Being down their top two point guards was not enough to deter the Knicks against the hapless Jazz.
All-Star Jalen Brunson and sixth man Miles McBride were out of the lineup with injuries, but the Knicks still cruised to their ninth consecutive win, picking up in 2025 where they left off in December with a 119-103 victory at the Garden.
Veteran reserve Cam Payne made his first start of the season for the Knicks with Brunson missing his first game due to right calf tightness. McBride also was a late scratch with a hamstring issue suffered in pregame warmups.
Josh Hart recorded his second consecutive triple-double and fourth of the season with 15 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists as the Knicks improved to 24-10 overall.
Payne finished with eight points, nine assists and three steals in a season-high 35 minutes for the Knicks, who will face a sterner test in Oklahoma City on Friday night against the West-leading Thunder.
Karl-Anthony Towns also had another monster game with a team-leading 31 points with 21 boards, Mikal Bridges netted 27 points and OG Anunony added 22 with three steals for New York.
Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton scored 25 points apiece for the Jazz, who have dropped five in a row to fall to 7-25.
The Knicks spotted Utah an early 10-point lead, but Anunoby secured a steal from Jordan Clarkson and strolled in for a two-handed slam to spur the turnaround. He then drove for another inside bucket before Payne’s steal led to a Bridges layup in transition to help the Knicks trail by just 25-24 through one quarter.
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Payne recorded three of the Knicks’ seven swipes in the first half, yet another example of the vast improvement in team defense that spurred a 12-2 stretch in December.
“Hopefully you’re improving as you go along,” Tom Thibodeau said before the game. “You want to be playing your best at the end of the year. Each day you can’t work on everything. You have to prioritize the things that you feel you need to address. Also, have to have the understanding that you never have it all figured out. You gotta continue to work throughout the course of the season. And so we want to be strong on both sides of the ball. We think that’s important.”
A left-handed dunk and another driving layup by Precious Achiuwa to open the second — the latter off a Bridges rejection of Clarkson — put the Knicks ahead by three.
With Brunson and McBride both sidelined, Tyler Kolek even earned some rotation time and the rookie point guard drove to the rack for another layup.
Achiuwa then flushed home a lob pass from Josh Hart for a five-point cushion nearly midway through the quarter.
Another trey by Payne and two more from Towns helped push the lead to 13 with under three minutes remaining, and the Knicks carried a 56-46 edge into intermission.
A put-back slam by Lauri Markkanen and a Sexton steal and layup trimmed the deficit to five midway through the third, but Anunoby finished multiple times at the rim and buried a key 3-pointer as the Knicks held an 87-79 advantage entering the final 12 minutes.
The Knicks opened the fourth quarter on a 10-2 spurt, including five points by Hart to secure his second straight triple-double, to double their lead to 16.