After a shaky start to the 2025 season, the Knicks had a favorable matchup against the Washington Wizards on Monday night.
The Knicks were coming off a huge win over the Chicago Bulls, handing them their first loss of the season and looked to carry over that momentum against a struggling Wizards team. New York had a slow start where they found themselves trailing 30-22 at the end of the 1st quarter, the Knicks could not get the 3 pointers to fall whereas Washington’s offense looked sharp with great ball movement.
Washington continued to score at will in the 2nd quarter which began to raise some concern for the Knicks as they still found themselves trailing nearing halftime. All this would change when Karl-Anthony Towns shifted the entire momentum of the game.
The Knicks inbounded the ball with 5 seconds remaining in the 2nd quarter down 54-53, Josh Hart pushed the ball down the floor and dished it to Towns who would hit a massive 4 point play at the buzzer to go up 57-54 at half.
Knicks coach Mike Brown made halftime adjustments and the rest was history. New York would go on to score an impressive 41 points in the 3rd quarter to go up 98-78, a massive 20 point lead heading into the 4th.
It seemed as if the Wizards hit a wall and the offense became stagnant which is not surprising considering they have a very young roster with a lot of room for improvement. These growing pains are part of the process and Washington showed some flashes of hope for the future. But being down 20 to the Jalen Brunson led Knicks at Madison Square Garden is not your favor.
New York continued to push the pace in route to a 119-102 win over the Washington Wizards led by Karl-Anthony Towns who put up a 33 point double double to go along with 5 assists. It was a relatively quiet game for the Knicks captain Jalen Brunson who put up a season low 16 points but had a season high 9 assists, showing that he can impact the game in other ways than scoring.
The Wizards have now fallen to 1-6 on the season as the Knicks improved to 4-3, looking to extend their win streak to 3 in a competitive matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves taking place Wednesday night.