Texas Toasted: Knicks Drop 5th in a Row With Barrett, Brunson Out vs. Spurs
With the euphoria of an eight-winning streak missing for just about a week, partaking in New York Knicks basketball has become a painful experience, literally and figuratively.
With RJ Barrett (finger) and Jalen Brunson (hip) watching Thursday's visit to San Antonio from the bench, the fact that Julius Randle was able to finish the contest was perhaps the closest thing New York had to a win. The Knicks' leading scorer went down with just over five minutes remaining in the game and writhed in pain while he was analyzed by the training staff.
Randle stayed in to cap off an 41-point, 11-rebound evening but that wasn't enough to deter the Knicks from an 122-115 loss at AT&T Center. Keldon Johnson led the Spurs with 30 points while Romeo Langford was right behind him with 23 more.
Save for a brief stretch in the middle stages of the first quarter, the Knicks (18-18) trailed wire-to-wire on Thursday night against a Spurs team still trying to fully recover from an 11-game losing streak that ate up most of their November. A 20-6 run for San Antonio (12-23) over the final five minutes of the opening frame erased the Knicks' largest lead of the night at five and set the tone for the rest of the evening.
With Barrett and Brunson out, the Knicks were forced to turn to familiar strangers: Evan Fournier joined Randle and Immanuel Quickley in double-figures with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, playing just over 17 minutes in his first action since Nov. 13. Miles McBride received his first start of the season and first since Jan 2 of last season, scoring nine in 31 minutes.
Quickley, meanwhile, set a new scoring best with 36 points, two nights after he earned a career-best 17 assists against Dallas. Beyond the combined 26-of-54 Randle and Quickley shot from the field, the Knicks struggled against the Spurs' defense, the others uniting for 12-of-46 (26 percent). Quentin Grimes struggled to the tune of a 1-of-10 night after he had 33 in the loss to the Mavericks.
New York and San Antonio won't have to wait long to see each other again, as the Spurs visit Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
The Knicks' next opportunity to end their increasingly dire streak comes on Saturday, when they close out the calendar year against the Houston Rockets (7 p.m. ET, MSG).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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