Kings Clobber Knicks After Jalen Brunson Leaves Early

DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine had 27 and 25 respectively while no Knick reached 20, the leader being Mikal Bridges at 19, albeit on 6-of-20 from the floor. Russell Westbrook joined Achiuwa in the double-double brotherhood with 19 points and 11 assists.

Even before Brunson made his exit, it was apparent that Wednesday would be an uphill battle for the Knicks, who have now dropped six of their last eight. It was already 16-8 in favor of Sacramento by the time Brunson walked gingerly to the locker room and an Achiuwa double following a turnover created the first of many double-figure leads.

The Sacramento lead was up to 15 by the end of the opening period. While the Knicks kept something of a pace thanks to the putbacks of Mitchell Robinson, who helped guide New York to sizable advantage in points in the paint and second chance tallies during the first half.

But the Knicks were done in by one of their most putrid shooting halves in recent memory, as the first 24 minutes saw New York hit but one three-pointer on 19 attempts.

Things slightly improved in the second (7-of-22, two each for Bridges and Miles McBride) but that was hardly enough to eat into Sacramento’s lasting lead, which stayed at double figures until the penultimate minute. Triples and singles alike ate away at the Knicks’ success: New York let the Kings go to the line 38 times (with DeRozan alone going 12-of-13) while it attempted only 23 and sank just 15 of those tries.

Wednesday proved to be a landmark night for the Kings (11-30), who face the Knicks at MSG on Jan. 27: in addition to winning three consecutive games for the first time this season, DeRozan moved past Kevin Garnett for 22nd place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

Concern primarily now centers on the status of Brunson, who has been haunted by right ankle woes in each of the last two seasons. Brunson had four points in five minutes before his departure and was replaced by Tyler Kolek at the top of the third period.

The Knicks are immediately back on the late-night ledgers as they’ll move from Sacramento to San Francisco on Thursday to face the Golden State Warriors (10 p.m. ET, Prime Video).