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The Knicks turned a four-point halftime deficit into a 10-point lead entering the fourth quarter over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. But in just two minutes of play – all with Jalen Brunson on the bench at the start of the fourth – the visitors hit their first six shots to erase the lead and flip the game in their favor.
“Obviously extremely frustrated,” Josh Hart said after the 113-112 defeat, the Knicks’ second-straight loss.
The guard exhaled sharply before continuing, “We gotta figure out a way when JB’s out to get good looks, quality looks. Get guys in the proper position, play to their strengths. I think that’s one of the big things. So, look at it and see what we can do better.”
The Knicks managed to grab a one-point lead by the time Brunson entered with 7:42 to play, but the damage was done as Oklahoma City had found a rhythm (7-for-8 from the field) and completely stymied the New York offense, holding them to 2-for-6 shooting with three turnovers.
“As a team, whether I’m out there or not, we need to be better,” Brunson, who finished with 30 points and seven assists, said. “It starts with making free throws, it starts with not turning the ball over, it doesn’t really matter who’s out there and you can’t blame anyone. As a team, we need to be better.”
In the deciding quarter, the Thunder stayed hot to shoot 15-for-19 from the floor (5-for-8 from three) and at one point built an eight-point lead, their largest in the game. Despite that, Brunson’s driving layup with 4.1 seconds to play put the Knicks ahead by one – on a play that could have seen an and-1 called as the guard absorbed some contact.
Brunson said the refs told him after the game, “It wasn’t a foul.” Hart said, he didn’t “understand it” but left it for the league and the referees to “look at and see if there’s anything there” as far as missed calls.
“All we gotta do – all we can do – is just play hard and try to control the game as much as we can,” he said.
What they could control, but couldn’t stop was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander knocking down a 15-foot…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jalen-brunson-josh-hart-left-043004141.html
Author : SNY
Publish date : 2024-04-01 04:30:04
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