Knicks win to end 9-game losing streak against Nets

Jalen Brunson scored 40 points, Josh Hart added a season-high 27 in his second game with his new team, and the New York Knicks ended a nine-game losing streak for Brooklyn Nets with a 124- 106 win Monday night.

Julius Randle had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks, who beat the Nets for the first time in three years. Brooklyn has never lost to the Knicks under Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving, but both are gone and possibly Nets hegemony in New York as well.

More important for the Knicks and their seventh-place finish is that they moved within two games of the Nets for fifth-place in the Eastern Conference. The top six teams are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.

Spencer Dinwiddie scored 28 points for the Nets, who again realized just how tough it will be to rack up points after trading their two All-Stars last week. Cam Johnson had 14 points, but Mikal Bridges, who came from Phoenix in Durant’s trade, was 2 of 8 for seven points.

The Knicks beat the Nets twice in the 2019-20 season, which Durant missed while recovering from Achilles tendon surgery. Irving was injured in a Knicks win, then left Madison Square Garden after learning of Kobe Bryant’s death before the most recent, Jan. 26, 2020.