JULIUS SEIZER
Surging Randle takes over Detroit as season-high 42 leads Knicks to win
DETROIT — Julius Randle has been posting monster numbers for the past month, but Sunday the surging Knicks star achieved a few things that placed him in the company of a couple of franchise legends.
Randle netted a season-high 42 points with 15 rebounds to become the first Knicks player to record a 40-15 game since Patrick Ewing in 1996 to front the team to a 117-104 win over the Pistons at Little Caesars Arena.
“Man, he’s a legend. Respect to him,” Randle said of Ewing afterward. “Just lets you know the kind of work that he put in when he wore his jersey. I’m honored and blessed to be able to do something that he did.”
Randle, who is averaging 28.6 points and 13.0 rebounds in 20 games since Dec. 7, also surpassed Hall of Famer Bernard King for 25th place on the Knicks’ all-time scoring list with 5,486.
“Yeah, obviously I wore the number [30] for my mom but he’s a legend, as well,” Randle said of King. “Anytime I see him I give him great appreciation. Thankful, those are pioneers for this game. We wouldn’t be able to play the game the way we do without him. I’m glad I can follow in his footsteps.”
Jalen Brunson added 27 for the Knicks, who improved to 15-6 over their past 21 games and 25-19 overall. It marked the sixth straight game Randle’s fellow All-Star candidate notched at least 25 points, and he also drew three charges at the other end to move into a tie for the league lead with 16 this season.
“I’m just trying to help my teammates.
We’re trying to help each other out, step up for each other,” Brunson said. “And obviously, we don’t want breakdowns to happen, but it’s part of the game and it’s really we gotta help each other out. We gotta recover and I feel like I know how to get in position and take charges and I’ve always been that way.”
Saddiq Bey and Jaden Ivey each scored 21 points and Knicks castoffs Kevin Knox (16) and Alec Burks (14) chipped in off the bench for the Pistons (12-35), who played without Cade Cunningham (leg), Bojan Bogdanovic (nonCOVID illness), Marvin Bagley Jr. (hand) and ex-Knick Nerlens Noel (foot).
Immanuel Quickley registered 17 points and RJ Barrett had 13 as the Knicks won for the 10th time in their past 12 road games. They improved to 14-8 overall away from the Garden, one road win behind the Celtics for the NBA lead in that category.
Randle netted 13 points, Brunson chipped in 10 and Quentin Grimes scored eight, including two 3-pointers, as the Knicks built a 39-22 lead through one quarter. The last time the Knicks were in Motown, on Randle’s 28th birthday on Nov. 29, he had scored 17 of his 36 points in the opening stanza.
The former Knicks, Burks and Knox, combined for 13 points in the second quarter as the Pistons shaved a 20-point deficit to 62-55 at intermission. But Randle netted 13 in the third as the Knicks extended their lead to 10 entering the final period.
They led 100-82 barely two minutes into the fourth before the Pistons whittled that advantage to seven on Isaiah Livers’ corner trey with 5:17 remaining.
But after a delay to fix a malfunctioning shot clock, Brunson scored five points and Randle buried a 3-pointer to help the Knicks seal their latest win.
“I thought Julius set the tone for us,” Tom Thibodeau said. “Getting ready to play, I knew how well [the Pistons] had been playing, and sometimes that’s hard to get across.
“But I thought Julius helped set the tone for being ready. And I think getting that lead early, we needed all of it, being ready to play. And then whenever we needed a big bucket, he stepped up and delivered. But his defense, so many things, the rebounding is just huge. He got every big rebound down the stretch and he had some tough covers. He’s all over the place. He’s on the perimeter guarding guards and everything else. So I thought he was terrific.”