Morning After: Knicks 103, Nets 90 as a 25-5 Fourth-Quarter Blitz Makes It 15 Straight

For about 40 minutes this felt like the night the streak finally died. Then the fourth quarter happened. The Knicks opened the final period on a 25-5 run, turned a four-point deficit into a 100-84 cushion and beat Brooklyn 103-90 at the Garden, per the AP. That's 15 straight wins over the Nets, we're 3-4 and have won three of four since the 0-3 start, and the Bulls come to MSG on Wednesday night (6:30 p.m. CT), per ESPN's schedule.

I won't pretend the first three quarters were pretty. The New York Post called the first half "a slopfest from both sides," and the numbers back it up: we shot 36 percent and only led 51-44 at the break because we kept getting to the line, per the Post and the NBA.com box score. Then Michael Porter Jr. got hot. We were up 69-60 midway through the third when Brooklyn ripped off 13 straight, with Porter hitting two threes and Moritz Wagner another, to go up 73-69, per ESPN's play-by-play. The Nets won the quarter 35-24 and took a 79-75 lead into the fourth. Against a 1-6 team, at home, that's yelling-at-the-TV stuff.

Kolek, Clarkson and the bench saved the night

Mike Brown didn't wait around. He opened the fourth with Tyler Kolek and Jordan Clarkson in the backcourt next to Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns, with Jalen Brunson sitting, per Ian Begley and the Post. Hart hit a three off a Kolek feed, OG buried back-to-back jumpers, Kolek and Hart got layups, and Clarkson's three made it 91-81, per the play-by-play. Then Brunson came back and set up Clarkson and Andre Drummond for the buckets that made it 100-84. Brooklyn went 3-of-16 and scored 11 points in the quarter, a season low, per the Post.

Landry Shamet was the guy who kept us afloat before all that. After not scoring at all in Philly on Friday, he dropped a season-high 22 on 6-of-8 shooting, 4-of-6 from three and 6-of-6 at the line, per the box score. The bench put up 41 of our 103, per SNY. "Our bench was fantastic," Brown said, per SNY. "I thought Landry came off and gave us a big lift on both ends of the floor. Jordan as well. And then Tyler, I thought Tyler's minutes were tremendous." Kolek didn't play until the fourth and still finished plus-13 in five minutes, per the box score. Hart was a team-best plus-22 with eight points, six rebounds, seven assists and three steals. That's Josh Hart in one line.

Brunson had 19 and six assists, with four threes, and OG added 18, including 7-of-8 at the line, per the box score. Cat had a weird one: 11 points, every one of them in the second half, per the AP, but 16 rebounds and five assists. Two of his third-quarter buckets came on drives off Brunson passes, which is exactly why I love him at the five. Space the floor, make the big close out, then go right by him.

If you want to watch the fourth-quarter run again (you do), here's the NBA's official full-game highlights:

The Mikal Bridges question isn't going away

Here's the part that bugs me. Bridges went 1-of-7 for six points in 16 minutes and watched most of the second half from the bench, the second time in three games that's happened, per Stefan Bondy at the Post. Ian Begley counts three times in seven games that Brown has pulled him in the third quarter, and he's shooting 30 percent on the season. Brown's take was patient: "It's a matter of time in my opinion, before Mikal gets going," per Begley. I want Bridges and OG out there together as our two wings. That's the size and length this team is built on. But I can't argue with Brown riding the guys who are making shots right now.

And the shot profile was a little lopsided again. We took 44 threes and hit 17, scored 24 in the paint to Brooklyn's 26, and lived at the line going 24-of-29, per ESPN's team stats. The threes fell when it mattered, but against better teams I want more of what the fourth-quarter group did: Kolek and Hart getting into the paint and spraying it out. Drummond grabbing nine boards in 13 minutes, per the box score, is a reminder that size still wins possessions too.

Still, a win's a win, a streak's a streak, and Hart summed up Clarkson after the game as "the ultimate professional," per Begley. Our Game Day Preview for this one is here: https://knicks365.com/blog/knicks-nets-game-day-preview-2026-11-02. Bulls on Wednesday. Let's make it four of five.