Knicks 119, Warriors 112: “These are the feel good stories we haven’t gotten in a long time.”

The New York Knicks (41-27) came into San Francisco last night to face the Golden State Warriors (35-32) for part three of their four-game West Coast road trip. The Knicks arrived at the Chase Center on fire last night after going on a three-game winning streak. This winning streak had come in large part due to Jalen Brunson’s hot play in addition to the long-awaited return of OG Anunoby from injury. However, before the start of the game coach Thibodeau told reporters that Anunoby had flown back home to undergo an MRI on the same elbow that had sidelined him for several weeks. That MRI has since come back negative, but Anunoby will once again be out indefinitely.

The shorthanded Knicks would once again be forced to look elsewhere for someone to pick up the slack for the sidelined Anunoby. Last night it was Miles McBride who stepped up to the plate in just his sixth start of the season and knocked it out of the park for the Knicks. McBride set a career hire in scoring with 29 points in 46 minutes of playing time. He also held the Warriors future Hall of Famer Stephen Curry to a “measly” 27 points.

“He was huge for us, obviously,” Josh Hart said. “Everyone’s gonna see the box score and see he shot the ball very well and was very efficient, but he did that while guarding Steph, pressuring him, running around with him all game. So he was huge for us and something that we need.”

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Chris Paul would counter with a 26-foot three of his own to bring the score to 30-22 with 33.1 seconds remaining in the first, which would hold until the end of the first quarter.

McBride and the Knicks didn’t slow down during the second quarter. McBride’s 25-foot three-pointer, 3 minutes into the second quarter pushed the Knicks lead to 12, giving the Knicks a 39-27 lead. A corner three by Alec Burks shortly thereafter would give the Knicks a 46-32 lead, giving the Knicks their largest lead of the night. As the Warriors worked to inch their way back, the Knicks had an answer for everything. As Stephen Curry sunk two free throws to cut the lead back to single digits with 4:34 remaining in the half, Jalen Brunson answered with a corner three of his own, assisted by who else, but Miles McBride. Donte DiVincenzo, who was making his return to the Chase Center since signing with the Knicks during the offseason then followed that up with a three of his own to give the Knicks a 5944 lead with 3:10 remaining in the half.

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DDV who had been in somewhat of a slump as of late may have used that little bit of extra motivation by playing against his former team to snap out of it last night as he finished the game with 18 points on 7-13 shooting.

The Warriors would not let the Knicks go into the half without a fight. Through sloppy play from the Knicks on both ends of the court, Curry and the Warriors managed to cut the lead to five with just under a minute remaining after a Curry 3-ball. Brunson managed to answer with an And-1 of his own, just to be outdone the very next play by Curry who took the ball coast to coast to bring the Warriors back within 6 with 35.1 remaining in the half, which remained unchanged as both teams headed towards their respective locker rooms.

Curry started things off in the third quarter by cutting the Knicks lead to four. DDV responded with another three just 30 seconds into the half. Curry, perhaps starting to warm up answered that three with another very deep three of his own from 29 feet to bring the Warriors back within six.

Jalen Brunson would not let the Knicks falter, as he worked to pull every trick out of his book including a remarkable dipsy-doodle reverse lay-up, a step back fall away jumper over Jonathan Kuminga, and then a corner three to push the Knicks lead to 11.

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After a near airball late in the quarter by Draymond Green, Josh Hart grabbed his tenth board and raced down the court for a coast-to-coast lay-up to give the Knicks a 99-88 lead. That rebound came after Hart already had 10 assists on the night. Hart would finish the game with yet another triple-double this season, and 5th of his career finishing with 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists playing all 48 minutes. Notably, this was the first time a player accomplished a triple-double and played the full 48 minutes since Rajon Rondo did so in 2015. Feeling gassed after the game Hart was quoted as saying, “I’m gonna have some wine and see how much that knocks me out.”

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The Warriors would start the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run, including an electrifying alley-oop dunk from Trayce Jackson-Davis off of a Klay Thompson lob, that had the entire Chase Center electrified and screaming as the Warriors tried to shift all momentum in their favor. The Knicks had led by as many as 15 earlier in the game, but after the Jackson-Davis dunk, perhaps the highlight of the game, the score was now cut to four.

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The Knicks immediately called a timeout to try and gain their composure back. After the dust settled the Knicks regained control of the game after a Bojan Bogdanovic 12-foot jumper to push the lead back to six and the Knicks never looked back.

The shorthanded Knicks were beyond impressive tonight during their 119-112 wire-to-wire victory over the Dubs. With the news regarding OG, the team is going to have to take each game, one game at a time without getting ahead of themselves. Brunson has been a beast as of late as he finished last night’s game with another remarkable 34-point performance. Hart has probably been their most consistent player on both ends of the court, and every night the team is getting additional output from another individual as they did from McBride last night.

As xhu35 put it, “These are the feel good stories we haven’t gotten in a long time.” Agreed. Up next, the Knicks head to Denver to take on The Joker and the Nuggets.