Knicks send Spurs crashing

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Jalen Brunson scored 25 points as the New York Knicks’ halted San Antonio’s 11-game National Basketball Association (NBA) winning streak with an emphatic 114-89 victory at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs arrived in New York brimming with confidence after going undefeated February, building their longest winning streak since a 13-0 run in the 2015-16 season.

Wembanyama, who had struggled in the Spurs’ last two wins, came out firing, but the French superstar’s 25 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots weren’t enough. Devin Vassell with 18 points and Stephon Castle with 13 were the only other Spurs players to score in double figures.

They hit just nine of 34 from three-point range and were harried into their season-high 22 turnovers that the Knicks parlayed into 24 points. Bridges came up big on the defensive end with five steals.

“Good win by our guys,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.

“(San Antonio) is a really good team. They obviously missed some shots, but I thought our weak side defense was really good. For them to shoot 26, 27 percent from (three-point range), our activity on the weak side was really good.”

San Antonio got off to a quick start and led by as many as 12 in the first quarter, but the Knicks were up by one at the end of the first period and never trailed again, using a 26-2 scoring run spanning the first and second quarters to seize control.

Karl-Anthony Towns scored 12 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the Knicks, who had six players score in double figures and held the Spurs to their season-low in points.

Second-placed San Antonio’s defeat saw them lose ground in their pursuit of the Oklahoma City Thunder at the top of the Western Conference.