Knicks, Julius Randle Continue to 'Feast' on Lesser Competition
For all that's been levied against Julius Randle, no one can say that he didn't listen to his mother.
"Don't play with your food," Randle said on Saturday, per Newsday's Steve Popper.
The New York Knicks' All-Star forward recalled a traditional parental axiom as his team bulks up against some of the NBA's not-so-finest: the Knicks waxed the woebegone Washington Wizards by a 121-105 final on Saturday night and now welcome in the reeling Portland Trail Blazers to Madison Square Garden on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).
"Take care of what you’re supposed to take care of and just keep improving," Randle continued in Popper's report, explaining his comparison. "Basketball gods got a funny way of rewarding you or humbling you. We just try to approach each game the right way and play basketball the right way."
Geoff Burke, USA TODAY SPORTS
With the win over Washington, the Knicks (21-15) improved to 12-1 against teams that currently sit outside of their respective conference's playoff bracket and Play-In Tournaments. The team enters Tuesday's match with Portland (10-25) as winners of each of their last four and it also stands as the only undefeated team in the new calendar year.
While the recent stretch has featured some impressive wins against the Association's elite (taking down Minnesota on New Year's Day and flattening Philadelphia by 36 on Friday), the Knicks have primarily bulked up on junk food ... and some major calories can be consumed over the next three weeks.
True to the Murphy's Law nature of the new-century Knicks, it feels like the team has only lost ground on the Eastern Conference leaderboard: entering Tuesday play, they're in a five-way tie for fourth place but fall to eighth thanks to tiebreakers.
The upcoming ledger gives them a chance to build a bit of a cushion as they reach their midway mark: following Portland's visit, the Knicks will work through Jalen Brunson's return to Dallas on Thursday before visiting a Memphis Grizzlies group mourning the season-long loss of Ja Morant two nights later.
Visits from the Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets, rising teams still learning how to win, await before a stretch of three straight teams with losing records (Washington, Toronto, Brooklyn) leads into a matchup with defending champion Denver on Jan. 25.
Currently six games ahead of 11th-place Toronto from postseason oblivion, the Knicks could probably have a Play-In spot on relative standby by the end of the month if they play their cards right. But head chef ... erm, coach ... Tom Thibodeau has warned his team not to take anything for granted.
"A team may have a losing record when they have guys that are out, and I also know that every team in this league is capable of beating you,” Thibodeau said on Saturday, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “We just went through a stretch where we played some really tough teams and we got wins against the tough teams, too, or the so-called ‘tough teams,’ but in my eyes, the other 29 teams in this league are tough."
Thibodeau's group nearly experienced the phenomenon themselves: the Knicks held a consistently healthy lead on the lowly Wizards (6-29) but Washington ate away a 20-point halftime deficit, getting it all the way down to five before the midway mark of the third. New York would pull it together well enough to re-establish its double-figure lead, primarily sustained by Randle and Jalen Brunson scoring 37 of 58 points in the second half.
In the euphoria of victory, Thibodeau hoped that his players retained a valuable lesson.
"We gave (Washington) hope that they could get back into the game, which they did, and I knew that they play hard," Thibodeau said, per Popper. "You guys hear it from me ad nauseam, they — my players — they hear it from me ad nauseam: No lead is safe in this league.”
