SAN FRANCISCO — — Jalen Brunson scored 34 points and Miles McBride added a career-high 29 to lead the New York Knicks to their fourth straight victory, 119-112 over the Golden State Warriors on Monday night.
The Knicks jumped out to an 18-4 lead early in the game and never trailed as they earned just their fifth win in their last 19 meetings against the Warriors.
“This team has shown all year long that there is a lot of fight, a lot of heart, a lot of tenacity and a lot of unity in the group,” said coach Tom Thibodeau. “So there’s the belief that we can win. We always talk about our defense, our rebounding, how we take care of the ball. I thought we shared the ball extremely well tonight.”
Josh Hart had 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his fifth triple-double in the last 21 games for New York, while playing all 48 minutes.
“You also can’t say enough about the work Josh did. Josh’s tenacity was huge for us in this game,” Thibodeau said.
Donte DiVincenzo added 18 points for the Knicks.
Stephen Curry scored 27 points to lead Golden State and Trayce Jackson-Davis added 19 points and 10 rebounds. The Warriors fell to 17-18 at home this season.
“I don’t know what the answer is,” Curry said of the struggles at home. “If we did that, we would be able to get ahead.” »
Golden State built a deficit that reached 15 points, closing within four early in the fourth quarter, but could never get over the hump and lost another home game.
“Just one of those nights where we didn’t really get anything from that starting group,” coach Steve Kerr said. “They were really good, but from the start we felt like we were swimming against the tide. I think it was 15-4 from the start and we didn’t take the lead once in the game. We had a good comeback, but I just didn’t think we were disciplined enough throughout the game to get the win.
Brunson has made enough shots to keep the Knicks in control and is averaging 40.3 points through the first three games of this Western swing.
The Knicks were without forward OG Anunoby, who returned home after a flare-up in his surgically repaired right elbow. Thibodeau said an MRI came back with no results and Anunoby was taking it day by day. Thibodeau said Anunoby is unlikely to rejoin the team for the final game of a four-game trip Thursday in Denver.
Anunoby missed 18 games earlier with an injury before returning last week against Philadelphia. He played three games before the injury recurred.
Anunoby’s absence gave McBride a chance to make it in his 10th career start and he achieved big things.
He played tight defense early against Curry as New York held Golden State scoreless for the first 3:53 of the game – the longest opening scoring drought for the Warriors in more than three years.
McBride scored 19 points in the first half – two short of his career high – and the Knicks led 62-56 at the break.
“We wanted to add more ground shooting,” Thibodeau said. “That’s really, you know, why we did it. When they sent the second defender (in Brunson), now we have another 3-point shooter. We thought that would make a difference.
FOLLOWING
Knicks: Visit Denver Thursday night.
Warriors: Host Memphis on Wednesday night.
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