Jalen Brunson scored 43 points on 50 percent shooting from the floor to lead the visiting New York Knicks to a 122-109 comeback win in Milwaukee on Sunday, handing the Bucks their fourth straight loss.
New York (46-32) also got 26 points from former Buck Donte DiVincenzo on 8-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc. Isaiah Hartenstein scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee (47-31) with 28 points along with 15 boards and eight assists. Bobby Portis came off the bench to score 24 on 10-of-15 shooting while Damian Lillard scored 23.
The Bucks primarily had control of the first half. Milwaukee went into the second quarter up 31-25 thanks to 12 from Lillard. Brunson scored 17 points for the Knicks.
In the second, Milwaukee took its largest lead of the game, going into the break up 61-50. Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 18 as Milwaukee shot 52.6 percent compared to New York’s 37.3 percent.
The Bucks took a blow in the second quarter as Khris Middleton exited the game. Middleton was inadvertently hit in the mouth by Hartenstein and bled on the court, officially being listed as out with mouth trauma.
With Middleton off the floor, New York flipped the script in the third, dominating on both sides of the court and erasing its deficit. Milwaukee scored just six points in the first six minutes, while the Knicks shot 14-for-19 (73.7 percent) in the third.
The Knicks won the quarter 39-24 thanks to 14 more points from Brunson and went into the fourth up 89-85. They carried their momentum with them into the fourth as well.
New York began the fourth on a 10-2 run, giving them a 12-point advantage at 99-87.
The daggers came from DiVincenzo. He knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers, giving the Knicks a 117-103 edge with 2:36 to go.
With his performance, Brunson now has the most points against the Milwaukee Bucks in a single season since 1990 with a total of 186, passing Allen Iverson (181) and Michael Jordan (180). The Bucks and Knicks faced each other five times this season due to the in-season tournament.
–Field Level Media
