Donte DiVincenzo scored a game-high 31 points to help the New York Knicks to a 105-93 victory over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.
Miles McBride added 26 points for the Knicks (42-28), while Isaiah Hartenstein collected 17 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Jalen Brunson also scored 17 points and added eight assists for New York, which has won five of its last six games. Josh Hart grabbed 13 rebounds.
Cam Thomas led the Nets (26-45) with 19 points, followed by Mikal Bridges with 18 and Cameron Johnson with 13. The Nets’ losing streak reached six games.
Brooklyn led by one point at halftime, but Hartenstein’s layup gave the Knicks a 58-57 lead on the first possession of the third quarter.
The Nets regained the lead and extended it to 74-71 on Dennis Schroder’s driving layup with 3:41 left in the third quarter.
The Knicks answered with a 9-0 scoring run, stamped with back-to-back layups from McBride and DiVincenzo, to give New York an 80-74 lead. Thomas then hit a buzzer-beating triple to cut the Brooklyn deficit to three entering the fourth quarter.
Dennis Smith Jr. tied the game with a 3-pointer on the first play of the fourth quarter, but DiVincenzo scored seven straight points that began a 12-0 Knicks scoring run, extending their lead to 92-80 with 8:56 remaining. DiVincenzo’s 3-pointer capped that burst.
Leading by 10 with 6:40 left, the Knicks blew the game open with an 8-0 run, capped by Hartenstein’s three-point play, which gave New York a 102-84 lead at the 3:59 mark.
In the second quarter, DiVincenzo’s putback layup gave the Knicks a 43-38 lead with 6:59 remaining.
Brunson’s layup extended the lead to seven with 4:23 left, before Nic Claxton’s layup capped a 7-0 Brooklyn to tie the game at 47-all with 2:32 remaining.
The Knicks led 54-52 with 31.9 seconds left in the half, before Thomas’ layup evened the game. DiVincenzo made a layup with 2.3 seconds left, but Bridges beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-point heave from three-quarters court, giving the Nets a 57-56 lead at the break.
Bridges and Johnson each led Brooklyn with 11 points in the first half, while McBride led New York with 16.
