Knicks 98, Kings 91: “This team has the will of a champion.”

Second matchup on the road, second win away from MSG for the New York Knicks (40-27) as they paid a visit to the Kings in Sacramento and defeated their foes 98-91 on Saturday night.

Some dues on Sacto’s hardwood played basketball. Then, there was Jalen Brunson.

Scoring 40 points on two consecutive NBA games might not feel like something that impressive, let alone in the present day and age in which we have fools dropping 50 pops left and right on a nightly basis. In NBA history, three Knicks had done entering the weekend, those being Bernard King, Patrick Ewing, and Carmelo Anthony.

But if you had that not-so-fancy-achievement feeling in your brain, then let me tell you it’s time for you to reconsider your thoughts and study the history of the Association in finer detail.

Cherry-picking or not, building a streak of two or more games scoring 42+ points is something that has only happened 113 times since the 1980 season when the NBA introduced the three-point line.

Truth be told, I was surprised there have been so few instances of the feat happening over the last 45 years. Going name by name, just 40 individuals were responsible for 112 of those streaks.

The newest and 41st member of this select club is none other than Jalen Brunson, who scored 45 points against the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday and then proceeded to burn the Kings for 42 points on Saturday.

Jalen Brunson, take a bow.

Brunson’s 42 points were more than those scored by the top two players on Sacramento’s side yesterday combined—the Knicks limited Domantas Sabonis (who didn’t score a single point in the fourth quarter) to 21 and De’Aaron Fox to 20.

The Kings failed to score 100+ points for the first time since Feb. 28 at Denver. They failed to score 92+ for the first time since Jan. 12. They were held by New York to their lowest score through the regular season to date.

Just for context, Sacramento is putting up 118 PPG as a team this season. That’s the eight-highest average scoring leaguewide. They are making 44.1 field goals per game, but they only found the net 30 times on Saturday. They slashed 35/27/81 from the field, three, and the charity stripe.

Suffocating D, they call it.

The Knicks starters put their fellows from Sacramento in the torture chamber as every single one of the men in the lineup stole at least one rock with Brunson leading the way pulling off four thefts.

OG Anunoby blocked three shots while playing through surgery rehabilitation. “I didn’t even know I was questionable,” he said after the game.

Isaiah Hartenstein swatted a game-high four field goal attempts in 28 minutes of play as he keeps increasing his playing time while healing his Achilles.

Sharing is caring, and that’s why all Manhattanites except one (Deuce McBride of all men—a point guard) dished out at least one dime. Precious Achiuwa led all Knicks with four playing off the pine.

It was that type of game. It was that type of solid victory. It was the blue-collar Knicks against a bunch of random dudes, or at least that’s how they made them look.

Not only did the Knicks win, but they did so for the third game in a row and the second on the road hitting the halfway point of their West Coast trip with visits to Golden State and Denver coming up next.

Cleveland dropped their Saturday game against Houston but Indiana and Philly won theirs. The Warriors beat the Lakers but it took them quite the effort.

All of that has the Knicks sitting pretty in the no. 4 seed out East, just two games behind Cleveland for the third place in the conference standings and one game above the no. 5 Orlando Magic. Call it a stretch, but the Bucks are only three games ahead in second place with 15 games left.

Next in line: Steph Curry and the Dubs host the Knickerbockers on Monday, Mar. 18. Another dumb-late tip-off, the third straight at 10 pm ET. Don’t miss it (I will.)