Knicks rout Kings in 103-87 victory

Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News on Jan 27, 2026

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NEW YORK — Perhaps the game plan was simple all along: Let DeMar DeRozan cook and take away the Sacramento Kings’ other offensive options in Tuesday night’s matchup at Madison Square Garden.

Or maybe the New York Knicks simply didn’t have an answer for the crafty veteran scorer who lit up The Garden in a losing effort.

The Kings were without their three other wing scorers — former All-Star Zach LaVine (lower back soreness), budding star Keegan Murray (left ankle sprain) and scoring guard Malik Monk (right ankle soreness) —Tuesday.

DeRozan took out his do-it-himself kit and scored 28 points through the first three quarters. He went on to finish with 34 points on 13-of-26 shooting from the field and 1-of-7 shooting from downtown as the Knicks pulled away for a 103-87 victory over the Kings for New York’s 28th win of the season.

As a reminder, DeRozan is 36 years old in his 17th NBA season and entered the Knicks game averaging a career-low 18.8 points on better than 50% shooting from then field.

Yet he had 27 points in a Jan. 14 victory over the Knicks in Sacramento, Calif., then hung 34 on them on efficient shooting Tuesday.

It isn’t a problem in the win-loss column — though the DeRozan kept the Kings close until New York ran away with it late. It’s more of a problem on the payroll: Because the Knicks picked up OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges specifically to defend players of DeRozan’s ilk, and neither had any success in checking the senescent star.

The Knicks traded RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a second-round pick to the Toronto Raptors for Anunoby then dealt five first-round picks to the Brooklyn Nets for Bridges, then committed $452 million in guaranteed salaries to the pair of wings through subsequent contract extensions.

The move gave the Knicks two of the league’s premier three-and-D wings, players capable of generating stops on one end and getting buckets when needed on the other.

Yet they’ve been inconsistent, to say the least, on each end, and it’s something worth monitoring as the NBA trade deadline approaches.

Turnovers

The Knicks turned the ball over a season-high 21 times against the Kings Tuesday. Many of those giveaways were unforced: On one stretch in the third quarter, Anunoby turned the ball over three consecutive times, including two intercepted passes and a traveling violation.

The Kings scored 20 points off of those 21 turnovers compared to 23 Knicks points scored off 17 Kings turnovers.

The Knicks previous season-high was 20.

Kat

Karl-Anthony Towns played just 27 minutes and finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds on 5-of-15 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 shooting from downtown.

Towns has played 20, 16 and now 23 minutes in his last three games, marking a steep decline in his typical workload.

He averaged 35 minutes a game last season under Tom Thibodeau but is now below 32 minutes per game on the season.

Back-to-back

Tuesday marked the first leg of a home-road back-to-back, and the Knicks will travel to Toronto to face the Raptors on Wednesday. Mitchell Robinson has not played in both legs of any back-to-backs this season, but Mike Brown didn’t rule his availability for Wednesday out ahead of tipoff against the Kings.

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