Knicks bully Herro-less Bucks in 117-85 win

Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News on Nov 10, 2026

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NEW YORK — This one was decided long before tipoff.

The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 117-85, on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, a blowout of a team that arrived 1-9, last in the Eastern Conference and without its leading scorer. Tyler Herro, the centerpiece of the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade, sat out with a bruised right knee.

The Knicks led 58-34 at halftime and by as many as 26 late in the third quarter before extending the lead to 32 in the final moments of regulation. Jalen Brunson, who finished with 23 points on 7-of-18 shooting in 28 minutes led the way, and Karl-Anthony Towns added 21 points and 16 rebounds in 27 minutes of action.

The win pushed the Knicks to 6-4 and into the Eastern Conference’s top four. It was New York’s fourth straight win and its sixth in seven games since an 0-3 start.

It also fit the pattern of that run.

The first six teams the Knicks beat in this stretch entered those games a combined 12-27. Only two had winning records at the time. Detroit was 3-0 when the Knicks won, 111-97, at The Garden on Oct. 27, and the Detroit Pistons entered Tuesday with a 7-3 record. Cleveland was 5-4 on Nov. 7, but the Cavaliers were on the second night of a back-to-back, and they entered Tuesday 5-6.

The rest came against the bottom of the league.

The Knicks beat Chicago twice, 133-127, on Oct. 28 and 135-105 on Nov. 4. The Bulls entered Tuesday 1-8. Brooklyn was 1-5 and on the second night of a back-to-back for the Knicks’ 103-90 win on Nov. 2, and the Nets entered Tuesday 2-8.

The one good team in the run beat them. Philadelphia, 4-1 at the time, won the Oct. 30 NBA Cup game 98-93 and entered Tuesday 9-2.

Then came Milwaukee, which left the Garden at 1-10 and losers of seven straight.

That’s not the Knicks’ fault. The schedule is the schedule, and good teams beat bad teams by 20. What it means is that the 6-1 run says less about where the Knicks stand than the record suggests. Wednesday’s game against Cleveland, on the second night of a back-to-back, says more.

The Bucks didn’t look like much of a test from the opening tip.

Milwaukee spent the summer rebuilding around the return from Miami: Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakučionis and rookie Nate Ament, plus picks. Without Herro, who entered averaging 21.4 points per game, Taylor Jenkins started Ryan Rollins alongside Brayden Burries, Jaquez, Kyle Kuzma and Myles Turner.

The game turned in the second quarter. The Knicks led 26-21 after one, then opened the second with a 10-0 run, and after an Ousmane Dieng 3, they ripped off another 10-0 run. New York outscored Milwaukee, 32-13, in the period. OG Anunoby’s 3-pointer with 39.1 seconds left in the half made it 58-34.

No Bucks player scored more than Jaquez’s 16 points. The Knicks got another 12 points and four assists to just one turnover from reserve guard Tyler Kolek and eight points and three assists from Miles McBride. By the 6:28 mark of the fourth quarter, the Knicks had outscored the Bucks by 39 in McBride’s 25 minutes of action.

The glass told the story, the way Brown said it has all season. Asked before the game what’s behind the Knicks’ offensive rebounding, he started with effort.

“Obviously our players, they’re trying to compete most times when it comes to going after a shot attempt,” Brown said. “So I give our players a lot of credit.”

Landry Shamet started in Josh Hart’s place for the third straight game. Shamet finished with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field. Before the game, Brown had explained why the Knicks don’t sweat that spot.

“With the way our team is built we don’t need anybody to do anything extraordinary,” Brown said. “Just go, like Landry said, be yourself, play hard. It’s not necessarily always how you start games. It’s how you finish.”

Cleveland, of course, is a different animal than the lowly Bucks, even at 5-6, and even on the second leg of a back-to-back.

The Cavaliers lost 124-112 at Charlotte on Monday, then got Tuesday off, so the tired legs belong to the Knicks this time. Saturday’s 109-97 win in Cleveland came on the Cavs’ back-to-back, and Wednesday’s rematch at The Garden flips it.

Jalen Brunson scored 31 that night, including 18 straight Knicks points in the second quarter, and Donovan Mitchell answered with 37. Brunson was named the East’s Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 27.7 points and 6.3 assists in three wins.

The Knicks host the Cavaliers at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday at The Garden.

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