Julius Randle Leads Knicks to Win Over Warriors; NY 116 Golden State 114

February 11, 2022 LouV 2021-22 0

Julius Randle played like an All Star in carrying the Knicks to a 116-114 victory over the 41-14 Golden State Warriors in San Francisco. Randle had 28 points, 16 rebounds, and 7 assists and the Knicks survived a potential game-tying, last second jumper by Klay Thompson in the lane that missed.

It was a big win for the Knicks, who had played well in the first two games of the West Coast trip — losing in the final minutes to the Lakers and Utah, and then coming from behind but losing after getting run off the court early by Denver on a back-to-back. NY is now 25-31 — the win gives Knick fans hope that the team can mount a good final playoff run with 26 games left.

“He (Julius) drives it,” said coach Tom Thibodeau afterwards. “When he plays like that — and we’ve said it all along — it drives the team. If we play with pace in transition, but also pace in the half court…  I loved the unselfishness of the team today; they did a lot of switching; and I thought we drove the ball and weren’t trying to shoot it over their size; just tried to make the right play. And when you play like that, you’re going to get a lot of good shots.”

Thibodeau added, “I thought we had a number of guys just play really well — the bench gave us good minutes; Julius was terrific, Evan terrific, Kemba gave us great minutes — it was a really solid team win.”

1. Randle Phenomenal

Randle’s all-star performance was his 4th in the 4 games on the Western trip so far. He was penetrating to the basket and scoring, hitting his jumper, passing efficiently, and was active on and off the ball on both ends of the court.

As Ross Krienes summarized on twitter, “Julius Randle with a very solid game as he was operating from the high post, creating off the bounce for himself and others, getting in the lane rather than settling, playing with his back to the basket and creating contact. Also, active on the glass and he stuffed a stat sheet.”

2. Good 3rd Quarter For NY

This game featured another good 3rd quarter for the Knicks — they came in trailing by 5 points at the half, but ended the 3rd quarter up by 6 points entering the 4th.

Mitchell Robinson — after having missed a game with a sore back — dominated inside, with 11 rebounds. Evan Fournier was hitting his jumper and scoring from everywhere — 22 points on 7-17 shooting (5-13 from 3).

With RJ Barrett out with a sprained ankle, Quentin Grimes got the start at shooting guard and forced Curry into a subpar 11-25 shooting night (5-16 from 3) while scoring 6 himself on 2-4 shooting (all from 3).

Kemba Walker got the start at point and played pretty well — 8 pts on 3-10 shooting. Immanuel Quickley had his best game in a while — 5 pts on 2-3 shooting in 16 minutes.

And Cam Reddish played his best game as a Knick — 12 points on 4-8 shooting in 19 minutes.

3. ‘4th Quarter Burks’

Then Alec Burks took over at the start of the 4th — playing to his “4th Quarter Burks” knickname — he drove to the basket and was fouled for 2 made free throws, hit a 2-point bucket, then a 3 for a 97-84 Knick lead with 10 minutes left.

Burks’ drive with 7:35 left gave NY an 11 point lead.

But Golden State came back — Steph Curry and Jordan Poole with buckets, an Andrew Wiggins 3, and another Poole bucket pulled Golden State to within 2 points with 4:34 left.

NY countered to up the lead to 8 on scores by Randle, Burks, and a big 3 by Quentin Grimes with 2:58 left.

But Golden State came right back again — Curry with a drive and two jumpers to pull Golden State back within 2, 116-114 with 16 seconds left. Curry’s free throws with 6 seconds left pulled the Warriors to within 115-114 — and then Cam Reddish was intentionally fouled. Reddish made 1 of 2 free throws for the 116-114 Knick lead, that held up when Thompson missed the final jumper in the lane.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401360656

 

 

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