Donte DiVincenzo poured in a game-high 32 points to lift the host New York Knicks to a 123-113 victory over the depleted Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night.
DiVincenzo made 12 of 18 shots, including a 3-pointer with 1:44 left that pushed New York’s lead to 116-109.
In winning for the 10th time in 11 games, the Knicks also got 27 points and eight assists from Jalen Brunson, but he was forced out of the game with 5:31 remaining in the fourth quarter due to an apparent ankle injury.
Precious Achiuwa and Isaiah Hartenstein each added 17 points for New York, which also got 12 points from Miles McBride. Josh Hart finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Vince Williams Jr. scored 19 points to lead Memphis, which lost its sixth straight game. GG Jackson added 16 points and David Roddy chipped in 15 to headline a Grizzlies bench that totaled 54 points.
The pregame storyline was more about who wasn’t playing than who was. A whopping 16 players were inactive, 10 from the Grizzlies. Memphis guard Derrick Rose then ended up playing just 12 minutes due to ankle soreness.
But the Grizzlies were able to make the game competitive with a fourth-quarter spurt that cut a 28-point deficit to four, 103-99, on Roddy’s trey with 2:05 to play. However, DiVincenzo answered with his late triple, and the Knicks held on from there.
Nothing about the first three quarters hinted at any kind of late-game dramatics for New York. It led 12-2 before the first quarter was four minutes old and steadily expanded the lead as it made 63.6 percent of its shots in the first half to lead 70-46 at the break.
A late 8-0 burst in the third quarter put the Knicks up 97-69 before Memphis pulled within 97-74 by the end of the frame.
–Field Level Media
