NOT ENOUGH

Randle explodes, but he and Knicks fall short late in loss to T-Wolves

A historic night for Julius Randle ended with him picking up a technical, shooting an airball and yelling at a referee as the buzzer sounded.

What a letdown.

His 57 points — tied with Richie Guerin’s mark for third most in franchise history — was spoiled by an ugly finish to a 140-134 loss Monday night to the Timberwolves, a defeat forged with porous defense and solidified by the Knicks being outscored 11-3 in the final 2 minutes.

The dagger was a layup from Minnesota’s Taurean Prince, the unlikely hero with 35 points, who converted the shot right over Randle with 10 seconds remaining. Randle responded by throwing the ball in frustration — an automatic technical — and then tossing up a contested airball on New York’s final possession.

“It’s a shame to waste a performance like that,” Tom Thibodeau told reporters. “You couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Randle’s shot that eclipsed 50 points was a fadeaway 3-pointer in the third quarter, the type of conversion that can only seem so easy when a player is scorching hot.

It was momentous for a couple reasons: the trey assured Randle became just the eighth Knick to score 50 points in a game, the first since Carmelo Anthony set the franchise record with 62 points over nine years ago. It tied the score after the Knicks trailed by as many as 17, which seemed to shift the momentum permanently until New York’s offense went ice cold in the final five minutes.

Along the way, Randle dropped 26 alone in the third quarter, a franchise record for any quarter. He finished shooting 19-for-29, including 8-for-14 on 3-pointers and 11 points from the foul line. Randle, whose previous career-high was 46 points, added four rebounds in his 37 minutes.

It was a box score to hang in Randle’s increasingly crowded memorabilia room. Just black out the fourth quarter.

“They had their way,” Thibodeau said. “Got in a big hole. Fought to get out of it. And then came up short at the end. But we were playing with fire the whole game.”

So it was both historic and embarrassing, especially for the defense. The Timberwolves, missing top scorers Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, scored with little resistance. The defeat snapped a three-game winning streak for the Knicks (42-31), who are now two games ahead of the Nets for fifth in the East with nine remaining.

Despite missing top scorers Edwards and Towns, the Timberwolves started the game on fire while hitting their first 10 field goals and building a 14-point lead in the opening quarter. The Knicks defense was exceptionally lax, and the Timberwolves were hitting their shots at a tremendous rate.

It resulted in 79 points for the visitors in just the first half. But the Knicks agreed to play fast, and they responded with their own pile of buckets to cut the deficit from 17 to 9 by the break. Randle dropped 26 points in those opening two quarters, including an impressive and-1 dunk through the lane.

He then scored 26 alone in the third quarter, and it was setting up as a crowning achievement at Madison Square Garden.

But it crumbled down stretch.

“We looked like we were in mud, a step behind on everything,” Thibodeau said.

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