{"id":373463,"date":"2025-12-28T05:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T05:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/373463\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T05:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T05:07:08","slug":"karl-anthony-towns-scores-36-and-jalen-brunson-adds-34-as-knicks-hold-off-struggling-hawks-128-125","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/373463\/","title":{"rendered":"Karl-Anthony Towns scores 36 and Jalen Brunson adds 34 as Knicks hold off struggling Hawks 128-125"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA — – Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> scored a season-high 36 points with 16 rebounds, Jalen Brunson<\/a> had 34 points and the New York Knicks<\/a> survived Atlanta’s late comeback attempt to beat the slumping Hawks 128-125 on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The Hawks lost their sixth straight to wrap up a crushing 0-5 homestand. Atlanta is 5-11 overall at home.<\/p>\n

Towns made 17 of 18 free throws while helping the Knicks take a dominant 56-38 advantage in rebounds.<\/p>\n

Nickeil Alexander-Walker<\/a>, who scored 25 points, had a steal and basket with 48 seconds remaining to give the Hawks a 125-124 lead. OG Anunoby<\/a> made two free throws as the Knicks reclaimed the lead and, after he stole the ball following Trae Young<\/a>‘s pass, padded the lead with two more free throws.<\/p>\n

Onyeka Okongwu<\/a> led the Hawks with 31 points and 14 rebounds. Jalen Johnson<\/a> recorded his 13th consecutive double-double with 20 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds before fouling out in the final minute.<\/p>\n

The Knicks held out forward Josh Hart<\/a>, who suffered a right ankle sprain in Thursday’s 126-124<\/a> win over Cleveland. Guard Deuce McBride (left ankle sprain) also was inactive.<\/p>\n

“I hope I don’t have to increase guys’ minutes,” said Knicks coach Mike Brown before the game. Rookie Mohamed Diawara<\/a> of France was the fill-in starter for Hart.<\/p>\n

Young, who had 30 points and seven assists in Friday night’s 126-111 home loss<\/a> to Miami, scored only nine points with 10 assists while playing back-to-back nights for the first time since missing 21 games<\/a> with a right MCL knee sprain.<\/p>\n

Anunoby had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks, who have won nine of 11 including two straight.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Knicks: Visit New Orleans on Monday.<\/p>\n

Hawks: Visit Oklahoma City on Monday.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA — – Karl-Anthony Towns scored a season-high 36 points with 16 rebounds, Jalen Brunson had 34 points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[182749,6417,352,355,361,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-373463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-182749","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}