Julius Randle loses his cool as Knicks lose third in row
Knicks forward Julius Randle brings the ball downcourt against Magic guard Caleb Houstan during the first half of an NBA game Thursday in Orlando, Fla. Credit: AP/Kevin Kolczynski
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Knicks lost their floor general before the game, lost their tempers halfway through the game and lost a third consecutive troubling game.
Playing without Jalen Brunson, who was a late scratch with a sprained right hand, the Knicks fell to the Orlando Magic, 111-106, on Thursday night. But the ugliest moment wasn’t the early offensive struggles or the late defensive lapses. It was the frustration bubbling over in full view of the crowd at the Amway Center.
Julius Randle was hit with a technical foul for the third straight game, as frustration he voiced a night earlier in Miami surfaced again. But it wasn’t just with the officials this time.
Randle, who scored 23 points after a sluggish start, went to the floor just before halftime. As soon as he regained his footing, with the halftime buzzer sounding, Randle went directly at referee Leon Woods — going through Immanuel Quickley to get there. When he was hit with a technical, he started toward the locker room, but with Quickley guiding him, he turned and snapped at him. The two were nose-to-nose before teammates and coaches separated them and they continued to the locker room.
When the Knicks came out to warm up for the second half, Randle didn’t emerge until just before the teams took the court. He took a seat on the bench and joined his teammates for the start of the quarter.
The Knicks kept the locker room closed for 40 minutes after the game and did not make Randle available.
“There’s emotion involved, so you want the emotion to get out of it,” Tom Thibodeau said. “And then sometimes when you talk, it clears the air, so that’s good. You allow for idiosyncrasies, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of winning. Nothing can get in the way of winning. The team always has to come first. And so everyone’s responsible for that.”
Randle spoke just a month ago about how he was in a better place this season, but he has picked up four technical fouls and had two blowups in the last seven games.
“Yeah, man, frustration,” RJ Barrett said. “Everybody — we’re fighting. We want to make the playoffs. When you lose, especially right now — every loss matters so much. We’re trying, and sometimes that happens.”
Quickley was asked what transpired between the two, and he deflected the question.
“Honestly, everybody is trying to win,” said Quickley, who started and had 25 points and seven assists. “That’s all I can really say. Sometimes that happens. It’s part of sports, part of what it takes to be a professional athlete. It’s not just basketball. It’s other things with that. But everybody is trying to win.”
The Knicks lead the sixth-place Heat by 1⁄2 games and the seventh-place Nets by two games.
Randle handed out three assists in the third quarter, all to Quentin Grimes (25 points), who scored 12 points in the quarter to spur a comeback from what had been a 19-point deficit. Quickley tied the score with a pair of free throws with 48.7 seconds left in the period, capping a 25-6 run, and the teams went into the fourth quarter even at 75-75.
But with Randle on the bench for the start of the quarter, the Knicks returned to their disjointed play of the first half, falling behind 88-80. And when Cole Anthony hit a three-pointer with 1:01 left, the Magic were 7-for-8 from three-point range in the quarter after the Heat went 6-for-7 from outside the arc in the fourth period a night earlier.
The Knicks had been particularly hurt by their three-point defense in their previous two games. En route to allowing 267 points, they allowed 14-for-24 (58.3%) shooting by Minnesota and 16-for-28 shooting by Miami.
Notes & quotes: Brunson had his hand stuffed in the pocket of a hoodie all night but was spotted with a hard plastic brace on his hand after the game. “I think he’ll be evaluated when we get back, so we’ll see where he is,” Thibodeau said, adding that he was unsure if Brunson underwent any X-rays or imaging tests.
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.
