‘COOKING’ WITH GAS
Knicks surging as confident Randle starts to heat up
Julius Randle has been “cooking” lately, according to RJ Barrett, and the Knicks suddenly have heated up, too.
Randle has averaged 27.2 points over his past six games, including three times over 30 beginning with a season-best 36 on his 28th birthday in Detroit on Nov. 29.
The 2021 All-Star also has surpassed the 30-point mark in wins Wednesday at home over the Hawks (34) and Friday night in Charlotte (33). The Knicks are 4-2 over that stretch and have posted three straight victories for the second time this season to even their record at 13-13 entering Sunday’s home game against the Kings.
“Just being aggressive, taking what the defense is giving me and just playing with confidence,” Randle said after Friday’s win. “A lot of fun, everybody’s in rhythm. There’s energy, it’s contagious.”
Randle rightly credited the team’s defensive effort — boosted by the expanded roles of second-year guards Quentin Grimes and Miles McBride — as “really why we’re winning games.” The Knicks have limited their past three opponents to 20.6 percent (20for-97) from 3-point distance during the winning streak.
“We’ve had no trouble scoring points all year,” Randle added, “but the more our defense locks in and plays like that, the more we’ll have chances to win games and go on streaks.” Through Friday, the Knicks ranked 13th in the NBA with 113.9 points per game — with Randle (22.1), Jalen Brunson (20.2) and Barrett (18.5) accounting for 53.4 percent of that output. Thibodeau gushed that Randle had “a monster game” Wednesday against the Hawks, also recording a season-high 17 rebounds, and the Knicks’ coach used the same phrase after Friday’s win. “He’s cooking. We need him to keep doing that,” Barrett, who contributed 26 points against the Hornets, said of Randle. Thibodeau added that his starting power forward has been in a “great rhythm” lately, and noted he’s also been getting to the freethrow line — hitting a seasonhigh 11 of 14 Friday night — and making hustle plays “that help set the tone” for the rest of the team. “He had a play [Friday night] that he was behind the play, beat everyone down the floor, pulled everyone in, I think Quentin got the 3 on it. And there’s no stat for that, other than it helps you create rhythm for your team,” Thibodeau said. “He’s made several plays like that. “When he’s getting double-teamed, he’s getting off the ball, he’s moving without the ball. He’s screening off the ball. He’s playing a great all-around game.” Since an embarrassing 145135 loss to the Thunder on the Garden court on Nov. 21, the Knicks have posted a 7-6 record. That includes a 3-2 western road trip, close losses to Portland, Memphis and Milwaukee, and the current three-game winning streak.
“Yeah, it’s steady. That’s what we want the focus to be,” Thibodeau said. “There’s going to be ups and downs. Sometimes you can look at a game and try to draw conclusions. You can look at stats, you look at numbers, and they don’t really mean anything. I can tell the people that are regurgitating numbers and they haven’t watched any of the film. When you look at it in totality it gives you context of what happens on plays and what happens in a game.
“Sometimes it’s just a matter of we had a great shot and we missed it. For us, I want the focus to be on daily improvement. How are we getting better today? How are we making the team better? If we get a team committed to that we’ll win our share of games.”