Brunson scores 40 as Knicks end 9-game skid against Nets, 124-106 – KGET 17

NEW YORK (AP) – Jalen Brunson scored 40 points, Josh Hart added a season-high 27 in his second game with his new team, and the New York Knicks snapped a nine-game losing streak against the Brooklyn Nets with a 124-106 victory Monday night.

Julius Randle had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks, who beat the Nets for the first time in three years. Brooklyn never lost to the Knicks when Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving played, but both are gone now, and perhaps so will the Nets’ ownership of the New York basketball rivalry.

More importantly for the seventh-ranked Knicks, they moved within two games of the Nets for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The top six teams are guaranteed playoff spots.

Spencer Dinwiddie scored 28 points for the Nets, who again showed how difficult scoring can be after trading their two All-Stars last week. Cam Johnson had 14, but Mikal Bridges, who came with him from Phoenix in the Durant trade, was 2 of 8 for seven points.

The Knicks beat the Nets twice in 2019-20, which Durant missed while recovering from Achilles tendon surgery. Irving was injured for one of the Knicks’ wins, then left Madison Square Garden after learning of Kobe Bryant’s death before his latest death on January 26, 2020.

Brunson scored 17 in the decisive third quarter en route to his third 40-point game of the season after never having one in the regular season during his first four years with Dallas.

He turned the game in the Knicks’ favor for good after it was tied at 80 late in the third quarter. Brunson had a basket and a 3-pointer that started a late 13-3 run for the Knicks, and his 3 made it 93-83.

Hart, acquired from Portland last week, converted a three-point play to extend the lead to 12 with 7:05 remaining and the Knicks were never in danger again.

TYPE-INS

Nets: Joe Harris, who made six 3-pointers and scored 18 points in each of the last two games, had just one shot. … Seth Curry missed his fifth straight game with a left adductor strain. Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn had hoped Curry could play Wednesday in the team’s final game before the All-Star break.

Knicks: Coach Tom Thibodeau said C Mitchell Robinson, who had surgery on Jan. 19 for a broken right thumb, should be cleared for contact during practice during the All-Star break. … RJ Barrett was scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting in the first half. He finished 2 of 8 for four points.

‘NEW TO NEW YORK

The trade deadline week put three players from Villanova’s 2016 national championship team in New York, with Hart joining Brunson with the Knicks and Bridges with the Nets. Brunson and Bridges won another title together in 2018.

“When I got traded, I saw we were playing the Knicks and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to see these guys early,'” Bridges said after his Nets debut on Saturday.

“I love them guys, but when it’s on the field I don’t love them.”

STILL STREAKING

Bridges’ streak, the longest currently in the NBA, reached 367 even though he missed the Nets’ game against Chicago last Thursday. Bridges was not available for the game after his blockbuster trade from Phoenix for Durant was not cleared in time, and the league ruled he should not be penalized for not playing in a game he was not eligible for. Bridges hasn’t missed a game in the NBA or in college.

NEXT

Nets: Host Miami on Wednesday.

Knicks: At Atlanta on Wednesday.

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