Finishing off a five-game road trip that featured wild highs and disappointing lows, the Knicks were able to come from behind and narrowly beat the Charlotte Hornets, 99-98, on Friday afternoon.
-New York scored just 15 points in the opening quarter for the second straight game as they were down by eight points after 12 minutes. Poor shooting (6-for-16 from the field; 2-for-7 from three) and turnovers were the culprit for the Knicks who looked sloppy for most of the afternoon. Jalen Brunson scored more than half of New York’s first-quarter points with eight.
-The Knicks’ deficit reached a game-high 10 points at the start of the second quarter, but the offense was able to rebound from there as New York scored 31 points to make it a three-point game at the half. Jalen Brunson scored six points on two made threes late in the quarter, Karl-Anthony Towns had seven, Miles McBride added five off the bench and Josh Hart and OG Anunoby each had four apiece.
-Despite not shooting the ball particularly well all afternoon (44.4 percent from the field; 37.5 percent from deep), the Knicks did just enough on offense in the second half. In a tight third quarter, New York kept it close, tying and even taking a few brief leads towards the end.
-Kept quiet for much of the game, Mikal Bridges scored six of his eight points in the third and his three-pointer with 4:16 left in the quarter tied the game at 58. Brunson had six points of his own to go along with four assists, two rebounds and a block. His assist on Hart’s triple late in the frame would’ve given New York the lead heading into the fourth quarter, but KJ Simpson drilled a deep three with 6.1 seconds left to give the Hornets a 72-71 lead going into the fourth quarter.
-The game remained close for much of the final last quarter until the Knicks began to separate themselves a bit, leading by as much as six points. Charlotte ended the game on a 10-5 run — including a Josh Green three-pointer as time expired — to make things interesting, but Brunson was able to knock down enough free throws late to secure the victory.
-Brunson finished with a game-high 31 points while Towns (19 points, 12 rebounds) and Hart (13 points, 12 rebounds) each had a double-double.
-New York, who entered the game with the third-best turnover rate (12.3 percent) in the league, won despite losing the turnover battle, 19-13.
The Knicks return home to begin a four-game homestand starting on Sunday, Dec. 1 against the New Orleans Pelicans at 6 p.m.
