Julius Randle’s 46 Points Fuels Knicks Over Wizards

Julius Randle, New York Knicks, NBA Trade Rumors
NBA Analysis Network

During the Friday night NBA slate, the New York Knicks rallied from a 19-point deficit to beat the Washington Wizards 115-109. Julius Randle answered Kristaps Porzingis’ early scoring burst by dropping a career-high 46 points.

“Just came out aggressive,” Randle said. “That time of the year, got to lock in.”

A 12-2 run by the Knicks to close the half started with Randle’s dunk after the Wizards led 57-38 in the second quarter. By the end of the second quarter, Washington was only ahead 64-60. Randle scored 11 points during that stretch.

“Once we got lost in the game and started getting some stops and the rebounding was good, and then the movement without the ball,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We got some easy buckets and then that got us going.”

A bank shot in traffic by All-Star snub Jalen Brunson put the Knicks in front with 42.1 seconds left to come out on top in a heated matchup between two Eastern Conference playoff contenders.

NBA NEWS & SCORES: Julius Randle, New York Knicks & Washington Wizards Updates

For sixth place, the Knicks currently lead Miami by 1.5 games as they strive to avoid the play-in round. In the event of the season ending now, the 10-place Wizards would make the play-in, but their lead over Chicago would fall to one and a half games.

Washington tied the game with 59.5 seconds remaining on a 3-pointer by Bradley Beal. After passing through a group of players and picking up his dribble, Brunson drove into the lane and flipped the ball over.

“That was a big win for us,” Randle said. “We needed this, especially coming off the break. We know they’re a team that gets off to fast starts, so they did that and we responded.”

In the final 11.2 seconds, Randle found Mitchell Robinson for a layup after Porzingis missed a 3-pointer. A Washington inbound pass was then intercepted by Kyle Kuzma, which ended his team’s chances.

“They ramped up their defense a little bit,” Washington’s Monte Morris said. “Julius was balling. Feel like we could have gave him a couple more different looks at times. Just hitting him more, doubling him more a little bit. Any player in the league get it going like that, it’s hard to put out the fire.”

NBA NEWS & SCORES: Julius Randle, New York Knicks & Washington Wizards Updates

Kuzma and Porzingis each scored 23 points. As Porzingis opened the game with 19 points, he made all five of his 3-point attempts before not taking another shot until the fourth quarter.

“They amped up the pressure, they started switching earlier with the pick-and-pops,” Porzingis said. “We have seen that before, of course, especially when we get going early in the game. I feel like we went away a little bit from that maybe two-man game with Brad.”

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