Knicks shake off poor-shooting fourth quarter to squeak by Nets

Karl-Anthony Towns logs a +16 in the four-point win

The Knicks blew a 10-point fourth quarter lead. Jalen Brunson made sure they didn’t blow the game, as he scored eight points in the final 2:18 of the fourth quarter to lead New York to a 99-95 win over the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday night at the Barclays Center. It was the Knicks’ third win of the season against the Nets and their ninth straight against their intra-city rival. It also evened the all-time series at 25-25 since the Nets moved to Brooklyn.

Despite playing the second half of a back-to-back, the Knicks came out strong, opening the game with a 15-5 run. But Brooklyn did not wilt and came back to take a first-quarter lead. But the Knicks took advantage of numerous turnovers by the Nets to seemingly gain control of the game, despite an early poor shooting night by Brunson.

But then the entire team went cold in the fourth quarter. When the Nets took a timeout with 3:23 remaining in the game, the Knicks had scored just three points in the period. Karl-Anthony Towns broke the scoring drought with a little hook shot with 2:59 remaining to put the Knicks back on top, 89-88. The Towns bucket came on an assist by Brunson.

Brunson then made three straight buckets for the Knicks and came down with a defensive rebound that led to a dunk by OG Anunoby. He missed a floater but then clinched the win by converting two free throws with seven seconds remaining for the game’s final points.

Towns led all scorers with 25 points and he added 16 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. The Knicks were a +16 when Towns was on the court. Anunoby had 20 points and Brunson finished with 17.

The Nets were able to stay in the game thanks to a strong finish on the offensive glass, combined with strong bench play in the final two quarters.

Meanwhile, the Knicks’ reserves did well in the first half but then got hardly any run in the final two periods. Landry Shamet had a +10 in his six minutes on the floor in the first half and did not get off the bench after intermission. Cameron Payne had a +9 in his nine minutes of action, as he received three minutes of playing time in the second half.

Payne has been the better player than Miles McBride the last two-plus weeks, yet McBride logs twice as many minutes. Tom Thibodeau trusts McBride defensively but perhaps he should value Payne’s impact on the game in the minutes he plays more than he does.

The win pushed the Knicks’ record on the season to 29-16. After a heavy schedule here recently, New York gets three days off before returning to action Saturday night when they host the Kings.