Ken Blaze, USA TODAY SPORTS
Julius Randle, Knicks Comment On Cavs' Late, 'Unnecessary' Play
It's perhaps a shame that the New York Knicks weren't engaged in a hockey game on Tuesday night in Cleveland: they probably could've benefitted from a power play or two.
A man-advantage was perhaps the one way the Knicks could've kept pace with the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference showdown. Energized by a 32-point showing for Darius Garland, the hosting Cavs reversed lost battles in both the rebounding and bench scoring games from Saturday's series opener to easily roll to a 107-90 victory.
Garland's breakout notwithstanding, Tuesday's game was a physical battle that saw the two teams unite for 40 fouls.
"The refs let us play a lot," Garland, a direct beneficiary of the calls by shooting 10-of-11 from the foul line, said, per Steve Popper of Newsday. "So we hit first and see the refs react. Instead of being punched in the face and just laying down to it. I think that’s the mentality we have to have. Go punch first and see what the refs do. See if they blow the whistle or not. Just set the tone for the game with it.”
The second half, one where Cleveland's lead reached as high as 29 and never went lower than 16, would've been entirely bereft of drama if not for a late incident in the game's final stages: down by 23 with over two minutes remaining in the slog, an Isaiah Hartenstein steal set up a Julius Randle fastbreak for a meaningless dunk for exclusively cosmetic purposes.
Randle made the dunk despite a futile chasedown from Jarrett Allen, which led to hard foul that sent the former to the floor. The Knicks' 2023 All-Star and leading scorer from Tuesday was briefly shaken up but gingerly walked off the incident well enough to sink the free throw that stemmed from a flagrant one foul charged to Allen.
Such a sequence prompted debate around the basketball world. The fact that Randle, back in the New York lineup for the second time since a late March ankle injury cost him the final five games of the season (and a perfect 82-game attendance), was on the floor was questionable enough. But the Knicks appeared to hint that the late efforts to Allen, regarded as one of the NBA's cleanest defenders, would not be forgotten.
Randle, for example, hinted that, while he probably would've done the same, he and his teammates would remember Allen's act when the series descends upon Madison Square Garden on Friday for Game 3 (8:30 p.m. ET, MSG/ABC).
"At this point, it’s irrelevant. But I thought it was a little unnecessary,” Randle said, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “I understand playoff basketball. You don’t give up on plays and I respect that. I’m somebody who doesn’t give up on plays. Typically when you make those type of plays you go across their body, not through them. But it’s fine. It’s irrelevant. We’ll go back to the Garden, and see him there.”
Garland's comments of "punching first" will likely only add to the animosity as the first-round series now becomes a best-of-five beginning Friday in Manhattan.
The late chasedown wasn't the first time Randle was on the wrong end of physical hardwood antics on Tuesday: as Cleveland built its lead, Randle accidentally smacked teammate Jalen Brunson in the face when reacting in frustration to Garland points. The final result notwithstanding, neither was worse for the wear.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau preached patience, expressing a desire to see Allen's move before passing judgement. His Cleveland counterpart J.B. Bickerstaff was quick to absolve Allen and disagreed with the flagrant one call.
"It was a contest of a dunk. Why would one team play hard and one team not?" Bickerstaff rhetorically asked, per Tommy Wild of Cavs Insider. "It wasn’t a flagrant foul, plain and simple.”
The tied series between the Knicks and Cavaliers has been one of the tightest thus far in the NBA Playoffs, the even battle perfectly on display on the defensive end of the floor. Through four days of action, the series is the lowest-scoring of the matchups that have played two games so far, with the two sides uniting for an average of 197.5 points over the opening pair.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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