The Wizards are tanking their season, aiming to finish with a bottom 4 position to guarantee they keep their #1 pick — and so you knew the Knicks would win this one.
And unlike Brooklyn and Indiana — teams also tanking their season who have given NY a run for their money in recent games — the Wizards do not have any rivalry with the Knicks.
And so there were no 4th quarter surprises here. NY ran the table — with Karl-Anthony Towns (26 pts, 16 rebounds in 26 minutes) taking it to the rim over and over early , Jalen Brunson (23 pts and a +24 in 26 minutes) scoring at will with his nifty footwork, Josh Hart hitting 3 after 3 (16 pts, 3-3 from 3 — he has now hit 9 straight 3’s over 3 games), Mikal Bridges (14 pts on 6-11 shooting and a +28) scoring in rhythm — and then — with the Knicks up by 20+ in the 4th — Tyler Kolek coming off the bench to become the story of the game.
Kolek scored 42 pts with 11 assists in an afternoon G-League game for Westchester, took an Uber to Madison Square Garden, and came off the bench for the final 5 minutes of the game and absolutely electrified the place by dishing and swishing — going 3 for 3 from 3 for 11 pts overall — a couple of those 3’s from long distance.
Final score Knicks 145 Washington 113 on a Sunday night in NYC. A game that started as the St. John’s Red Storm were beating Kansas on a last-second layup by Dylan Darling to advance to the Sweet 16 — a great night for basketball in NY.
“A good night on both ends of the floor by our group,” said coach Mike Brown afterwards. “A good win. The defensive player of the game was KAT. He had 12 rebounds, a couple of deflections and a steal. And he was really good in the 50-50-ball area. One of the things we’ve been talking o him is continue to put your chest in front of the ball in pick and roll and DHO situations and he did a fantastic job with that tonite. So.. a good win by our group.”
NY improves to 47-25 and are 1 game back of Boston and 5 back of Detroit. Washington falls to 16-55 — in 2nd place for worst record, 5 games behind (ahead) of the 5th worst team.
1. KAT Dominates; Brunson Scores at Will — NY Jumps Out to 32-27 Lead
Washington is of course the team that Bam Adebayo just scored 83 points against — although many of them on free throws as he went 36-43 from the free-throw line in a game that Wizards coach Brian Keefe thought was officiated oddly.
Karl-Anthony Towns has had his fair share of dominant games against the Wizards’ front line — and their star center Alex Sarr, was sitting out. As were newly acquired Anthony Davis, Trae Young, and most of the Wizard starters.
So KAT took it to the rim against the small Wizard lineup, and Jalen Brunson danced and scored at will, and Mikal Bridges hit jumpers from all over and NY pulled out to a 32-27 lead after 1.
cap has 12 PTS in 6.5 min 📈 pic.twitter.com/AOTvdZl6fF
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 23, 2026
The Wizards stayed close with 3’s — Jaden Hardy firing them up (7-13 from 3 for 25 pts), Anthony Gil adding 18 pts on 8-10 shooting (2-4 from 3), and Tristan Vukcevic going 3-6 from 3 for 13 pts). The Wizards fired up 47 3’s on the evening — hitting 18 for 38 percent.
The Knicks gained the big lead mostly on 2-pt shooting — but finished 17-32 from 3 for 53 percent.
2. Robinson Adds to Inside Dominance — NY Up 68-52 at Half
In the 2nd quarter Mitchell Robinson and KAT both dominated inside — Mitch handling the ball a number of times on the outside, which he has been doing much more of lately — a significant difference versus his play under Thibs.
Other Knicks aided their big men with a distributed attack — OG Anunoby and Bridges and Hart and Jose Alvarado adding to the scoring as NY took a 16-pt lead at the half, 68-52.
kal bringing the energy to end the half pic.twitter.com/n9TWftXpsQ
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 23, 2026
3. Hart Hits 3’s; KAT & Mitch Dominate — NY Up 105-83 After 3
Josh Hart was RED HOT all night — going 3-3 from 3 to extend his string of made 3-pointers to 9 — having gone 5-5 in the prior game and 2-2 at the end of the game before that.
KAT and Mitchell Robinson continued to dominate, and NY ran their lead to 22 pts after 3 quarters — the occasional Wizard 3 keeping them in the game.
BIG COUNTRY‼️ pic.twitter.com/pqUHp4mIXZ
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 23, 2026
4. Kolek Takes Over in Last 5 Minutes
Jordan Clarkson and Mohamed Diawara starred for the Knicks at the start of the 4th, and pretty soon all the starters were sitting as the Knicks pushed the lead to 28 pts.
Then with 5 minutes left NY brought in Jeremy Sochan and Tyler Kolek — and Kolek absolutely lit MSG up.
Kolek was fresh off an afternoon G-League game in Westchester where he scored 42 pts and had 11 assists and he continued red hot — at first passing the ball and orchestrating, and then nailing 3 after 3 — going 3-3 from 3 — one of them from the parking lot.
tyler just dropped a casual 11 PTS in 5 min shooting 100% pic.twitter.com/FpvsWHaJuL
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 23, 2026
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