Sacramento Kings @ New York Knicks
Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 7:30 PM ET
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY | Game ID: 22301112
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
NYK 20 32 35 33 120SAC 35 25 27 22 109
ESPN UpdateESPN Update
Brunson, Hart help Knicks rally from 21-point deficit to beat Kings, snap three-game skid
NEW YORK -- — Jalen Brunson had 35 points and 11 assists, Josh Hart scored a season-high 31 points and the New York Knicks erased a 21-point deficit and beat the Sacramento Kings 120-109 on Thursday night to snap a three-game losing streak.
Hours after announcing that Julius Randle would have right shoulder surgery and miss the rest of the season, the Knicks showed why they might still be dangerous without him. Hart shook off a sprained right wrist to shoot 14 for 19 and add nine rebounds and eight assists, and Donte DiVincenzo scored 21 points.
“For us as a team, we started very slow and eventually got it picked up,” Brunson said. “And definitely the morale was a little low, when one of your guys goes down and he’s fighting to come back and just unable to be where he wants to be.”
The Knicks tied Orlando for the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference at 45-31. The Magic own the head-to-head tiebreaker and would have home-court advantage in a first-round series if they finish with the same record.
De'Aaron Fox had 29 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Kings, who missed a chance to tie New Orleans and Phoenix for sixth in the West. They had won two in a row. Keegan Murray scored 18 points.
Domantas Sabonis finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists for the Kings, who opened a four-game road trip, with back-to-back games against the Pelicans and Suns when they get home next week.
It was a tough start to the day for the Knicks, who announced in the morning that Randle would need surgery for the injury he sustained in a victory over Miami on Jan. 27. The Knicks looked like one of the strongest teams in the league at that point, when they would match the second-most victories for any month in franchise history by finishing 14-2.
And it seemed like it was going to be a tough night when the Kings blitzed them for the first 15 minutes of the game, racing to a 46-25 lead while making 19 of their first 28 shots (68%). But the Knicks answered with a 16-2 run to get into the game, then took control of it in the fourth quarter.
Fox's 3-pointer gave Sacramento a 95-92 lead with 9:55 to play before Brunson and Hart each converted three-point plays in a 13-0 run that gave the Knicks a 105-95 lead on Brunson's 3-pointer midway through the fourth.
“Guys played very, very unselfishly, just made the right play,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It was a big hole to climb out of but we found a way to win.”
Sabonis scored before Brunson had two straight baskets to push the lead to 12 and Sacramento never threatened again.
Sacramento rode a 7-for-9 start from 3-point range to a 35-20 lead after one quarter. But Kings coach Mike Brown said his players started passing up some open shots, leading to mistakes that gave the Knicks confidence.
“And that’s a product of not consistently doing what we did to start the game,” Brown said. “Move it easy to the open guy and if you’re open let it fly.”
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
NYKAB A. Burks
BB B. Bogdanović
DD D. DiVincenzo
IH I. Hartenstein
JB J. Brunson
JH J. Hart
JS J. Sims
MM M. McBride
MR M. Robinson
PA P. Achiuwa
SACAL A. Len
AV A. Vezenkov
CD C. Duarte
DF D. Fox
DM D. Mitchell
DS D. Sabonis
HB H. Barnes
KE K. Edwards
KE K. Ellis
KM K. Murray
TL T. Lyles
NYK/SAC the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur