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The Knicks handled business.
They stepped on the throats of an overmatched opponent early Tuesday night and didn’t let go of the squeeze, pummeling the Bucks 117-85 at MSG.
It represented a fourth straight win for the Knicks (6-4), whose 0-3 stumble to start their title defense is firmly in the rearview.
Jalen Brunson led the scoring with 23 points on 18 shots and Karl-Anthony Towns grabbed 16 boards with 21 points. It was Towns’ 10th straight double-double to start the season, one off the franchise record set by Willis Reed in 1970.
“He continues to be a double-double machine at a high level,” coach Mike Brown.
The Knicks benefited from a balanced attack, with OG Anunoby adding 19 points in 29 minutes.
But again, the Knicks rode their stout defense. They held the sad-sack Bucks (1-10) to 38 percent shooting. Their past five opponents have all scored fewer than 100 points, a rare streak in the 3-point era.
“I just think that we’re doing a great job of getting back to the basics. We started off slow, and now we’re picking it up,” said Towns, who was down on himself after the game for shooting 2-for-9 on treys. “While the shooting isn’t doing great —
I could be the first one to tell you about that tonight — but I think we’re doing a great job of executing right now at a high level, and our defense is there. At the end of the day, the offense will catch up. The defense is something you got to establish. We’re doing a great job of that right now.”
The game felt over by halftime, when the Knicks were up by 24 and the Bucks had only 34 points. The Knicks led the rebounding battle 34-17 at the break and ended the night with a staggering 70 boards. Milwaukee cut the deficit to 13 in the third quarter but never got it into single digits in the second half. The Knicks stomped Milwaukee 32-13 in the fourth quarter.
“Our group, they were pretty efficient tonight,” Brown said. “I thought our physicality on the defensive end of the floor was at a pretty high level, and they did it the right way. They did it without fouling. Which was a lot of fun to watch. The point-of-attack defense, with Landry [Shamet] and especially Deuce [McBride] on the ball, was unbelievable. Deuce was our defensive player of the game. Could have gone to Landry as well. But just a fantastic job at the point of the screen in pick-and-rolls. [The Bucks] had two 13-point quarters and I’m sure they missed some shots, but I thought we also impacted their shots with our play.”
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The Knicks were without Josh Hart for a third consecutive game. He was out with an illness after missing two games because of ankle soreness. Shamet again started in Hart’s spot and scored 10 points in 28 minutes.
New York also got solid bench contributions. Tyler Kolek continued to play over Jose Alvarado and finished with 12 points, four assists and a block. During Kolek’s 15 minutes, the Knicks outscored the Bucks by 23. They were actually better with McBride on the floor. The backup guard was a plus-39 in 25 minutes.
Andre Drummond grabbed 14 rebounds in 16 minutes.
The Bucks are a disaster this season after trading Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat. It didn’t help Tuesday that their leading scorer — Tyler Herro — missed the game because of a knee contusion. Myles Turner, who is in the middle of a $109 million contract, was a lazy disaster with three points on 1-for-7 shooting while getting roasted on defense by Towns.
