Jalen Brunson scored 34 points to lead the New York Knicks to a 119-110 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. It was the 68th 30-plus point game in Brunson’s career as a Knick, and it helped New York improve to 28-16.

Josh Hart pirouetted as he swiped the ball from Guerschon Yabusele, then floated the pass to Mikal Bridges for the alley-oop slam, then screamed as Bridges hung on the rim with one hand. That was the exclamation point on a Wednesday night when the ‘Nova Knicks’ fingerprints were all over a 125-119 overtime victory over the shorthanded 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center.

But Jalen Brunson had another target in mind. While he would never acknowledge it and certainly would never admit it, but in the flow of trying to lift the Knicks to a much-needed win, he also was attacking Atlanta’s defensive stopper, Dyson Daniels. Daniels had begun to garner a reputation for frustrating Brunson.