The New York Knicks are perhaps the only group in America that hopes what happens in Vegas spreads.
A scorching shooting night in Las Vegas, paced by further Jalen Brunson mastery, has the Knicks one win away from officially-sanction Association hardware. New York put up a 132-120 victory in the NBA Cup semifinals against the Orlando Magic on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, giving them the Eastern Conference’s bid for in-season glory.
Brunson led the way with 40 points on a night where the Knicks (18-7) shattered their season-best shooting efforts: New York sank 61 percent of its tries from the field with all five starters hitting at least of their tries on a minimum of 11 attempts.
Brunson made local and national history with his effort: another triple-decade game him 88 with at least 30 for his Knicks career (moving past Richie Guerin for third-place in the department) and he joins Anthony Davis and ex-teammate Julius Randle as the only ones to score 40 in a bracketed NBA Cup game.
Karl-Anthony Towns was right behind Brunson with 29 points, most of them earned on 9-of-11 shooting. Fellow sharpshooters OG Anunoby and Josh Hart each took three steals while Mitchell Robinson had nine rebounds and four blocks in 17 minutes of relief.
With the win, New York earned a split in its four-game set with the Magic this season, bookending this week with wins after previously prevailing at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
The Knicks now await the winner of Saturday’s other semifinal, as the Oklahoma City Thunder faces the San Antonio Spurs for the Western Conference’s bid. The championship match, which does not count toward the regular season standings, will be staged on Tuesday night in Sin City (8:30 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
