Knicks' Jalen Brunson has 38 in 'special' win over Bucks - ESPN

NEW YORK — The New York Knicks lost their first three games against the Milwaukee Bucks this season, but on Christmas Day, Jalen Brunson played like a man determined to prevent that streak from extending to four.

Brunson finished with 38 points, the most by a Knicks player on Christmas Day since Bernard King's record 60-point performance in 1984, to lead New York to a 129-122 victory over Milwaukee. The Knicks' victory snapped the Bucks' seven-game winning streak.

«We've struggled against this team throughout this year and the fact that we came out with a win today, it's special,» Brunson said after the game. «I like the way we had a lead no matter how much they cut the lead down. We stayed poised and figured out a way to keep it and win.»

After losing to the Bucks on Saturday afternoon, the Knicks came out aggressively in the first quarter Monday. They scored 36 points in the period, their highest first-quarter total of the season, and never trailed after that.

Four Knicks — Brunson, Julius Randle (24), RJ Barrett (21) and Immanuel Quickley (20) — scored at least 20 points, becoming the second team in the past 50 years to do so on Christmas Day, joining the 2012 Rockets, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

«We had a lot of guys in double figures and a lot of assists,» Quickley said. «It was fun to play like that when everybody is moving and touching [the ball]. I think our defense really bled into our offense, so that has got to be the way every night.»

New York picked up a victory despite Milwaukee getting a combined 88 points from its Big 3 of Giannis Antetokounmpo (32), Damian Lillard (32) and Khris Middleton (24).

«They came out and played like they had practiced and talked about it,» Lillard said. «They played