Karl-Anthony Towns hit the tiebreaking 3-pointer in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter Tuesday night for the host New York Knicks, who never trailed again as they pulled away from the Sacramento Kings for a 103-87 victory.
Towns (17 points, 11 rebounds) posted his 30th double-double of the season for the Knicks, who outscored the Kings 31-15 in the fourth to earn their third win in a row — their longest streak since a three-game run from Dec. 25-29.
New York’s Jalen Brunson scored 11 of his 28 points in final 3:48 while fellow starters Mikal Bridges (18 points) and OG Anunoby (15 points) also got into double figures. Mitchell Robinson came off the bench to grab 13 rebounds.
DeMar DeRozan scored a game-high 34 points for the Kings, who have lost six straight following a season-high four-game winning streak. Domantas Sabonis logged 11 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists while Russell Westbrook finished with 14 points.
Sacramento reserve Dylan Cardwell pulled down 10 rebounds.
The Knicks ended the first quarter with a 36-26 lead before the teams played a taut middle two quarters. DeRozan scored seven unanswered points to give Sacramento its lone lead of the second at 51-50 before Towns’ layup with 14 seconds left put New York ahead at the half.
There were four lead changes and two ties in the third, the last when Sacramento’s Nique Clifford hit a layup with 36.8 seconds remaining to tie the game 72-72. Landry Shamet forced a turnover by DeRozan to set up Towns’ 3-pointer 20 seconds into the fourth.
The Knicks and Kings combined to miss 11 of 12 shots before Bridges made an alley-oop layup off a pass from Josh Hart and Towns drained a 3-pointer on New York’s next trip to extend the lead to 80-74 with 8:31 left.
New York led by at least four the rest of the way and went ahead by double digits for good at 95-85 on Brunson’s long jumper with 3:08 remaining.
