By Tiffany Williams –
The Knicks walked into Orlando and ripped the roof off the building.
132 points. On the road. Against a Magic team that thought it was tough at home. New York didn’t just win this game — they took it, possession by possession, shot by shot, until Orlando ran out of answers and breath.
Jalen Brunson put on another one of those nights where the defense knows what’s coming and still can’t do a damn thing about it. Forty points in 39 minutes, carving the Magic from the foul line to the arc to the restricted area. He bullied switches, torched drop coverage, hit step-backs in mouths, and controlled the game whenever Orlando hinted at momentum. Two turnovers. Eight assists. Total command. This wasn’t a hot night — this was a grown man dictating terms.
And then there was Karl-Anthony Towns, who quietly destroyed Orlando’s interior without wasting a single possession. Twenty-nine points on 9-for-11 shooting, zero turnovers, eight boards. Pick-and-pop threes, seals in the paint, rolls to the rim — every look was clean because Orlando had no idea how to guard him without opening the floor for Brunson. When Towns spaced, the Magic stretched and snapped. When he dove, they were late and helpless.
The Knicks shot 61 percent from the field and barely even bothered with threes, hitting just seven all night because they didn’t need them. Why settle when Orlando couldn’t stop straight-line drives, cuts, or second chances? New York took what was there and punished every mistake. The Magic jacked up 97 shots, thirteen more than the Knicks, and still lost by twelve because efficiency doesn’t lie.
OG Anunoby was everywhere. Twenty-four points, timely dunks, corner threes, steals that ripped the air out of Orlando runs. Josh Hart did what Josh Hart always does — crashing, defending, mucking up possessions, finishing through contact. Mikal Bridges quietly dropped 16 and moved the ball like a pro who knows when it’s not his night to force anything.
The game turned for good in the second quarter when New York flipped a three-point deficit into a seven-point halftime lead by simply tightening the screws. Steals, deflections, offensive rebounds, Brunson dancing into floaters while Orlando settled for jumpers they couldn’t hit. By the third, every Magic push was met with a Brunson answer or a Towns hammer. When Orlando briefly tied it late in the third, the Knicks didn’t blink — they closed the quarter on a run and never let go again.
Paolo Banchero scored 25, but the box score flatters him. He went 0-for-7 from three, turned it over five times, and spent long stretches forcing shots while Brunson ran the game like a chessboard. Jalen Suggs had 26 and played hard, but the Magic’s offense was too dependent on difficult pull-ups and late-clock heaves. Thirteen-for-42 from deep told the story. Too many jumpers. Not enough pressure.
Mitchell Robinson owned the glass when he was in, swatting shots, grabbing nine boards, and cleaning up mistakes. Even the Knicks’ bench didn’t need to score much — they just had to survive, rebound, and defend. Orlando’s bench put up numbers, but most of it came when the game was already sliding away.
This wasn’t about hustle. Orlando hustled. This was about control. New York controlled shot quality, controlled tempo, controlled the final six minutes like a playoff team that knows exactly who it is.
The Knicks are now 18-7, and if this is what Brunson and Towns look like together when things are clicking, the rest of the league better stop pretending this is just a nice story. This team walks into your building, plays its game, and leaves you staring at the scoreboard wondering when it slipped out of reach.
Because by the time you realize it, it already has.
Sports Insider Daily 