunday’s game. And their 2024-25 ledger reflected that the Knicks, despite the constant hype as contenders, continued to falter against the top four teams in each conference even after a nine-game winning streak that ended Jan. 3.
They took a step toward fixing that against the Bucks (20-17), who entered Sunday as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Brunson, predictably, remained at the crux of that solution, both before and after going to the locker room. He erupted for 23 of the Knicks’ 36 points in the first quarter, hitting 7 of 11 shots, attempting seven free throws and mixing 3s with shots inside the arc for a balanced blend of scoring that had been missing in recent games.
Then, when Brunson stayed on the bench to start the second quarter, Towns took over.
Back on Nov. 8, when the Knicks cruised past the Bucks in their first meeting of the season, Towns torched Lopez before Doc Rivers — amid what he called Milwaukee’s worst game of the season — switched Antetokounmpo onto Towns. That matchup worked in the Bucks’ favor again to start Sunday’s game, with Towns limited to just five points in the opening quarter.
But by halftime, Towns had 18 points. He kept driving with Antetokounmpo on the bench and Bobby Portis inheriting the defensive assignment. Brunson only contributed four points that frame, but the Knicks didn’t need another 23-point burst. They still built a 13-point lead at the break.
A 17-3 run to start the third helped put the game away. It helped them survive with Brunson back in the locker room, and then he poured in the final baskets of his latest gem after returning.
This time, the Knicks didn’t blow a double-digit lead against a team that could be contending when the calendar flips to May and June. This time, they weren’t booed off their home court against one of those teams, either.
This, for one game, looked a little bit closer to normal. Brunson checked out of the game with more than five minutes left in the fourth, with the injury scare fading and the “MVP” chants echoing through the Garden and the Knicks, finally, resembling the version that carried their nine-game winning streak.