Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle propel Knicks to tight win over Nets
This one went according to script. The Nets took a lead early.
The Knicks bullied them late.
And when it was over, the Knicks had a come-from-behind 108-103 victory before a sellout crowd of 17,732 at Barclays Center — one that might as well have been in Manhattan instead of Brooklyn, with all the cheers for the visitors.
Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson each had 30 points for the Knicks, with Randle taking over down the stretch.
Brooklyn led by 10, and 100-98 with 2:20 left before surrendering a 7-1 run that saw the visitors head back across the East River with a stolen victory.
“Yeah, that’s our team,” Randle said. “And me and [Brunson], we’ve had a lot of big scoring nights and things like that. But those are the things that win us games. Those are the plays that maybe go unnoticed. They’re winning plays that help us win games. And credit to those guys for doing the things they did. It won us this game.
“It was lit. It was special. We came back. Crowd really got into it. It was good to hear the New York Knicks chants in Barclays. That’s always fun.”
Well, fun for one side.
The Knicks and their four Villanova players got the last laugh on former Wildcat teammate Mikal Bridges, who poured in a game-high 36 points, and hit a career-high 7 of 13 from behind the arc.
But it wasn’t enough, such was Brooklyn’s endgame misery.
Where have we heard that before? After blowing an 11-point lead late against the Clippers — allowing a 22-0 run to end the game that tied the worst such streak since play-by-play started being tracked — the Nets’ psyche is clearly damaged.
“We just got to overcome it, you can’t fold and put our heads down if they make a little run,” Bridges said.
“We’ve just got stay together, that’s the biggest thing. When teams make a run, make a push. We’ve just got to handle adversity a little bit better. We had it earlier in the year, won some games towards the end, but kind of lost that. It’s tough when you keep losing at the end. It puts your confidence down.”
The Nets got outscored 32-18 in a fourth quarter that saw them shoot just 30.4 percent and 3 of 13 from deep.
Nic Claxon had eight points and pulled down a career-high 17 rebounds, while Cam Johnson snapped out of his malaise with 19 points on 4 of 6 from deep.
But he’ll rue the last one he took, a potential game-tying miss with Brooklyn down 106-103 and 6.8 seconds left.
Fittingly, Randle snatched the rebound and iced it.
After Brooklyn had owned this series — taking nine straight at one point — the Knicks have won four in a row, and improved to 27-17.
They’ve won four straight and 10 of their last dozen since acquiring OG Anunoby from the Raptors for RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley.
The Nets (17-26), meanwhile, lost for the 11th time in their past 13 games.
But Brooklyn had an 81-71 lead after Cam Thomas found Claxton for an alley-oop.
Bridges added a midrange pull-up to make it 83-73 with 38.1 seconds left in the third.
Then the fourth quarter hit.
Miles McBride’s pull-up 3-pointer pulled the Knicks within 87-83 with 9:04 to play.
Precious Achiuwa’s baseline dunk made it 97-96, and after Claxton lost the ball out of bounds, Randle’s put-back layup put the Knicks ahead with 3:57 left.
Dorian Finney-Smith’s left-corner 3 put Brooklyn back ahead by a deuce, but Randle’s 3-pointer made it 101-100 with 2:19 remaining.
The Knicks never trailed again. Bridges made just one of two at the line to knot it, but Josh Hart blocked Dennis Smith Jr. at the rim, and Anunoby rejected Johnson.
Hart turned it into a go-ahead breakaway dunk for Randle the other way.
Randle then found Hart for a dagger layup and 105-101 lead with 25 seconds in regulation.
Bridges did manage a fadeaway to cut the lead in half. But after Brooklyn fouled Brunson, he hit one of two free throws, and the Johnson missed 3 iced it.
“Just hustle, a tough game for us,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “But I thought we were at our best in the fourth quarter and we found a way to win.”
