The New York Knicks on Monday snapped the Milwaukee Bucks seven-game winning streak, while Luka Doncic eclipsed 10,000 points in the Dallas Mavericks’ victory over the Phoenix Suns.
The Bucks were beating New York easily, when in front of a sold-out home crowd and a national TV audience, the Knicks used the Christmas stage to make their stand against Milwaukee.
Jalen Brunson scored 38 points and New York broke the Bucks seven-game winning streak, ending their lengthy skid against them with a 129-122 victory.
Photo: AFP
The Knicks had dropped nine straight meetings, including a 130-111 loss on Saturday in the opener of this two-game series.
The Bucks had routed New York twice, while rolling through their December schedule, but they have not solved Brunson all season, and the point guard got plenty of help from his teammates this time.
“They’re a good team. We feel like we’re a good team as well, so just kind of taking that challenge, accepting that challenge that we hadn’t got them yet,” guard Immanuel Quickley said. “It had been a while, so this was a good one to get.”
Julius Randle added 24 points and nine rebounds, RJ Barrett bounced back from a poor game on Saturday with 21 points and Quickley came off the bench for 20.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard each scored 32 points for the Bucks, who fell to 9-2 this month. Khris Middleton added 24.
The Bucks rang up 146 points against the Knicks in the quarter-finals of the In-Season Tournament on Dec. 5, and did not cool off much on Saturday, but they seemed short on energy on Monday in the middle of an extended Christmas stay in New York.
“We knew coming in everything that we were lined up for and it is what it is,” Lillard said. “We got the first one. We came in for this one, they got off to a good start, they played a great game and we just got outplayed.”
In Phoenix, the Suns ran double teams at Doncic, but the Dallas star picked them apart to set up easy baskets.
It was even worse when the Suns left Doncic in one-on-one coverage.
Doncic scored 50 points to surpass 10,000 for his career, and had 15 assists, lifting the Mavericks to a 128-114 win over Phoenix.
“He’s one of the best in the world,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “As I’ve always said, we can’t take him for granted. When he’s feeling it, you’re just trying to get him the ball as much as possible.”
They sure did against the Suns and Doncic made them pay for it.
Doncic capped a Christmas Day full of NBA games with a stellar performance, hitting eight of 16 from three and all 12 of his free throws. He eclipsed 10,000 career points in the first quarter to reach the milestone in 358 career games, the seventh-fastest in NBA history.
The rest of the Mavericks chipped in when Doncic passed out of double teams.
After allowing Phoenix to take the lead, Dallas went on a 17-4 run midway through the fourth quarter and pulled away from there.
“That was a tough road game and outside of the 10K and 50 points, we won the game so I’m really happy,” Doncic said.
In Los Angeles, the Boston Celtics’ 126-115 victory over the Lakers was their first win against Los Angeles in a Christmas Day meeting.
Meanwhile, the Miami Heat survived the Philadelphia 76ers 119-113, while the Denver Nuggets outplayed the San Francisco Warriors 120-114.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS