Late Shot by Brunson Lifts the Knicks over the Magic
The New York Knicks defeated the Orlando Magic 102-98 on Tuesday night thanks to Jalen Brunson’s 25 points, which included the game-winning basket with 1:13 remaining. Julius Randle added 22 points and 14 rebounds.
Brunson’s running bank shot put the Knicks up for good at 94-93 in a game they played almost entirely from behind. With 40 seconds left, he then fed Jericho Sims for a dunk and a three-point advantage.
“We keep putting ourselves in this position of coming back from deficits,” said Brunson, who had 10 points and two assists in the fourth quarter. “On the flip side of that we kept fighting, but we’ve got to start games better.”
In the final 7.7 seconds, 10 free throws were made by both teams. The only miss was by Orlando’s Paolo Banchero, who intentionally tried to set up a tying basket with 2.3 seconds remaining.
With 21 points, Markelle Fultz was the Magic’s top scorer. Franz Wagner added 18 points and Banchero finished with 16 points after being held to four in the first half.
“Every possession matters and I think we got good experience of that tonight,” Fultz said. “We came up short but I’m happy with the way we fought. A couple of things cost us down he stretch.”
According to Magic coach Jamahl Mosley, those things were “shooting 6 for 25 (3-pointers), missing a couple of free throws, and giving up 11 offensive rebounds.”
Immanuel Quickley scored 18 points after entering the game for New York.
Wagner made his first five shots, two of them on a 10-0 run that gave Orlando a 12-point lead midway through the second quarter, the largest lead for either team.
“We started off in a hole and we fought out of the hole,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeaux said. “I thought in the second half we were a lot better, and I thought in the fourth quarter we were very good.”
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Randle erased most of that lead, but the Knicks went scoreless for the final 2:20 of the first half and fell behind 48-40.
New York went on a 7-0 run to end the third quarter, and when Randle and Quickley started the fourth quarter with 3-pointers, the Knicks had their first lead since 2-0. In the fourth quarter, they shot 12 for 19 (63.2%) and scored 36 points.
“I thought Julius and Jalen set the tone in the fourth quarter. Just the way we closed – big rebounds, physicality, hustle plays,” Thibodeaux said.
“That’s what it came down to in the end,” Randle said. “We made our free throws, got rebounds and didn’t turn the ball over.”
TIP-INS
F RJ Barrett of the Knicks, who missed Sunday’s game due to illness, started and played 35 minutes. Despite missing nine of his first ten shots, he finished with 15 points. . . . After having surgery for a fractured right thumb, C Mitchell Robinson missed his tenth game. … In 13 minutes, C Isaiah Hartenstein committed five fouls. Five fouls were totaled by Brunson, Barrett, and the team.
Magic: The 19,438 home crowd was the third-largest in Magic history. … C Mo Bamba served a four-game suspension for his role in a fight at Minnesota on Friday night by missing the second game of that suspension. …F Chuma Okeke, out since late November with a knee injury, has been assigned to Lakeland of the G League.
TRADE WINDS
The Knicks didn’t appear to be in the mood for changes as they played their final game before the trade deadline on Thursday.
“Our job is to show up and play basketball and let the front office deal with those situations,” Brunson said. “But I love my teammates. The relationships I’ve made in the last couple of months have been special, and that’s all I can say.”
Said Thibodeaux: “I love our team. We know we have a and we have a lot of young players that are going to get better as time goes on. I’ve been around a long time and for every 100 trades they talk about, one gets done. So it’s just noise.”
Source: basketballnews.com
