Julius Randle, Immanuel Quickley help Knicks top Rockets, snap losing streak at five games
Knicks forward Julius Randle, left, is fouled by Houston Rockets forward Kenyon Martin Jr., right, on a drive to the basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, in Houston. Credit: AP/Michael Wyke
HOUSTON — The Knicks could point to the things they need heading into the New Year: better health for Jalen Brunson, a quick healing of RJ Barrett’s lacerated finger and maybe the long-awaited trade that lands them the star they’ve been lusting after for years.
But what they really needed on the last day of 2022 was a matchup with the Rockets, the worst team in the Western Conference.
While the Knicks hardly ended the year with a bang, they escaped with a 108-88 win over Houston, putting an end to the year and to their five-game losing streak. It allowed them to fly home to the ball-dropping in Times Square rather than feeling the weight of it descending on them.
“It’s the nature of the league,” Tom Thibodeau said. “You win eight in a row, then you have some tough losses, last-possession-type losses. That’s part of it. How do you respond? It’s not what happens to you. It’s how you respond to what happens to you. We took a haymaker. It stings. Then you’ve got to bounce back.”
The Knicks (19-18) got 35 points, 12 rebounds and six assists from Julius Randle and 27 points and seven assists from Immanuel Quickley, who shot 9-for-25. “I had a feeling waking up today that things would start to turn around,” Randle said. “So hopefully we can keep this going.”
Randle is averaging 33.2 points, 12.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists in the last six games. In the last three, Quickley has averaged 25.3 points, 9.7 assists and 1.3 turnovers.
Quentin Grimes finished with 19 points and shot 8-for-15. He scored seven of the Knicks’ first 10 points and assisted on the other basket. The Knicks held the Rockets (10-26) to 14 points in the second quarter and 53 in the final three quarters.
After a heartbreaking collapse in Dallas and a disappointing effort in San Antonio against the second-worst team in the Western Conference, the Knicks — again playing without Brunson and Barrett — had enough to erase an early nine-point deficit and make this a pleasant homecoming for Grimes, who grew up in Houston.
“It was great,’’ he said. “I missed the game last year because I had COVID, so I knew coming into this season this game was circled on my calendar the whole season. I got to play in front of my friends and family who hadn’t seen me in an NBA jersey yet. So it was great, a lot of emotions for sure.”
It’s just a half-hour drive to the Toyota Center from The Woodlands College Park High School in the suburbs outside downtown Houston, but it’s a long path from the time when Grimes was earning All-American honors five years ago to Saturday night, when he made his first NBA appearance back home.
Grimes never got to face the Rockets last season. He sat out the first meeting in New York, when he was not yet a regular part of the rotation. Then, after producing a breakout performance with 27 points on Dec. 12, 2021, he was forced to sit out the next five games — including the trip home — as he entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols.
The stands at the Toyota Center on Saturday night were dotted with plenty of familiar faces — at least 40 on his own guest pass list. “Yeah, expecting a lot of people there,” Grimes said beforehand. “I must be doing something right if they’re coming out on New Year’s Eve.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
