NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Knicks knew Jalen Brunson couldn't play. Then they were thrown a surprise when neither could the guy who was supposed to replace him.
Without their leading scorer and down to their third choice for a starting point guard, the Knicks beat the Utah Jazz 119-103 on Wednesday night for their ninth straight victory.
Brunson was ruled out about 40 minutes before the game because of right calf tightness. Deuce McBride was expected to start in his place.
However, McBride developed left hamstring tightness and was scratched just before the game.
“Probably like right before they called the lineups,” said Cam Payne, who was then told he would start. “Halfway thought they weren’t going to call my name. I thought they were going to call Deuce and I was going to have to run out there, honestly. That’s how close it was to the lineups.”
Payne finished with eight points and nine assists. To back him up, the Knicks used rookie Tyler Kolek for 12 minutes off the bench.
That made it a 52-minute day for Kolek, who logged 40 minutes in a G League game in the afternoon, finishing with 36 points and 11 assists in the Westchester Knicks’ overtime victory against Indiana. He had two points and four assists versus Utah.
Brunson scored a season-high 55 points in a win at Washington on Saturday, but then struggled to a 6-for-17 shooting performance two nights later in the rematch.
Brunson is the Knicks' leading scorer with 25.2 points per game. They relied heavily on him last season and had a hard time finding enough offense on nights when he struggled. But when he missed his first game of the season Wednesday, they got 12 assists from Josh Hart in his second straight triple-double and finished with 31 assists while shooting 55% from the field.
“It just shows a difference between last year and this year,” Hart said. “Last year, him out, not sure how that would have went.”
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New York Knicks' Josh Hart, right, drives past Utah Jazz's Svi Mykhailiuk during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Knicks' Tyler Kolek (13) drives past Utah Jazz's Brice Sensabaugh (28) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Knicks' Josh Hart (3) shoots over Utah Jazz's Brice Sensabaugh (28) and Lauri Markkanen (23) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) drives to the basket as Washington Wizards center Jonas Valanciunas, left, defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Jimmy Carter 's long public goodbye began Saturday in south Georgia where the 39th U.S. president's life began more than 100 years ago.
A motorcade with Carter's flag-draped casket began at the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, where former Secret Service agents who protected the former president served as pallbearers and walked along side the hearse as it left the campus.
The Carter family, including the former president's four children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are accompanying their patriarch in a procession that will take his remains through his beloved hometown of Plains and past his boyhood home on its way to Atlanta.
Carter died at his home in Plains on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
Families lined the procession route in downtown Plains, near the historic train depot where Carter headquartered his presidential campaign. Some carried bouquets of flowers or wore commemorative pins bearing Carter’s photo.
“We want to pay our respects,” said 12-year-old Will Porter Shelbrock, who was born more than three decades after Carter left the White House in 1981. “He was ahead of his time on what he tried to do and tried to accomplish.”
It was Shelbrock’s idea to make the trip to Plains from Gainesville, Fla., with his grandmother, Susan Cone, 66, so they could witness the start of Carter's final journey. Shelbrock said he admires Carter for his humanitarian work building houses and waging peace, and for installing solar panels on the White House.
Carter and his late wife Rosalynn, who died in November 2023, were born in Plains and lived most of their lives in and around the town, with the exceptions of Jimmy's Navy career and his terms as Georgia governor and president.
The procession will stop in front of Carter's boyhood home on his family farm just outside of Plains. The National Park Service will ring the old farm bell 39 times to honor his place as the 39th president. Carter's remains then will proceed to Atlanta for a moment of silence in front of the Georgia Capitol and a ceremony at the Carter Presidential Center.
There, he will lie in repose until Tuesday morning, when he will be transported to Washington to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. His state funeral is Thursday at 10 a.m. at Washington National Cathedral, followed by a return to Plains for an invitation-only funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church.
He will be buried near his home, next to Rosalynn Carter.
Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.
FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter welcomes visitors to Maranatha Baptist Church before teaching Sunday school in Plains, Ga., June 8, 2014. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
FILE - People wait in line outside Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., to get into a Sunday school class taught by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Aug. 23, 2015. It was Carter's first lesson since announcing plans for intravenous drug doses and radiation to treat melanoma found in his brain after surgery to remove a tumor from his liver. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
People line the street in Plains, Ga., before the hearse carrying the casket of former President Jimmy Carter passes through the town Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown, Aug. 23, 2015, in Plains, Ga. The 90-year-old Carter gave one lesson to about 300 people filling the small Baptist church that he and his wife, Rosalynn, attend. It was Carter's first lesson since detailing the intravenous drug doses and radiation treatment planned to treat melanoma found in his brain after surgery to remove a tumor from his liver. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
