Jalen Brunson did everything for the Knicks on Monday, dropping 38 points and scoring or assisting on 51 points in the win over Milwaukee.
The New York Knicks lost their first three games against the Milwaukee Bucks this season, but on Christmas Day, Jalen Brunson played like a man determined to prevent that streak from extending to four.
Brunson finished with 38 points, the most by a Knicks player on Christmas Day since Bernard King’s record 60-point performance in 1984, to lead New York to a 129-122 victory over Milwaukee. The Knicks’ victory snapped the Bucks’ seven-game winning streak.
“We’ve struggled against this team throughout this year and the fact that we came out with a win today, it’s special,” Brunson said after the game. “I like the way we had a lead no matter how much they cut the lead down. We stayed poised and figured out a way to keep it and win.”
After losing to the Bucks on Saturday afternoon, the Knicks came out aggressively in the first quarter Monday. They scored 36 points in the period, their highest first-quarter total of the season, and never trailed after that.
Four Knicks — Brunson, Julius Randle (24), RJ Barrett (21) and Immanuel Quickley (20) — scored at least 20 points, becoming the second team in the past 50 years to do so on Christmas Day, joining the 2012 Rockets, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
