playing without Karl-Anthony Towns <\/a>due to left calf soreness and Miles McBride exiting early with a left ankle injury. Jalen Brunson, despite another poor shooting game from 3-point range, led them with 30 points.<\/p>\nFranz Wagner (22) of the Magic is guarded by the Knicks\u2019 OG Anunoby (8) on Dec. 7, 2025. AP<\/p>\n
After trailing at halftime by a point, the Knicks scored the first 13 of the third quarter to take control. They led the rest of the way. And they scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to take a 16-point lead.<\/p>\n
Brown perhaps pulled his starters too early, as the Magic cut the deficit to six points with 19.1 seconds, then had possession with a chance to cut it further. Brown re-inserted his starters, who avoided catastrophe.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Josh Hart keeps making Brown\u2019s decision to insert him into the starting lineup look like the right one. He had a double-double, recording 17 points and 12 rebounds. He drilled 3 of 5 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
OG Anunoby, playing in his second game after missing the previous nine with a hamstring strain, enjoyed a strong shooting game, going 5-for-7 from deep and finishing with 21 points. He also did a good job guarding Paolo Banchero, who scored just 16 points. Anunoby added seven rebounds and three steals and was a team-best plus-20.<\/p>\n
After the Magic had cut their deficit to nine late in the fourth quarter, Anunoby scored five straight points to end any thought of a comeback.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe versatility that OG gives us, it\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAt his size, he can guard a lot of different people, being able to throw OG at Paolo. \u2026 Having that size and versatility from OG defensively is huge. He can guard one through five. Then you flip it, his shooting, his ability to attack the rim, all those things, at his size, are huge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell Robinson started in Towns\u2019 place and recorded six points and 13 rebounds. Hukporti, seeing more action than usual with Towns out, gave the Knicks valuable minutes, particularly on the defensive end. He had six points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Notably, he made all four free throws he took.<\/p>\n
OG Anunoby (8) of the Knicks dunks against the Magic on Dec. 7, 2025. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
Hukporti was Brown\u2019s defensive player of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously I have some people ahead of me when everybody is healthy,\u201d Hukporti said. \u201cIt was incredible to show, especially in my second year, to show that I can do it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the Heat, Bulls and Bucks, the Knicks have now gotten revenge and beaten all the teams that they had previously lost to. Their only other loss came to the Celtics, whom they had beaten beforehand.<\/p>\n
Sunday might not have been as much of a statement game once Wagner went out, but it was the latest step in avenging every loss on their schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Franz Wagner went down awkwardly after being fouled by Ariel Hukporti in the first quarter, immediately writhing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2295,15355,139,141,1239,140,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-74865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-new-york-knicks","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-magic","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}