Knicks Net Winning Season, Bash Brooklyn in MSG Return

The New York Knicks returned to Madison Square Garden in style with a dominating performance from deep against the Brooklyn Nets.

By Geoff Maggliocchetti

Mar 23, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks guard Miles McBride (2) takes a three point
Mar 23, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks guard Miles McBride (2) takes a three point / Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

With upsets tearing away at NCAA Tournament brackets, the New York Knicks ensured that the Brooklyn Nets wouldn't be joining that list of surprise winners on Saturday afternoon.

The Knicks' prowess from deep heralded a happy return to Madison Square Garden, which hosted a 105-93 victory against the home team's cross-borough adversaries after a four-game road trip. Donte DiVincenzo (31 points, 4-of-13 from three-point range) and Miles McBride (26, 6-of-12 in all 48 minues) doomed the Nets from deep, uniting for 57 points and 10 of the Knicks' 15 makes with an extra point on the line. With the win, the Knicks (42-28) clinched consecutive winning seasons in a full 82-game slate since 2000-01.

New York ensured that depth from deep would be a recurring theme in Saturday's game from the get-go, bulding an early 16-10 lead within the first five minutes with a stretch of four consecutive triples. Two were hit by Jalen Brunson on an otherwise dour shooting night (7-of-24 from the field) while DiVincenzo and McBride, the latter back in the starting five again after OG Anunoby's medical setback, offered a hint of what was to come by leading the charge of what became a 6-of-10 output from deep as a team in the first dozen.

Brooklyn, desperate to reinsert itself back into the the Eastern Conference's Play-In conversation, wound up lingering for the rest of the first half: swiping the lead on an 11-4 run after the Knicks' early showcase, the Nets led after each of the first two periods, earning the latter lead when a desperation heave from Mikal Bridges, launched from 62 feet away, swished as time expired on the first half to cap off a stretch of over 52 percent shooting.

Metropolitan sanity began to prevail over the final stages of the third quarter, which saw the Knicks stage a 12-2 run over the last four minutes that appropriately began with a McBride triple. Brooklyn had another buzzer-beating surprise, this one from Cam Thomas at a more conventional distance, to set a tie, earning it at the onset of the fourth when Dennis Smith Jr. sank one from deep.

Seven straight from DiVincenzo, however, broke the Nets will and resigned them to their sixth consecutive defeat. DiVincenzo's early breakout in the late period, where he put up 13 total, was the start of a dozen-minute stretch that nearly saw him outscore Brooklyn entirely: Smith's shot was one of only five Brooklyn makes en route to 16 points in the period. The former Knick was 3-of-3 but starters Bridges, Dennis Schroeder, Cameron Johnson, and Nic Claxton were a combined 0-for-11.

New York moved back into a fourth-place tie with Orlando for fourth-place on the Eastern Conference leaderboard, where the Nets remain situated in 11th. Led by 19 from Thomas, the Nets (26-45) are still the first team out in the chase for the Play-In and currently sit five games behind Atlanta for the fourth and final spot. New York will have a chance for its first four-game sweep of the yearly tri-state area rivalry series since 2017-18 on April 12, when the Nets visit for the penultimate game of the regular season.

In the meantime, the Knicks wrap up up a speedy homestand on Monday when they face the Detroit Pistons for the final time this season (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).