ugly 123-117 loss to the Celtics<\/a> on Tuesday night in Boston.<\/p>\nBrunson, who struggled through a brutal shooting night on Tuesday, finished with 26 points, though shot just 1-for-5 from 3-point range. <\/p>\n
That one trey was a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the first half.<\/p>\n
It was Karl-Anthony Towns that carried most of the scoring load, recording 35 points, 18 rebounds \u2014 which tied a season-high \u2014 and five assists. <\/p>\n
Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored a game-high 35 points, drives on Ryan Kalkbrenner during the first half of the Knicks\u2019 119-104 blowout win over the Hornets at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 3, 2025. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
He nearly had a double-double in the first half alone with 19 points and nine rebounds. Once again, he was at his best when establishing himself in the paint first rather than firing treys from behind the arc. <\/p>\n
He bullied the much-slimmer Moussa Diabate down low and on the glass \u2014 five of his rebounds were offensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cKAT was unbelievable,\u201d coach Mike Brown said. \u201cOne turnover, he played 39 minutes tonight. 35 points, 18 rebounds, five assists, like I said, one turnover, that was a phenomenal game by him.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it was after his presence in the paint was felt that Towns began looking for his 3-point shot. <\/p>\n
He nailed two threes in the third quarter to help the Knicks re-establish a double-digit lead. That \u2014 dominating in the paint and letting open threes come to him \u2014 is when he is most efficient.<\/p>\n
Towns\u2019 strong \u2014 and aggressive \u2014 showing comes on the same day he became a popular name in mock trades for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who ESPN reported is evaluating his Bucks future. <\/p>\n
Mikal Bridges slams home a dunk during the first half of the Knicks\u2019 home win over the Hornets. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
It was a strong statement from Towns, who has had the most up-and-down adjustment to Brown\u2019s offensive system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got one of the best players in the NBA like [Brunson], the gravity he attracts allows us the opportunity to do something special,\u201d Towns said. \u201cJust taking the opportunities the defense was giving me, and while doing that, being aggressive in playmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Josh Hart, who had been shooting lights-out of late, took a step back in that department but characteristically still found ways to make an impact, recording eight rebounds and eight assists.<\/p>\n
The Knicks\u2019 somewhat concerning propensity of seeing early leads dwindle, which Hart called out on Tuesday, propped up again. <\/p>\n
Jalen Brunson, who scored 26 points, drives to the basket during the first half of the Knicks\u2019 home win over the Hornets. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
After carrying a 15-point lead into the second quarter, they were outscored by nine points and that lead was cut to six at halftime. But they outscored the Hornets by nine in the third quarter to regain firm control. <\/p>\n
They then saw an 18-point fourth-quarter lead shrink to six points before putting their foot back on the gas pedal.<\/p>\n
It was similar to Tuesday night, when the Knicks led by 11 after the first quarter and then were outscored by 17 in the second quarter. <\/p>\n
Except this time, the lowly Hornets could not take advantage in the same way the Celtics did. But it would behoove the Knicks to limit that trend.<\/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
\u201cTeams aren\u2019t just going to lay down,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cWe build a lead, you\u2019ve got to anticipate they\u2019re going to fight back, they\u2019re not just going to give up. We\u2019ve got to do a better job of slowing down their runs and limiting them. But we can\u2019t let them get all the way back like we\u2019ve been doing. But I think first and foremost, how we respond to that is how we get better as a team. As long as we\u2019re making strides in that direction we\u2019re improving.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hornets shot just 31 percent from 3-point range, hampering any real chance to make this a competitive game. But it wasn\u2019t completely due to any stifling Knicks defense \u2013 plenty of their looks were open. <\/p>\n
Better teams would have punished the Knicks.<\/p>\n
The Knicks shot just 32 percent from deep themselves. The Hornets are a weak side in what seems to be a weak Eastern Conference, however. <\/p>\n
That will provide opportunities like Wednesday for the Knicks to cruise even if they\u2019re not at their very best. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming off arguably their worst loss of the year, the desultory Hornets provided the Knicks with the perfect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6425,4776,4777,1555,32359,21,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-60515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-charlotte-hornets","9":"tag-inside-the-knicks","10":"tag-jalen-brunson","11":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","12":"tag-knick","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-new-york-news","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}