Deuce's Wild! Miles McBride Showcase Helps Anunoby-Less Knicks Conquer Warriors
Heroes old and new rose for the New York Knicks as they conquered the Golden State Warriors in the penultimate stage of a four-game road trip on Monday night.
On a night partly defined by bad news concerning OG Anunoby's fate, Jalen Brunson led the way in scoring, Josh Hart had another triple-double, but it was emergency starter Miles McBride who stole headlines in a 119-112 victory over the Golden State Warriors.
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With the win, the Knicks (41-27) took their fourth in a row and clinched no worse than a spot in the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament.
Brunson couldn't make it to the magic 40-point mark, but he added a team-best 34 more to give him 121 over the last three games. Hart (11 rebounds, 11 assists, 10 points) earned his fifth triple-double over the last 21 games and was joined in the double-figure brotherhood by Isaiah Hartensein (13 points, 10 rebounds). History lingered in Hart's box score, as he became the first New Yorker to play all 48 minutes of a regulation game since Jared Jeffries in January 2010.
It was McBride, however, that ruled the day, getting the Knicks off to a brilliant start and capping things off with a career-best 29 points.
McBride paced a brilliant start for the Knicks, who jumped out to a 20-6 lead in the opening period before settling for an eight-point advantage by the end. Nonetheless, McBride had made it clear he was going to leave his mark on Monday: he scored 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting and held Warriors star Stephen Curry scoreless.
The Knicks as a whole flipped the narrative on their yearly series series with Golden State: whereas it fell behind 14-0 in the first showdown at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 29, New York kept the Warriors off the scoreboard for nearly the first four minutes of game time.
Golden State (35-32) had sliced the lead to six by halftime before a Brunson takeover helped the Knicks establish suitable distance. Brunson scored 20 points in the second half and is just the fifth Knick to record at least 120 in three consecutive road games, joining yet another exclusive club that also features Carmelo Anthony, Richie Guerin, Bernard King, and Julius Randle.
Elsewhere in the backcourt, former Warrior Donte DiVincenzo enjoyed a victorious homecoming, burning his former mentor Curry for 18 points on 7-of-13 from the field. It was DiVincenzo's first shooting game in the black since March 3 in Cleveland.
A frustrated Curry led the Warriors with 27 points though he needed 13 three-pointers to make it that far (hitting four). Bench stars helped Golden State get back in the game as Trayce Jackson-Davis, Chris Paul, and Klay Thompson united to shoot 21-of-33 from the field (with Jackson-Davis going a perfect 9-of-9). Despite their efforts, New York never let Golden State lead and forced them into 13 turnovers. Four came from the hands of Draymond Green, who was 1-of-7 from the field in defeat.
With its loss, Golden State not only fell back to the 10th seed in the Western Conference but was also denied its first sweep of the Knicks since 2018-19.
The Knicks' road trip wraps up on Thursday, as they'll search for a sweep against the defending champion Denver Nuggets in the Rockies (9 p.m. ET, MSG).
