EXTENDED: LAKERS at KNICKS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | February 1, 2026

Bridget start to the shortest month in the big city. Welcome to New York. It's a perfect night to be inside Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena. Always an extra buzz for the annual visit by the Los Angeles Lakers. Led by now six-time all-star Luka Doncic, the league's leading scorer, taking on the red-hot New York Knicks and their all-star Jalen Hudson, it is the debut of NBC's Sunday Night Basketball. Zach Zarba, 23rd year in the league, Jason Gopal, Jay Flores, the referees and officials for this one, and we are underway with our debut of Sunday Night Basketball here on NBC. Counts out high, denies, runs a good slap to get it over to Bridget. He misses, and James comes up with his first rebound, and the head-to-head to Doncic. Nobody better at the head-to-head pass than LeBron. Isn't that what Mike Brown told us was going to be at the top of his list is those long throw-outs from those long three-point shots by the Lakers. Hard to baseline drive, good deflection. Ogianninovi opens the seal for back-to-back games with over 20 rebounds. Corner courts and hit the three as he was contacted. Knicks bench begging for the call on LeBron. Knicks are up 6-2. The lob to Aiden for the finish. And mark 33.7 per game. Cross and crowd, feed it inside, and the finish by the former number one pick De'Andre Ayton at the rim. Slow him down on the court. Well, Lucas said, shoot, I don't know, I need to ask him. We'll find out. Ogianninovi at the step through around Ayton for the basket, and it's an 8-6. Signed as a free agent after a down and off. Clearly has given him the freedom to get his game going as James connects, poor three from the outside. LeBron shooting the three at 33%. Alive for James. Good find inside. Clock at 5. James dives down the lane. Very active early on, Reg. They blew out the rizzo, so a chance for him to get some rest. The nice move gets inside. 4-2. It has been a slow scoring month. Bridges nice cutoff to feed from Tapp. Bridges in transition. Brunson pitching. Ogianninovi a three. It's under five per game. Gabe Vincent, Rui Acimura checking in for the Lakers. Jackson Hayes the big. Means it's Luka time, and he steps back for three. Accelerates. Luka Hayes who blocks it. Get out of here, says Jackson. Luka the other end. Rui Acimura flies for two. Yeah, but it's been Bridges. It's been hard. Somebody go find a fifth guy. Acimura waiting at the rim. Got numbers if you want it. Easy drive there for Vincent. 4-2, Gabe Vincent in his seventh year out of UCSB. And it's a four-point Laker lead. Brunson. JJ Redding has changed the course of both teams as they go forward. Luka on the bench now. So LeBron comes back in. And a beautiful spin pass to Acimura. And we saw earlier on this trip, Jared Vanderbilt out of the corner. Miss fires on the three. Eight in the rebound for the Lakers. Extends the lead to five. They haven't really seen AD because of the injury. The Mavs have been on a lot. Just AD has been hurt a lot, right? You see Cooper Fleck. I thought it was he this week. The three knocked down. Or the shots were knocked down, I should say, from the top. He knows what's going on tonight. The debut. LeBron working on OG. The lob to the basket. And one. As Aiton finishes. Care about him off the court. Pass. He's a bread off the court. You'll pass the rock. And now extend that defense here a little bit. Shannon left free. Hits the three. That's what makes him cause a turnover. Acimura on the drive around Bridges. 4-2. Reg, we talked to Mike Brown, who had LeBron, obviously, during those Cleveland days. Marcus Smart. Underhand scoop is no good. Ward-Koelik. Good push the other way for the Knicks. In transition. Diawara. Knocks down three. That's Denver. And we have Denver-Oklahoma City in the second game of our Sunday night basketball doubleheader. Koelik from the corner. Knocks down three. Second year man out of Marquette. Trailing by five. And he'll pull up for three. Over Acimura. Already three threes here in this second quarter for the Knicks. That's worth keeping them within striking distance. Lakers have led by as many as nine. Luka. Heart inside. An awkward step. Couldn't convert. Towns inside. Battling for it. And hits. Fell off that oddly raised court. That rocket in Cleveland. Speaking of Cleveland, LeBron. Lakers blown out in that game. 129-99. But Luka not only played, but he had a triple-double in the first half of the easy win in Washington two nights ago. He has been back in the rotation. Brunson. Brunson turned away by Dodgers. Laughing as he defended Brunson. He got him to turn away. And Koelik hits a shot over Dodgers. Baseline turned away. Koelik one more. One short. Dodgers look for the hit ahead to Acimura who's got it. Earlier today. Move a half game ahead of New York. Nice run by Tyler Koelik. A nice 7-0 run by the Knicks. Tyler Koelik really in the middle of all of it. Dave Vincent from the outside. Splashes down a three. Number three overall pick in that 2018 draft. Look at Doncic. Find his way through for two. Good stuff. Doncic again. Almost completed by Jared Vanderbilt. He went up with two hands. That would have been an easy buckler. That spinning move by Josh Hart. Give it a second look here. He'll snake his way through. And a jumper down. That was nasty. The double digits. That double digit scoring streak ended earlier this year. 1,297 consecutive games with double digits. A three. Absolutely draining these threes here. The season's average already as Doncic goes off the window. It was no call there. Lakers with numbers. Luka spinning. Bumping. Kept alive. Smart. Blob. Aiton finishes at the rim. Final minute of this first half. Luka deep pull. Short. Josh Hart. Blobs thrown down by you in that first half. What set up those plays? Just running the floor. Energy find the ball. Just making sure I set hard screens for Luka and Brian. And just communicating early on the defensive end so we can run a transition. You talked about energy. We saw a lot of that on the defensive end. Deflections. Guys diving on the floor. How did that have an impact in the result in the first half? That's what's sparking up our energy and our environment. We MSG, baby. The fans love good basketball. It's electrifying us on both ends and you can see it through both teams. I just really like how we're playing defense right now, to be honest, and just the communication. Thanks. Appreciate it. In the second quarter, Jalen Brunson-McHale bridges OJ and Adobe. Shut out in the second. And take that stat. Throw it away, Mike. Brunson for two to begin the third. And now you don't look as bad on defense and they're trying to find what they feel like is the weak link. Step back. And he knocks that one down with ease to get up. Brunson draws a crowd. Long arm of LaRavia. Knock it away. Knock Brunson down. Numbers like LeBron. You know, I'm so happy to be in the three-man because I don't have to take Reggie's elbows. And he came right through you to get to me. Hard on the drive for the basket and a victory take in two-point lead. Dodgers working in the paint. Pimps it out. LaRavia trying to find the range. Finally. Three-pointers after missing three of them tonight. Towns in the top. And the Knicks finding little ways to get lost in this zone as Bridges slashes inside. Being in the gym and watching the best in the world at it. What a privilege it is to be courtside. Bridges on the drive to the basket for two. See if they can get Mikhail Bridges going. Back-to-back buckets here. He's the guy the Knicks are giving the room to shoot. Luke to miss that one. Bridges. Couldn't get three in a row, but Towns. Brunson. LaRavia. Some of the best of their best performances in this building. LeBron here tonight. Dodgers trying to throw the foul call. Still hits the hoop. And it's a three-point Knick lead. Brunson working one-on-one. Out to Hart for three. It's closed out so big when they're in the zone. James switches directions. Dix closing out well in this quarter. Doesn't matter anyways. Hachimura. I think Rui's going to get a lot more minutes here in this second half. Going to work. And again. Dodgers around two. Right to the basket. Couldn't finish. With a tip inside by Jackson Hayes. Late cut. Benson for three. Gabe Vinson makes it a one-point game. Chance to take the lead here. It's out of four. Left in the third. Lucas spinning, shooting. Scoring three of a dozen from the field. Dodgers got trapped in the air. Towns takes it away. And he gives it to Oji. Yes. And why he's the captain player. A guy that's struggling. Your best scorer. Your leader. He could easily dribble. Easily. And got his rhythm going. But what does he do? Gives the ball up to Oji. Who's got another one. Hold on. This is why you make plays like that. To get other guys going. Tipton's grown, Mike. To your point. You can see they have a much better feel for each other this year. And it'll be a three. More excellent when they were leading after three. This time it's the Knicks. Looking to do some work on Hart. Coming left. Shooting right. For James. Tightens it up to a six-point game. Make shots. Tyler Cole can't get to the second quarter. It's a nice pass here to Bridges. For the basket. The bench has been so good for the Knicks. It's been fantastic here. 27 of their 92 points is smart. Matched up on Anthony Towns. Pitch to the corner. Timeout, Knicks. We encourage people to stay up late on Sunday nights to watch these games. Kolek to the basket. Oh, the ball faked by Kolek. The find of Hart. A couple of stretches this year where he has been a huge factor. The guards chanting his name. Thriving as a Knick. Working on Gabe Vincent here. Late shot clock. It is Hart. Lakers got to go. Got to get something quick. They want to get back to this. Arabia. A little short corner shot. He was with the Mavs. 22. Shannon. Quick three. Dots it down. Consecutive game. James coming in. Next stop. Dots it. Much needed three for the Lakers. Take Luca to 30 points on the night. And there's that zone, Ridge. We're talking about. Ridge is right in the soft spot of that zone for two. That's the zone buster area right there. Season nine, 13 assists for Jalen Brunson. Off on three. And an OB. Skies and a slap. What a board. What a putback. That was almost check, please. Time to leave the restaurant. Mules is served. Smart. Much needed three for the Lakers. To cut it to nine. With 2.13 to go. Hard from the top. Dodge it. Defend. James on the drive. To the basket. To the left hand. Slab. 22 for LeBron tonight. Big fans. React. Sham it. One more time. Licks will get this one. Here at the garden. Lakers' first loss of the season when they had a halftime lead. Jalen, six wins in a row. What's the common theme for the New York Knicks right now? We've just been playing together. Finding ways to win. Most importantly, sticking together. I think that's the biggest part. Having each other's back and holding each other accountable. I mean, it's big this time of year. And what do you think of the way that the guys responded when you held them accountable a couple games ago? Well, it wasn't just me. It was everybody. But we were responding well. We've got to continue to do that. We can't be satisfied. And on a night where it took time for your shot to fall, you had a season-high 13 assists. How did you just let the game come to you? Yeah, the shot wasn't falling, but it got to impact the game somehow else. And so teammates are making shots and I kept finding them in the rhythm. And it's a good collective effort. Appreciate the time. Thank you. Appreciate it. Mike. Good win by our guys in the first half. We didn't play like we should have defensively. You know, we had a couple game plan lapses and then our physicality wasn't quite there. Our low man wasn't there on the defense end of the floor. And then, you know, telltale sign, there were five 50-50 balls in the second quarter. And we got one of them. We were one for five. So we talked about those things at halftime to our guys. And I said, you know, the last thing I did say to them was, we were one for five in the 50-50 balls in that second quarter. And that's a telltale sign of, you know, of where we're at defensively. And to our guys' credit, there were seven 50-50 balls in the second half. And we got all seven of them. So that, to me, showed our guys what the difference in the ball game was in terms of our attention to detail and the game plan and getting after it when we needed to. Our low man was fantastic. Jalen ended up picking up a charge because he was in the right spot on Luca. But we took care of the paint a lot better because our activity and us doing our work early, getting in shifts to help out around the basket. So our physicality was there. Second half, we were locked in better with the game plan. And, you know, it resulted in the Lakers scoring 44 points in that second half, which was huge for us. You know, Josh was our defensive player of the game. You're not stopping a guy like Luca. But he did a fantastic job navigating the pick and rolls and things like that in the second half against them. But we could have easily had OG win it as well because he was very, very active, especially on the weak side. 30 assists, 10 turnovers, fantastic night by our guys offensively. Shots didn't always go in when we wanted them to, and we didn't play at the fastest pace throughout the course of the night. But we did enough to get a W. Mike, it's been a few games here on the swing streak. You guys have just at times played a different team in the second half. You mentioned just kind of following the game plan more. Is it that, or are you guys making adjustments at halftime? I guess what's been the combination of why you guys have had some of these runs in the second half? You know, this is a mature group, and they're competitive as well. And, you know, we just tell them what we see a lot of times, and they just go out and correct it. You know, like I said, it was more about just being locked in and doing the little things detail-wise better and not every other play or every few plays. And then it's about, you know, the part of being locked in is, hey, if that ball's on the ground, don't reach for it, get after it and come up with it. And, you know, those things our guys just – they just do, especially when you tell them. So I got to give our players a ton of credit. What about the balance of work for you guys? Some of the guys, all five starters, is that what they just point to for landing? You know, we talk about certain things offensively, playing with pace, touching the paint. And, you know, you guys hear it from us all the time, spray the ball, spray the ball, spray the ball. And so our guys, first of all, they're unselfish as is. But they know when they draw a second defender, that's the right time to find your teammate, you know. And we all need to try to keep trying – we all need to keep trying to make the game easy for one another. And that's where the 30 assists come in. You know, that's where the 18 for 42 from the three-point line comes in because we got some great looks. And that's where the balanced scoring comes in. Coach, Shamman had 23 points along with six threes. How do you like his impact on both ends of the court tonight? Landry's been impactful for us the entire season. You know, obviously he was, you know, really good tonight shooting the ball. He was six for ten from three. But like I said, not only has he shot it well this year, he's been very big for us defensively when he's been out on the floor and with his versatility and his physicality and how hard he plays. So, it's great to have him out there. Mike, Carl had four assists tonight. Sorry, say it again. Sorry, Carl had four assists tonight. He's been looking better recently. Passing out of the post, you had said a couple weeks ago that, you know, he wasn't getting the ball to the right guys at the right time. Looks now like he's making those reads a lot better. Is something changed behind the scenes? Is that maybe some of the changes you guys have made offensively? I mean, I don't quite remember saying. He didn't get the ball to the – It was after a Phoenix. Okay. Maybe I said that. I don't remember. Oh, okay. You know, Cat, he did a nice job tonight. I mean, again, a double-double. He's got to be, again, one of the league leaders in that area. And he's going to get doubled. They put a small guy on him a ton. And, you know, the one thing that he has to, just like all of us, we can't let double teams or a second defender speed us up. But also the person that has two defenders on them needs some help with the right spacing. And our spacing at times, especially in the past, hasn't been good. But as of late, our spacing offensively has been pretty good. And that's part of the reason why Jalen had 13 assists. That's part of the reason why Cat had, you know, four assists because they're sending the second guy and the spacing's right. The pass is easy. And we have guys that are more than capable of making plays. Mike, the perimeter defense specifically, how much is that the changes that you guys made a few days back? And how much is it just effort? Well, it's a combination of both. You know, just making some changes to our overall defensive philosophy and, you know, in different areas and emphasizing that we want to be more physical on the ball while making it a little bit more simplistic for our guys. And not only while they're on the ball, but knowing where the help is coming from and when the help is coming. And so, you know, when you're at the point of the ball and your job is a little bit more simple, you can be a little bit more aggressive and you can be a little bit more physical because you know exactly where you need to send the ball. You know exactly when the help is coming and then where you need to go once the help comes. Mike, this is the third straight game where O.G. and Josh, well, O.G. and Josh had 20 or more. What are you seeing from them offensively? I know a lot of it's about seeing how those guys move up with them instead of taking the lead. They're making quick decisions. You know, if you think about it, O.G.'s, the ball's hitting his hands and if the defender closes out short, he's letting it fly. O.G.'s a great shooter. Josh worked extremely hard on his shot, too. He's a really good shooter. And there's not a lot of hesitation from both those guys. And, you know, teams are closing short. Teams are playing off them. And so if they're open, they've got to let it fly. And then finding ways to get easy ones, you know. They're both getting out in transition, getting easy baskets. They're getting offensive rebounds, like crashing. And then they're cutting, too, and they're cutting the score. And our guys are trying to find them. So there are a lot of ways that you can impact the game scoring without having your number called. Because we don't call neither one of their numbers much. We call O.G.'s a little bit more than Josh's. But, you know, again, if you're a great player and you have a knack for it, you'll find different ways to impact it when it comes to scoring. Mike, to go back to Lynch really quick. You've always spoken highly of him, even back at camp. When did you know that he would have the type of role that he's had on this team? Did you have an inkling about that in camp? Was it once the regular season started rolling? I guess where did you see this guy as somebody that you can trust on for big minutes and big kind of roles on both sides of the ball each night? When I watched tape before I got the job. I was a fan of his. I just saw things that he did out on the floor last year that I was like, wow, this guy can be really good on both ends of the floor. That was something that I came in saying during my interview process. Thanks, Mike. Thanks.