Julius Randle continues to be a headache for the Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks were perhaps the team that Julius Randle played the best against over the course of the regular season and he is going to continue to do so in this series against them. In three regular season games against the Hawks this year, Randle averaged 37.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 6.7 assists and shot 58.1% from the floor, 50.0% from three-point range.
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Not only was Randle named to the All-Star game for the first-time in his career this season, but he is likely to be this year’s Most Improved Player. He has had a terrific season and given how well he has played against the Hawks this year, he will continue to be the focal point for the Knicks’ offensive attack.
In those three matchups against the Hawks, Atlanta threw John Collins, Clint Capela and sometimes a double-team at Julius Randle, yet he still found ways to be productive and score. Even when he wasn’t scoring, Randle was still racking up assists, including one game where he had 9 assists against them!
Right now, Julius Randle has been playing some of the best basketball of his career and it is hard to imagine him slowing down in this series against the Hawks unless the double-team/triple-team him. Seeing as the Knicks have other guys in R.J. Barrett and Derrick Rose who have also been playing well offensively as of late, it seems like Randle will draw a lot of isolation sets from the perimeter to the post, giving him an edge over the Hawks in this series.
