Knicks, Jalen Brunson and Oklahoma City Thunder
Karl-Anthony Towns added 30 points and 18 rebounds and Josh Hart went for 11 points and 9 boards as the Knicks, the No. 3 seed in the East, improved to 26-14 and 3-4 in 2025. Cam Payne scored 18 off the bench.
If the Knicks’ first Thunder test spiraled into a collapse, then this was a flop. A shellacking. And a drastic one, too.
Former Knicks teammates Jalen Brunson and Isaiah Hartenstein shared a hilarious pregame moment before facing each other as opponents.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder’s MVP candidate, is an All-Star lock. Williams — who is second on the team in points and assists, third in rebounds and is a versatile cog in their top-ranked and historically disruptive defense — is their only other true candidate. That might be Williams’ simplest case.
Brunson now boasts 17 games with at least 40 points as a Knick, tying him with Carmelo Anthony for the third most in franchise history. Patrick Ewing, who achieved the feat 30 times, and Bernard King, who did so 23 times, are the only players in Knicks history with more 40-point games.
Joe, a 2020 second-round draft pick, joined the Thunder after being released just before the 2022-23 season and is averaging 8.8 points for the West's best team.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 39 points in 29 minutes, and the Oklahoma City Thunder emphatically bounced back to rout the New York Knicks 126-101 in the first game since their 15-game winning streak was snapped.
Oklahoma City boasts the top defense in the NBA, holding opposing teams to just 103.5 points per game with a league-best 103.4 defensive net rating. They’re doing it on the back of a stable of dominant perimeter defenders, which include Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace.
Which 24 players will make the 2025 NBA All-Star Game next month in San Francisco? Here's our roster prediction.
Here are the biggest takeaways for the short-handed Philadelphia 76ers following a tough overtime loss to the New York Knicks.
Remember how much time we — and I am part of that “we” — spent in the past year talking about whether Donovan Mitchell wanted to re-sign with this team? When he did, we asked if that would mean a Darius Garland trade?