(Basketball news) The New York Knicks emerged victorious against the Brooklyn Nets as they convincingly beat them 124-106. For the Knicks, Jalen Brunson scored 40 points, Josh Hart added a season-high 27 in his second game with his new team as Julius Randle had 18 points and 10 rebounds. The Knicks beat the Nets for the first time in three years. Brooklyn never lost to the Knicks when Durant or Irving played. For the Nets, Spencer Dinwiddie scored 28 points as they showed again how much of a struggle scoring could be after trading their two All-Stars last week. Cam Johnson had 14, but Mikal Bridges, who came from Phoenix in the Durant trade, was 2 of 8 for seven points. With this result the Knicks improved their record to 32-27.
”You’ve got to give them credit. They’ve been really good the past couple of years and they were great tonight,” Brunson said, ”but I think we just had the upper hand in the second half and we kind of just turned it up a little bit and came away with a win.”
”That was the overall challenge, just to be able to put the ball in the basket,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. ”And it’s something we’re going to work on and stress as a group.”
‘Obviously seeing him play in college and he was amazing and I knew he would have a long career in the NBA, but I didn’t think it was going to be how he’s playing now,” said Hart, Brunson’s teammate at Villanova. ”And he’s someone who should be an All-Star and he’s playing at an All-Star level.”
The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a disappointing loss to the Portland Trail Blazers as they defeated them 127-115. For the Blazers, Damian Lillard had 40 points, including eight 3-pointers who had 11 games this season with 40 or more points while Matisse Thybulle, who was obtained from Philadelphia in a four-team deal, made his debut for the Blazers and started as he had 14 points and four 3-pointers. For the Lakers, Anthony Davis had 19 points and 20 rebounds while D’Angelo Russell, who was part of the trade that sent Russell Westbrook to Utah, started for the second straight game and finished with 16 points as Malik Beasley, who came over from the Jazz, had 22 points off the bench. With this result the Blazers improved their record to 28-29.
”I think the number one thing is just being aggressive,” Lillard said. ”That’s the mentality, because I’m not going out there saying I want to score points – I’m just applying pressure. I’m going to attack coverages, take opportunities that are there, try to create opportunities.”
”Aside from stealing his sneakers, I don’t know what else you could do,” Ham said.
”We’ve gotten spoiled here, being able to see this guy, night in and night out, just dominate and score 30 in a half or 60 in a game,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said about Lillard. ”I mean, it’s been incredible. He’s been so dang good.”
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