There is beating good teams in the second half, then there is what the New York Knicks did to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
Behind Mikal Bridges’ 25 points and five steals, New York drubbed the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, who entered the weekend matinee in the Big Apple on an 11-game winning streak.
“Obviously, this is one of the better teams in the league, but you use every game as a benchmark once the All-Star break passes,” head coach Mike Brown said. “I’ve been with teams where we’ve lost against good teams, and we still won a championship. You use every game, but this is a better team, and you can really look closely at it to dissect different things about the game because it could be a potential matchup in the playoffs. But whether we win or if we lose, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to make it to our ultimate goal.”
In as complete and balanced an attack as seen all season, Jalen Brunson added 24 with seven assists, Karl Anthony Towns posted 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Josh Hart had 10 points, 10 boards, and seven helpers of his own.
Off the bench, rookie forward Mohamed Diawara was solid for a second straight game, recording 14 points on four 3-pointers. Two nights prior in Milwaukee, he posted 10 points and three boards in 23 minutes.
The Knicks (39-22) turned the game on its head early with a 26-2 run between the first and second quarters, which overturned an initial 19-7 hole. At one point during that run, New York reeled off 19 straight points, which was the largest unanswered run allowed by the Spurs this season.
While Bridges had the hot hand, shooting 10-of-17 from the floor and 5-of-9 from 3-point range, Hart once again provided the sandpaper necessary to lead a collective effort to neutralize Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, who still had 25 points, 13 rebounds, and four blocks in the loss. But the Knicks forced him to commit seven turnovers.
His afternoon was embodied just over four minutes into the third quarter when — with the Knicks up 61-51 — he cut in front of the much larger Wembanyma for an offensive rebound off a missed Brunson floater, and got it out to Bridges for an open triple.
Once a team that struggled mightily defending the perimeter, the Knicks held the Spurs to just a 26% success rate from deep.
“This was a good win by our guys,” Brown said. “…For them to shoot 26% from the three, our activity from the weak side was good. We had five guys on a string, so when we went to go help on dribble-drives, our weakside was active in the right way.”
