The New York Knicks came away with a scrappy 103-87 win over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night. With Jalen Brunson playing a critical role on the offensive end, the Knicks managed to dominate the fourth quarter, outscoring the Kings 31-15.
Despite the Knicks’ victory, both Jalen Brunson and Mike Brown seemed discontent with the team’s performance, claiming that it was an “ugly” win after the game. Brown addressed this during his post-game media availability by stating:
“Ugly game. I thought in the first half, we didn’t do a good job of taking care of the basketball. We didn’t do a great job of hitting the paint and spraying the basketball. But our defense stayed pretty solid throughout the game, especially in the second half.”
“In the fourth quarter, you’re not going to stop a guy like DeMar [DeRozan], but you hopefully try to slow him down a little,” he continued. “But I thought Mikal, defensively, was really good with his physicality and not fouling while he was being physical.”
Brown praised the Knicks’ defensive effort, specifically highlighting the contributions of Mikal Bridges and Mitchell Robinson, who helped contain Sacramento’s scoring, limiting the team’s production to only 36 points in the second half.
Jalen Brunson also reiterated Brown’s points, highlighting the Knicks’ defensive effort in the second half as the key factor in securing the win. Still, Brunson also reflected on the “ugly” nature of the win while speaking with the media.
“It was an ugly game. It wasn’t pretty,” Brunson shared. “But we were able to grind it out and find a way to win, and I think that’s really important for us.”
Mike Brown and Jalen Brunson have good reason to refer to the win as an ugly one, though mainly because of the physical nature of the matchup. Although the Knicks shot well, going 37-78 from the field (~48%) and 13-32 from three-point range (~42%), New York couldn’t limit their turnovers, posting 21 for the game.
Still, the defensive effort was quite noteworthy, as New York logged 11 steals, with Josh Hart leading the way with three. Given that they also forced the Kings to commit 17 turnovers of their own, the Knicks capitalized on these mistakes, scoring 20 points off the Kings’ errors.
Although the Knicks superstar doesn’t appear too pleased with the manner of the victory, the Knicks will undoubtedly view another notch in the win column quite favorably. After facing struggles earlier in the month, resulting in Jalen Brunson slamming his team’s abysmal performance, New York appears to have turned things around.
With a 28-18 record, the Knicks will find themselves tied for third place with the Toronto Raptors (29-19). Having won three consecutive games, the Knicks are on a roll, and with an upcoming game against the Raptors, the Knicks even have an opportunity to take sole possession of third place.
