It wasn’t too long ago that New York Knicks forward Julius Randle was among the most divisive players in the Association.
He struggled to an extent to open the 2022-23 campaign. That came after a down 2021-22 season from the All-Star.
But as we’ve seen with the rest of his Knicks squad, Randle has picked it up late during the regular season. He continued this big time during a high-scoring affair against the Minnesota Timberwolves inside Madison Square Garden Monday evening.
Randle had it going big time, dropping a career-high 52 points in just three quarters against Minnesota. The dude was on one throughout the first 36 minutes, dominating in every which way.
When someone like Julius Randle is hitting step back threes like that, you know very well that it’s his night. Randle ended up dropping 26 points in the third quarter alone. It represented a New York Knicks franchise record for the most points in a quarter. Again, the dude was feeling it.
When all was said and done, Randle scored 57 points on 19-of-29 shooting. That included hitting on 8-of-14 from distance.
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given how hot Randle was heading into Monday’s outing against Minnesota.
- Julius Randle stats (previous 12 games): 27.3 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 4.2 APG, 45% shooting
It was back on February 24 that Randle scored what was then a career-high 46 points in a win over the Washington Wizards.
His ability to get buckets has played a huge role in New York’s return to relevance. The Knicks entered this week’s action with a 42-30 record and as the fifth seed in the Western Conference.
Unfortunately, the Knicks were not able to come out on top against Minnesota despite Randle’s 57-point outing. They lost by the score of 140-134 as Wolves forward Taurean Prince hit on all eight of his three-pointers. Ouch!