{"id":412696,"date":"2025-11-29T11:03:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T11:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412696\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T11:03:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T11:03:26","slug":"jalen-brunson-knicks-advance-to-nba-cup-quarterfinals-with-win-over-bucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412696\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Brunson, Knicks advance to NBA Cup quarterfinals with win over Bucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a night Giannis Antetokounmpo was dominant again, Jalen Brunson was the more unstoppable superstar on the floor.<\/p>\n

The Knicks saw a 13-point fourth-quarter lead dwindle down to just two points and made just one of their previous 11 shots. <\/p>\n

But there was Brunson, drawing a foul on Giannis Antetokounmpo on a 3-pointer. <\/p>\n

He drilled all three free throws to give the Knicks a five-point lead and some breathing room.<\/p>\n

A few possessions later, there he was again, drawing a foul on Myles Turner, nailing a floater and the subsequent free throw to complete the three-point play and extend the Knicks\u2019 lead to seven points with 1:27 left. <\/p>\n

He let out a visceral scream, and the Madison Square Garden crowd responded with their nightly MVP chant for him.<\/p>\n

It was enough, as the Knicks beat the Bucks 118-109 on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should be talked about, it\u2019s early, but as a potential MVP,\u201d coach Mike Brown said. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough chatter. It\u2019s early, so I\u2019m not throwing a fit. \u2026 He gets blitzed often and he makes the right basketball play. He basically did what he was supposed to do and that\u2019s why I don\u2019t talk about it a lot, because that\u2019s what he\u2019s capable of doing, that\u2019s what he\u2019s supposed to be from being of that stature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The switch in mindset \u2014 which Brunson makes when he\u2019s decided it\u2019s no longer time to look to get his teammates going, but rather time to take over the game himself \u2014 is always noticeable. It, mostly without fail, comes when the Knicks need it most.<\/p>\n

It came earlier than that crunch-time sequence as well. There he was, scoring eight straight Knicks points and 13 of 16 of their points to close the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\"JalenJalen Brunson reacts after hitting a 3-pointer during the Knicks\u2019 118-109 win over the Bucks on Nov. 28, 2025 at Madison Square Garden. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n

On this Black Friday, Brunson \u2014 who took less money than he had to on his current Knicks contract \u2014 proved again that he is the best bargain in the league.<\/p>\n

He finished with 37 points on 12-for-21 shooting from the field and 4-for-6 shooting from 3-point range. <\/p>\n

He got hardly any help at all from a passive Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored just nine points on rough 2-for-8 shooting from the field. <\/p>\n

Two of Towns\u2019 worst games this year have come against the Bucks, though he made two critical plays \u2014 an offensive rebound and a steal off a jump ball \u2014 down the stretch<\/p>\n

\"GiannisGiannis Antetokounmpo dunks the ball during the Knicks loss to the Bucks. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n

The win secured Group C in the NBA Cup and advanced the Knicks to the quarterfinals. <\/p>\n

They dumped the Bucks \u2014 who won the Cup last year \u2014 out of the tournament in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a little added juice to it knowing what\u2019s at stake,\u201d Brunson said of the Cup. \u201cWin and move on and try and win something. We have a lot of guys and coaches who don\u2019t make as much as some of the guys on this team and it\u2019s an added bonus for them as well. You\u2019re not just playing for yourself, you\u2019re playing for this entire team.\u201d<\/p>\n

They found a bit of revenge as well, as they unraveled in a loss to the Bucks in Milwaukee exactly one month ago.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Josh Hart, starting his third straight game after coming off the bench the first 14 games he appeared in this year, continues to take advantage of the larger workloads Brown has been giving him. <\/p>\n

He finished with 19 points<\/a>, 15 rebounds, seven assists and three steals in 40 minutes, but his impact went even beyond the boxscore. <\/p>\n

He spent the bulk of the game guarding Antetokounmpo, who hurt him early. <\/p>\n

But Hart handled him down the stretch \u2014 up by seven with just over a minute left after Brunson\u2019s and-1, he stood up Antetokounmpo defensively, forcing him to pass, eventually resulting in a Kyle Kuzma miss. That all but sealed the win.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was gonna get beat up today,\u201d Hart said. \u201cFor me, obviously we don\u2019t have OG [Anunoby], he\u2019s an extremely physical guy and we put him on those matchups. With him out, I knew I had to step up a little bit. [Assistant] Darren Erman talked to me about being more physical on the ball, so that\u2019s something I tried to do the last two, three games. I [need to] continue to do that and set the tone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo recorded 30 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists<\/a> after missing the previous four games with a thigh injury. But, unlike the first matchup of these two superstars earlier this year, it was Brunson who made the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not playing the best basketball right now, but we\u2019re trending in the right direction,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s the engine behind it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a night Giannis Antetokounmpo was dominant again, Jalen Brunson was the more unstoppable superstar on the floor.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":412697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,3368,24114,3130,1260,405,403,3122,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-412696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","10":"tag-jalen-brunson","11":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-knicks","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115632656715939985","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}