Jalen Brunson torches Hornets before checking out early in Knicks’ rout over Hornets

Jalen Brunson looked at his left hand, gave it a kiss and raised it to the sky.
Brunson had just used that left hand to drill a 3-pointer — his fourth of the night — with 13 seconds left in the first quarter, punctuating a 19-point opening period for the Knicks point guard against the Charlotte Hornets.
And that was just the start.
Brunson’s early output set the tone Thursday for another balanced offensive explosion by the Knicks, who swatted away the Hornets, 125-101, at Madison Square Garden for their fourth consecutive win.
Brunson finished with 24 points and five assists in 27 minutes, but it could have been an even bigger night for the Knicks captain had he not checked out for good at the 2:39 mark of the third quarter with an apparent back injury.
“I feel amazing,” said Brunson, who was involved in a collision with Hornets center Nick Richards earlier in the third quarter. “I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.”
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said during his postgame press conference that he had not yet spoken to Brunson about the play on which he got banged up, but he said the point guard could have returned.
After disappearing into the Knicks’ locker room, Brunson returned to the sideline in the fourth quarter with a wrap around his lower midsection when the score was already out of reach.
It was an otherwise excellent night for the Knicks (14-8), who got at least 18 points from all five starters.
Karl-Anthony Towns led the Knicks with 27 points and 16 rebounds, while OG Anunoby scored 25.
Mikal Bridges added 19 points and seven assists, and Josh Hart had 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
The Knicks shot 53.9% from the field and 54.5% from 3-point range.
“I just think we have the basketball IQ and everything to go out there and do what’s asked of us,” Brunson said. “We know we have a lot of weapons out there. We know we have a lot of threats all over the court. We just have to play off each other.”
Thursday marked the Knicks’ second meeting in six days with the short-handed Hornets, against whom they eked out a 99-98 win in Charlotte last Friday.
The Hornets (6-16) remained undermanned for Thursday’s rematch, with leading scorer LaMelo Ball and key contributors Miles Bridges, Tre Mann and Grant Williams still out with injuries.
But early on, the Hornets proved pesky once again.
Charlotte used a 16-2 run to jump out to a 20-7 lead — a fast start in which Brandon Miller looked the part of last year’s No. 2 overall pick.
Miller made three 3-pointers, converted a three-point play and turned a slick spin move into a driving dunk during a 16-point first quarter.
That set up an early scoring duel with Brunson, who made all four of his first-quarter 3-pointers after the 5:30 mark to keep the score close.
His final 3-pointer — a stepback set up by a Towns screen — capped a 10-0 run for the Knicks, turning what was once a 32-20 deficit into a 32-30 game.
Brunson scored 16 of the Knicks’ first 22 points and finished the quarter 5-of-6 from the field, including 4-of-4 from behind the arc. The rest of the Knicks shot 4-of-12 for 11 points.
“He knew we were in a hole, and I think his threes sort of closed that gap,” Thibodeau said. “That settled us down, too, and that got us going.”
The second quarter was much more balanced.
Hart scored 14 points in the period. Bridges added 11. Brunson did not score — or even attempt a shot — but finished the frame with four assists.
And Anunoby delivered dunks on back-to-back possessions with less than two minutes remaining before halftime, turning a 60-58 deficit into a 62-60 lead for the Knicks.
They never trailed again.

The Knicks pulled away with a 25-4 run in the third quarter, during which Towns posterized 6-9 forward Moussa Diabate with a driving one-handed dunk, drew a foul and converted the three-point play.
“It’s magical to be here in the Mecca, to be here in MSG, to have the crowd react like that to a play that you make,” Towns said of the crowd’s rapturous applause after his highlight dunk. “Obviously, it is a momentum changer and it’s a boost to the morale of this team and the energy of this team.”
On the next possession, Towns converted another three-point play.
It was that kind of quarter for the Knicks, who outscored the Hornets, 38-16, in the third. Anunoby scored 15 points in the quarter, during which he made three 3-pointers and blocked a pair of Charlotte 3-point attempts on the same possession.
“The plays that he was making, he’s the only one that can make them,” Thibodeau said. “He’s everywhere. He’s flying around. … He just covers so much ground.”
The Knicks have now scored at least 118 points in three consecutive games. They’ve shot better than 50% from the field and received double-digit scoring from all five starters in their last two.
They’ll look to extend their winning streak Saturday night when they host the Detroit Pistons to close out a four-game homestand.