The New York Knicks on Monday snapped the Milwaukee Bucks seven-game winning streak, while Luka Doncic eclipsed 10,000 points in the Dallas Mavericks’ victory over the Phoenix Suns.
The Bucks were beating New York easily, when in front of a sold-out home crowd and a national TV audience, the Knicks used the Christmas stage to make their stand against Milwaukee.
Jalen Brunson scored 38 points and New York broke the Bucks seven-game winning streak, ending their lengthy skid against them with a 129-122 victory.
Photo: AFP
The Knicks had dropped nine straight meetings, including a 130-111 loss on Saturday in the opener of this two-game series.
The Bucks had routed New York twice, while rolling through their December schedule, but they have not solved Brunson all season, and the point guard got plenty of help from his teammates this time.
“They’re a good team. We feel like we’re a good team as well, so just kind of taking that challenge, accepting that challenge that we hadn’t got them yet,” guard Immanuel Quickley said. “It had been a while, so this was a good one to get.”
Julius Randle added 24 points and nine rebounds, RJ Barrett bounced back from a poor game on Saturday with 21 points and Quickley came off the bench for 20.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard each scored 32 points for the Bucks, who fell to 9-2 this month. Khris Middleton added 24.
The Bucks rang up 146 points against the Knicks in the quarter-finals of the In-Season Tournament on Dec. 5, and did not cool off much on Saturday, but they seemed short on energy on Monday in the middle of an extended Christmas stay in New York.
“We knew coming in everything that we were lined up for and it is what it is,” Lillard said. “We got the first one. We came in for this one, they got off to a good start, they played a great game and we just got outplayed.”
In Phoenix, the Suns ran double teams at Doncic, but the Dallas star picked them apart to set up easy baskets.
It was even worse when the Suns left Doncic in one-on-one coverage.
Doncic scored 50 points to surpass 10,000 for his career, and had 15 assists, lifting the Mavericks to a 128-114 win over Phoenix.
“He’s one of the best in the world,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “As I’ve always said, we can’t take him for granted. When he’s feeling it, you’re just trying to get him the ball as much as possible.”
They sure did against the Suns and Doncic made them pay for it.
Doncic capped a Christmas Day full of NBA games with a stellar performance, hitting eight of 16 from three and all 12 of his free throws. He eclipsed 10,000 career points in the first quarter to reach the milestone in 358 career games, the seventh-fastest in NBA history.
The rest of the Mavericks chipped in when Doncic passed out of double teams.
After allowing Phoenix to take the lead, Dallas went on a 17-4 run midway through the fourth quarter and pulled away from there.
“That was a tough road game and outside of the 10K and 50 points, we won the game so I’m really happy,” Doncic said.
In Los Angeles, the Boston Celtics’ 126-115 victory over the Lakers was their first win against Los Angeles in a Christmas Day meeting.
Meanwhile, the Miami Heat survived the Philadelphia 76ers 119-113, while the Denver Nuggets outplayed the San Francisco Warriors 120-114.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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