Late Wednesday night, Julius Randle was talking to reporters about his approach when he’s missing shots.
“You just gotta do other things: rebound, pass, get steals, be a good help defender. You just gotta focus on the next play. You really can’t focus on missed shots,” Randle said after missing 21 of 27 shots in the Knicks’ opener. “We made enough shots throughout our careers that we know they’ll eventually fall.”
Randle’s shot will eventually fall, but it wasn’t falling early on Friday against Atlanta. Instead of pressing and forcing things, Randle did what he talked about Wednesday night: he got rebounds, passed the ball and played defense.
The result? A win with Randle’s fingerprints all over it.
Randle had nine assists against the Hawks. Those assists led to 25 points – or 1/5 of New York’s points in a 126-120 road win.
Tom Thibodeau often talks about how players can impact the game without scoring. Randle’s night in Atlanta was a prime example. He took just 10 shots. He was 2-for-7 through three quarters. But Randle hit two big shots in the fourth quarter that helped lift New York.
Overall, he scored or assisted on 42 points in New York’s first win of the season. That means Randle accounted for one out of every three points. He also had 12 rebounds (two offensive).
There were several key performances on Friday. Jalen Brunson had 31 points and five assists, which led to 13 points. RJ Barrett had 26 points and six assists, which led to 15 points. But Randle’s production – and the way he produced on a night when he wasn’t shooting well – was one of the biggest reasons the Knicks left Atlanta with a win.
Overall, Randle, Brunson and Barrett scored or assisted on 94 points on Friday. They embodied the way Thibodeau wants the Knicks to play.
“I don’t want people locked in to, ‘I gotta get more shots.’ The game tells you who’s going to get the shots,” Thibodeau said on Thursday. “So if Jalen’s blitzed, hit the open man. If Julius is double-teamed, hit the open man. RJ, double teamed, hit the open man.”
They did that on Friday. And it was a team-wide approach. New York finished with 30 assists on 93 attempts against Atlanta. It looked like a different team from the first half on Wednesday, when New York had 13 assists on 50 attempts.
ROSE-Y OUTLOOK
Some Knicks fans may be surprised by Derrick Rose’s line on Friday. He had 16 points, four rebounds, three assists, a steal and three turnovers for Memphis in a loss to Denver.
Knicks players probably weren’t surprised. Rose was mostly out of the Knick rotation last season; he and Evan Fournier were taken out of the rotation in mid December with the Knicks at 10-13. Rose appeared in a few games late in response to the home crowd chanting his name. To the outsider, it looked like Rose was at the end of his Hall of Fame career. But Knicks players insisted all year that Rose could still play. He proved them right on Friday.
HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT
Knicks fans, you’ve built a reputation as bad hosts at Madison Square Garden. A recent survey of 3000 American basketball fans conducted by Pickswise found that The Garden is the arena opposing fans feel least comfortable visiting. Fifteen percent of respondents said they’d feel least comfortable at The Garden. The next-highest vote total was for the Pistons’ home arena, which garnered 7.4 percent of the vote.
This doesn’t seem to align with lived experiences though. The study found that MSG had the NBA’s lowest local crime rate, including property crime and violent crime. So maybe opposing fans are responding to the perception of ornery New York fans as opposed to the reality.
FOODIES
Brunson and Josh Hart attended The Infatuation’s EEEEEATSCON New York after they returned to New York following training camp in Charleston, SC. Both players enjoyed themselves at the event. They participated in a Q&A with The Kid Mero at the event.
