Knicks Crush Hornets, Start to Finish. NY 129 Charlotte 101

November 27, 2025 LouV 2025-26 0

The Knicks crushed the Hornets from start to finish before an overwhelmingly pro-NY crowd in Charlotte on a Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving. Final score NY 129 Charlotte 101.

The Knicks played well: good defense and hit a high percentage of their shots on offense from all over the court. At times it seemed they couldn’t miss. Charlotte meanwhile, did not play very well — their defense was porous, and they seemed not well organized on offense. The only reason they hung in the game was because they hit random 3’s, especially Brandon Miller (18 pts, 4-9 from 3), Miles Bridges (17 pts, 3-6 from 3), and Tre Mann (15 pts, 3-7 from 3).

Jalen Brunson led NY with 33 pts on 14-28 shooting; Karl-Anthony Towns dominated the interior with 19 pts (6-13 shooting) and 10 rebounds in only 32 minutes; Josh Hart had 22 points on 8-13 shooting (4-6 from 3 — at one point he was 4-4 from 3 including one that he unintentionally chucked off the backboard); Miles McBride had 19 pts on 6-8 shooting (5-5 from 3); and Mikal Bridges had 18 pts on 8-11 shooting.

Even Tyler Kolek had an efficient scoring night — 7 pts on 3-4 shooting (1-1 from 3) and some nifty passes (3 assists). He may finally be getting confident with his shot on an NBA court.

“We were just finding ways to attack, and feeding off each other, and reading what the defense was giving us — and the ball was going in today,” said Jalen Brunson afterwards. “It helps that we were getting stops too; that energy is contagious.”

Brunson hugged Allen Iverson on the sidelines at the end of the 3rd quarter. Brunson afterwards said Iverson had a big role in his development growing up, and that “We used to cut my mom’s socks, and make them as shooter sleeves because of Iverson.”

NY improves to 11-6. Charlotte is now 4-14.

1. Knicks Assert themselves in 1st Quarter

For a game like this, there’s not really much to write about — besides what is written above. The Knicks played well on both offense and defense; Charlotte played poorly on both offense and defense. The result was the blowout.

The two teams felt each other out in the 1st quarter. Miles Bridges and Mikal Bridges did some back and forth scoring to start with. LaMelo Ball and Collin Sexton got buckets for Charlotte in their backcourt; Jalen Brunson made up for anything they scored.

Charlotte has an extremely small team — for good parts of the evening the 6’7 Miles Bridges was guarding the 7-foot KAT. And then Mitchell Robinson came in and creating havoc in the 17 minutes he played, with 5 rebounds, a block, and 3 steals.

A Mitchell Robinson rebound and assist to Mikal Bridges for a drive at the buzzer put NY up 37-31 after 1 quarter.

The arena was filled with raucous Knick fans who applauded it all.

2. Knicks Roll Off 13 Straight Points at End of 2nd Quarter

The Knicks really got rolling in the 2nd quarter. At times it seemed they couldn’t miss. Josh Hart hit a 3, KAT powered inside for buckets, Jordan Clarkson came off the bench for nifty drives — he is a scorer’s scorer.

NY had a 59-47 lead with 2:10 left when they rolled off 13 straight points to end the half and go up 72-47.

Miles McBride hit a 3, Bridges hit a deuce, Josh Hart hit a jumper, Brunson hit a 3 and then Mitchell Robinson stole the ball from LaMelo Ball and Josh Hart hit a 3 with 1.2 seconds left.

3. Knicks Cruise in 3rd Quarter

Up by 25 points, the Knicks sat on their lead in the 3rd quarter — keeping it around 20.

Brandon Miller started hitting some 3’s and Collin Sexton got some buckets to keep the Knicks from running away but NY just kept scoring efficiently.

Brunson scored at will on LaMelo Ball on drives to the basket or floaters — Ball, while much taller, could not keep up with Brunson’s herky jerky hesitation moves.

McBride and Hart and Mikal Bridges too kept pouring it on.

NY led by 23 points after 3 quarters.

4. Knicks Push Lead to Almost 30 in 4th

Charlotte scored 6 straight points to pull within 17 with 6:30 left in the 4th — with 4 straight free throws — by Kon Kneuppel, Sion James, and LaMelo Ball (technical foul on Hart) — and a dunk by Moussa Diabate.

But the Knicks amped it up again — scoring 10 straight points to blow them off the court. Hart heaved up a 3 that he banked off the backboard — he was 4-4 at that point from 3.

Then Brunson hit a deuce and Bridges stole the ball from Ball and scored on another slick drive for a 116-89 lead with 4:30 left and ballgame.

This was an in-season tourney game so both teams tried to score as much as they could to the final buzzer.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401809803

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